Last week I was traveling in the Mid-Atlantic region and was pleased to hear the same comment from two different glaziers: “You know, we’re only asking G+MC to quote this.”
In the case of the first glazier, “this” was a rather elaborate glass guardrail. For the other glazier, “this” was a complicated glass entrance system and structural wall.
“This” is because Glass + Metal Craft is unique in our willingness to take on the full complexity of these kind of architectural systems, and do it ALL in house.
While there are a limited number of suppliers capable of providing the necessary hardware, few have the experience and resources to engineer the project and most, if not all, procure the glass from 3rd party vendors – in many cases importing the glass from China. As one of glazier noted, here’s the potential problem with that: They were about done with an installation when a crate of glass from overseas almost made it to the worksite … before being shattered in a highway crash. Bingo- eight weeks was instantly added to the install.
Still other suppliers provide glass, seek to use only off-the-shelf hardware from 3rd parties, and can only provide a very limited amount of engineering support. Yes, that can work, but the inevitable “surprises” with actual field conditions can add delays, misunderstandings, and cost over-runs.
Years ago, G+MC decided that the best way to control timing and cost is to do it all under one roof. If there’s a problem with glass, we are NOT a slow boat from China away from a solution. If there is a problem with hardware, we have many options including fabricating our own solutions. And our engineering expertise looks for problems BEFORE they occur.
The other part of the equation, of course, is the creativity and excellence for which we are known. We routinely take the glint in the architect’s eye and turn into a stunning system that is delivered with stamped drawings, kitted to flow installation. Our project managers stay with each architectural system from start to finish, even traveling on-site to assist with field measurements and last-minute constraints.
We’re known as Glass + Metal Craft because we do both, and do both as it should be done. We think our name says it all.
