Mason and machine:
North Carolina bricklayers
take center stage nationally
North Carolina Construction News staff writer
North Carolina bricklayers had a
prominent role at the SPEC Mix
Bricklayer 500, the world’s largest
competition of bricklayers, which
concluded with a grand champi-
onship at the World of Concrete in
Las Vegas in January.

While competitors from else-
where in the world won the grand
prize in the competition, a recent
New York Times (NYT) profile gave
top billing to 2017 defending cham-
pion Matt Cash, who works for
Huntley Brothers Company, Inc. in
Mint Hill.

6 — March-April 2018 — The North Carolina Construction News
“I’m on the edge of crazy when
I’m laying brick,” the NYT quoted
Cash as saying, in an article outlin-
ing the longer-range competition
James Huntley of Huntley Brothers company
won the first place prize in the first year
apprentice category in the Masonry
Contractors Association of America’s
Masonry Skills Challenge.

between humans and robotics in
the masonry industry.

Cash last year won a 2017 F-250
4×4 XLT Super Duty Truck and
$15,000 worth of cash and prizes.

Meanwhile, competition organiz-
ers say the youngest person ever to
win the grand prize was Garrett
Hood of Monroe, who achieved the
feat in 2008 when he was 23.

The NYT profile described the
competition’s intensity as it raised
the questions about the trade’s
evolution, with new robotic equip-
ment automating the process
through SAM (semi-automated
mason) machinery – though un-