Mike Boyd specializes in custom masonry so he can customize his lifestyle just the way he likes it.
Mike Boyd is not unlike many of his contemporaries in the masonry business in that he runs a very small team – about as small as you can get – with him doing the custom masonry work, and his wife, Paige Boyd, supporting the business with various tasks and managing his social media accounts. Which is just the way he likes it.
The set-up of his business, Boyd’s Custom Masonry, allows him to make his own hours, keep his overhead and liabilities low, and focus on what matters most to him -- high-quality craftsmanship and satisfied clients.
Based out of Virginia Beach, Va., Boyd has been in masonry for 23 years and counting. Custom masonry hasn’t been his only job, but it’s the one that stuck the longest.
“I’m 43, I started doing masonry when I was 20, and I’ve been in business for myself for almost seven years,” he says. “I decided to do my own thing because I enjoy making my own schedule and getting to decide where I go.”
In his younger days, Boyd worked in residential construction but instead of laying brick, he built above-ground swimming pools. One cold Virginia winter when swimming pool installations came to a halt, he made the switch to masonry. “As a kid, I always thought it looked cool to watch guys laying brick.”
While Boyd can do just about anything with brick, stone and block, his bread and butter is residential brick, typically in the form of a custom mailbox, garden wall or patio. Red clay brick is a mainstay in his truck, as well as a trowel, level, a good respirator because he’s not invincible like he was 20 years ago, and Sure Klean 600 for red brick clean-downs.
His clientele in the Virginia Beach area loves red brick, and Boyd has noticed an uptick in the use of thin, ¾-inch brick veneers. This option is popular “when people want to add a room addition but not a footing for brick,” he says. “You can do it right over the plywood as long as you get that waterproof barrier and scratch coat. It’s still a clay brick, so I wash it down the same as I would a regular brick wall and seal it.”
Painted brick was popular in the region for a long time, but Boyd says that trend has been replaced with what he calls a German smear, or white-washing.
As far as growth, Boyd is happy where he is, and he’s not interested in expanding his staff of two in his region’s uncertain labor market.
“For a long time, kids were thinking they all had to go to college,” he says. “Now I think they want to be influencers. It’s an odd time, especially for trades.”
Boyd is bidding bigger and bigger jobs all the time, as well as learning new applications relevant to his work – like the PROSOCO webinar he recently attended about the helical beaming process with Stitch-Tie Bars.
Marketing is done by his wife, who manages several social media accounts, including a super-active Instagram account, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and the age-old power of word-of-mouth advertising keeps Boyd just as busy as he likes.
All it takes is a quick scan of his Instagram account to read the testimonials of his satisfied customers, which work wonders for homeowners looking for high-quality brickwork.
