By Jayson Knight
Mustang Times
Frankie Stubblefield was the son of a mason, and has been brick-laying for 40 years.
Stubblefield served a four-year tour of duty in the mid-70s as an armor crewman- or tank operator- before taking up the family business at 21.
“I’ve been doing brick work my whole life,” Stubblefield said Thursday.
“I grew up doing new homes, doing a little bit of commercial work, just about anything, but now I mostly do brick repair.”
Frank said he fixes cracks in homes and businesses with regularity, but he fixes even more mailboxes. Stubblefield said he’s been told that he’s replaced more mailboxes than anyone in the state. He also constructs and repairs chimneys, both indoor and outdoor fireplaces, and just about anything that involves stone. Stubblefield said he’s been doing a lot of tuck pointing lately, a term for replacing weakened mortar to extend the life of the wall. “We’ve had a lot of that with the earthquakes lately,” Stubblefield said.
“My business has really picked up the last seven years as far as cracks. We go in there, grind the crack down, cut out all the bad brick, and put in new brick and mortar, and wash it all down the next day. Basically, anything that can be done with brick, I can do it. This is what I’ve been doing all my life.”
Frank was a one-man show the last four decades. Now, he’s got some employees, but when you call Frank Stubblefield, you get Frank Stubblefield.
“I had a liver transplant last year, so now I do all the business stuff,” he said. “I do the estimates, though. I help clients get the right materials, and I’m there at job sites, but I do have a couple guys who help me. If you call me and tell me ‘Somebody hit my mailbox or I have some cracks around my house, my chimney needs to be fixed,’ or something like that, I go out there, provide a free estimate, and the majority of them are no-money-down. If it’s over $2,000, then I’ll usually require a down payment, but 95 percent of my work is no-money-down and you can pay me when I get it all done.”
Frank is married to Jackie, his wife of 17 years, with one adult daughter and eight grandkids.
“I don’t do much,” the mason said. “Usually I just go to work and come home. We spend a lot of time with the grandkids on the weekends. I have a lunch at least once a month with my neighbors. We have hamburgers and hot dogs for everybody, and we try to find other ways to give back to the community.”
Frank works all over the metro area, and you can reach him at (405) 209-0079.
