Shouldice Brings Ontario Tilt-Up, Precast Veneer

Ontario’s Shouldice Designer Stone, Shallow Lake, and Fritz Concrete, Chepstow, have teamed up to offer the Chameleon Concrete Wall architectural masonry

Ontario’s Shouldice Designer Stone, Shallow Lake, and Fritz Concrete, Chepstow, have teamed up to offer the Chameleon Concrete Wall architectural masonry veneer system in the province. Shouldice is producing the Chameleon units for embedding onto precast and tilt-up wall panels, while Fritz is incorporating them in its own panels and selling the system throughout the province.

A producer of premium masonry since 1947, Shouldice supplies residential CMUs in Antique, Classic, Brod-Rock, Village, Newport, and Field Stone styles, plus landscaping stone, in addition to architectural units. Its architectural collection for grade-level use incorporates integral water repellents throughout each unit and a full complement of sizes for veneer and load-bearing applications in Tapestry, Tex-Stone, and Rock-Stone texture profiles. The Shouldice Designer Stone Collection is currently available in lengths up to 24 inches and heights up to 16 inches in 4-in. widths for Tapestry and Tex-Stone (Rock-Stone to heights of 12 inches). Load-bearing units are produced in lengths up to 16 inches with heights up to 8 inches in 4- to 12-in. widths. Preblended for consistency, available colors include Mono-Tone, Twin-Tone and Tri-Tone blends to coordinate with the company’s full range of stone products. Extensive preformulated colors and a full custom color service supplement the standard selection of four hues.

The exclusive seller of Shouldice’s Chameleon products in Ontario will be Fritz Concrete, a general contractor and a major supplier of precast panels and other concrete products throughout the province over the last 33 years. Shouldice joins Chameleon licensees E.P. Henry Co., Woodbury, N.J. (Mid-Atlantic); Midwest Block & Brick, Jefferson City, Mo. (Central U.S.); and, Shaw Brick, Lantz, N.S. (Atlantic Canada). A universal practice among Chameleon licensee block producers has been to retain dealers or distributors to sell the product in markets unfamiliar to their own sales forces, mostly in areas distant from the plants. In this case, Shouldice has chosen to capitalize on the expertise and connections of Fritz Concrete, which is intimately familiar with precast technology and other precasters in Ontario.

Chameleon representatives predict that precast wall-panel applications will account for about 80 percent of its units sold in Ontario. The prevalence of precast construction in the province is attributed to quick field erection and short site times (to avoid bad weather) and the relative ease of installation, even in cold temperatures. By contrast, Ontario’s tilt-up market is limited, due largely to cold weather that restricts outdoor casting. The number of design-build and contracting firms in Ontario regularly and successfully using tilt-up construction is relatively small.