Joseph L. Shaner
Founder & Chairman
Founded the firm in 1986. Still on-site weekly. Field-trained, blueprint-literate, and the final call on every bonded project above $10M.
Established 1986 · Lancaster, PA
Mid-Atlantic masonry, engineered to outlast the building.
JLS Brick & Block is a specialty masonry subcontractor for general contractors and commercial developers bidding mid- to large-scale builds across PA, NJ, DE, MD, NY, VA, and WV. 220+ W-2 field masons, in-house BIM layout, and bonded capacity up to $45M single project.
- 1986Founded · Lancaster, PA
- 287Employees · 220+ W-2 masons
- 2.1MCommercial man-hrs · past decade
- 2023ABC Keystone Sub of the Year
Founding · 1986
One crew, one craft, one Lancaster block wall at a time.
Joseph L. Shaner founded JLS Brick & Block in 1986 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a single pickup, a mortar mixer, and a reputation for showing up when he said he would. The early work was honest craft — schools, churches, the kind of load-bearing masonry that has to be right the first time because nobody is coming back to fix it. That standard became the firm's spine.
Thirty-eight years later, JLS still scales on field discipline rather than acquisition. We grew by adding crews we trained ourselves, kept on W-2, and dispatched from the same Lancaster yard our founder parked that first pickup behind. Today the operation runs 287 people across field and engineering — 220+ union-grade masons, a 14-person BIM/Revit layout team, and a scaffolding fleet we own outright. We are still a masonry subcontractor. We are still based in Lancaster. We are still, fundamentally, a craft business that learned to run like an engineer.
Leadership & Credentials
The bench procurement teams cross-reference on submittals.
JLS is led by the second generation of the Shaner family and staffed by the longest-tenured masonry engineering bench in the Mid-Atlantic. Every officer is reachable on a cell phone; every certification is current and on file with estimating.
Karen E. Shaner-Mertz
President & COO
Second generation. Runs field operations, crew mobilization, and the estimating pipeline. Mobilizes the 30→220 mason ramp in 72 hours.
Daniel R. Holst
VP, Engineering & BIM
Leads the 14-person in-house masonry modeling team. Runs clash detection on every project before a single brick is laid.
Marcus T. Velez
Director of Safety & Quality
Owns the 0.42 OSHA TRIR record and the sub-4-day punch-list benchmark. Runs daily pre-task plans on every active site.
Certifications & affiliations
- National Masonry Association (NMA) — Certified Contractor
- Brick Industry Association (BIA) — Member
- Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC), Keystone Chapter — Member since 1991
- OSHA 30-Hour certified workforce; site supervision OSHA 510
Engineering bench
- 14 in-house project engineers (BIM/Revit masonry modeling)
- Clash detection run on every project prior to mobilization
- Direct digital layout (Leica & Topcon) on all structural masonry
- Pre-construction coordination with GC MEP/structural trades
Licensed & bonded
- Active license & bond verified in 7 states: PA, NJ, DE, MD, NY, VA, WV
- Bonded capacity: $45M single project / $180M aggregate
- Never lost a bond claim in 38 years
- $8.2M owned scaffold & mast-climber fleet — no rental mark-ups
Safety & Quality Record
Discipline you can put on a submittal.
Safety isn't a poster on the trailer wall — it's the number our EMR underwriter reads first. These are the four data points that travel with every JLS bid package.
- 0.42 OSHA TRIR vs. masonry industry average of 2.6 — roughly one-sixth the national rate.
- 2.1M Man-hours logged on commercial job sites across the past decade.
- < 4 Day punch-list close-out average, vs. the industry 21-day standard.
- 96% On-time delivery across 1,140+ commercial masonry projects since 1986.
Third-Party Validation
Repeat GCs. Trade press. A track record you can audit.
2019–2024
Masonry Magazine "Top 50 Masonry Contractors" — six consecutive years on the list.
18+ projects
Trusted repeat subcontractor for High Construction, Wohlsen Construction, and Warfel Construction.
1,140+
Commercial masonry projects completed since 1986 — schools, hospitals, warehouses, retail, multi-family.
1.4M blocks
Largest single project to date: warehouse shell for Liberty Logistics, completed 2022.
Send a Bid Package
Bonded up to $45M single project. Estimating responds within 48 hours.
Send drawings, specifications, and the bid date to [email protected] or use the bid request form. We will return a bonded proposal, a preliminary schedule, and a mobilization plan within two business days.
- Bonded $45M single / $180M aggregate
- 7-state Mid-Atlantic coverage
- 287-person team · 220+ W-2 masons
- 38 years continuous operation