CJ DiGiammarino of DiGiammarino Hardscape & Masonry orders Pine Hall Brick Company’s Rumbled Main Street Paver® a lot. He specifies it for a unique range of residential projects in historic Massachusetts towns. Homeowners ’round these parts love it.
Take one Pine Hall Brick clay paver.
Now, use it for everything.
CJ DiGiammarino of DiGiammarino Hardscape & Masonry in Salem, MA, does just that.
DiGiammarino is an old-school mason, and he uses an old-school clay paver: Pine Hall Brick Company’s Rumbled® Main Street 4×8. It’s a popular choice – it’s tumbled after firing to mimic the look of antique reclaimed pavers, and white paint is added to mimic the appearance of a used brick from an old warehouse.
The unusual thing is that DiGiammarino ONLY uses Rumbled Main Street pavers. And what’s more remarkable is that all his jobs don’t look exactly alike. All of them are different but all complement the historic nature of the small towns around Boston.
If the client doesn’t like the paint, he flips the paver over, or he sets it off to one side. If the client likes a lot of paint, then he goes to the pile that he has saved. And with close to 40 years in the trade, he tends toward granite for edging, which he hand-shapes in the winter when work is slow, instead of plastic edging nailed in place with landscape spikes.
If I could install just Pine Hall Brick with granite edges, that’s all I would do to be honest with you.
DiGiammarino runs a small shop – it’s himself, his wife and his nephew. He farms out all of the excavation work to another firm, preferring to specialize in precisely cutting and setting the pavers. While he’s done bigger jobs – 100 pallets of Pine Hall Brick pavers on the Endicott College campus springs to mind, he prefers smaller residential projects.
In his hands, the designs come together, whether it’s for a fairly modest home or one that’s been around for 335 years.
Salem, Massachusetts driveway and steps
“This one belonged to Odessa Oleal, who has a design company,” said DiGiammarino. “This was all her ideas. I brought her the Main Street paver, and she liked it because she wanted something new to look old. This looks like Salem. The columns, the driveway, this was that old classic Salem look.”
Walks and a patio in Beverly, Massachusetts
“Here are two walkways and a patio on the side, and all of that was done by hand with no saws on the granite,” he said. “All of that was done with a hammer and chisel. When I have downtime in the winter, I love chipping and shaping granite.
“Some people don’t like the paint. Some do. On the Beverly project, we had a couple of white ones, which really popped on the patio, and the homeowner wanted more; she loved it. So, we put more down. They have a real antique look to them.”
Non-linear patios and stately walks for a 17th century home
“This was the Samuel Corning house, built in 1690,” said DiGiammarino. “I did that grand front walkway to the side gate into the back yard; a 300 square foot patio wrapped in handmade mini cobblestones. The circular patio is bordered with Pine Hall Brick, but the field is original brick from the house, and I used that.”
“There is a lot of history in Beverl,y and if I could install just Pine Hall Brick with granite edges, that’s all I would do to be honest with you.”
