Our company was established in 1961 by Bernhard Klaene. However, the true history of the business goes back much further. Bernie was born in 1939 in a small town in northern Germany, near Oldenburg. His father was a butcher and a bricklayer. In Germany the bricklayer was also the general contractor. Bernie grew up learning about bricklaying and general construction of homes. He attended trade school to become a mason. When he turned eighteen he traveled to America to follow his brother, Frank. Frank had traveled to America three years prior and established a concrete finishing business. Bernie worked as a bricklayer for contractors building custom homes. He developed a reputation as a fantastic bricklayer. When he had enough money saved, he bought a station wagon for $75, a trailer and scaffolding. BA Klaene Masonry was born.
Bernie went on to build custom homes in the Greater Cincinnati area for over twenty years. He built many homes in the western area of Cincinnati. In the 1980’s there was a housing market crash. To keep busy Bernie took repair jobs. He quickly noticed that there was a need for a qualified contractor in residential restoration. There was such a demand for masonry home repair, he took less and less new construction projects. This has been our specialization ever since.
Jeremy Klaene is now the owner and operator, having taken over the business when Bernie retired in 2009. He is the third son, and grew up learning the trade from his father. Jeremy has fond memories of Bernie having him tuckpointing at 5 years old. As a teenager, Jeremy worked the summers for the business. After high school, Jeremy became more involved in the business and realized, like his father, he has a passion for the craft. Also, like his father, he takes tremendous pride in his work.
It is our goal to provide professional quality craftsmanship. We also realize that we work on people’s homes. We respect that and do our best to leave everything, other than our repairs, the way it was before we were there. Our first step is setting up protection and our last is clean up. We take these steps very seriously. Our goal is to “match the existing” and we feel we are the best at it.