JANUARY 2020 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 23
WHOLLY MOLI
FUNDA-MANTELS
BIZ HEATING UP
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
While business is busy all year round
in this wintry workshop, it’s been
peak season lately at Funda-Mantels,
which makes fireplace mantels.
The Ridge-based company makes
more than 1,000 fireplace mantels
– frames for fireplaces – a year,
including as many as 30 a week
during peak season leading up to
Christmas.
Five people work to get mantels and
bookcases ready for deadlines.
“There’s always a rush before
Thanksgiving and Christmas,” says
the company’s owner, Cory Jenkins,
43, who’s been in the business since
age 17. “I’m swamped in the winter.
Once the cold hits, that’s it.”
Although Jenkins is sometimes contacted
through his website, the company
sells through six showrooms on
Long Island, two on Staten Island, two
in New Jersey, and one in Queens.
“It means warmth, not just the sense
of heat,” Jenkins says of the appeal of
fireplaces. “It makes a house more
welcoming.”
Workers spend from one to three
hours making every mantel, followed
by finishing that takes a few days.
“I have customers who send me pictures
of mantels they’ve seen and ask
if I can make this. We can do pretty
much anything,” Jenkins says. “Somebody
wanted a mantel from a movie.
We duplicated it.”
While traditional fireplaces burn
Cory Jenkins of Funda-Mantels
builds fireplace mantels by hand.
wood, Jenkins says gas is now the
norm.
“When you burn wood in a fireplace, it
actually pulls the heat from the house,”
he says. “Gas is the way to go. You can
heat your house with a gas fireplace.”
Some people order mantels even
though they don’t have fireplaces.
Jenkins started working for Frank
Turrigiano, who came from Sicily
and started Funda-Mantels.
Jenkins worked for Turrigiano for
27 years and bought the business a
year ago. Since then, white mantels
have replaced the stained mantels
of the past. Poplar, which has no
grain or pores, is typically painted,
while oak, cherry, mahogany,
cedar, pine, walnut and ash are
also used.
Jenkins loves making mantels to
adorn fireplaces, but that doesn’t
mean he’s a huge fan of winter
weather.
“I hate the cold and the snow,” Jenkins
says. “And here I am making fireplace
mantels. I love this, so I’ll deal with
the cold.”
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