After a near-death experi­ence as a new business, CBL Corporation Inc. Architectural Fiberglass switched from mak­ing fiberglass caskets to archi­tectural elements. The company manufactures and installs fiberglass architec­tural columns, cornice and moldings. Its products have been used on exteriors of churches, offices and resi­dences in Memphis and a few other markets in the past two years.

C. Burgess Ledbetter, 51, of Memphis is president of the company. He built his first mold for the fiberglass enter­prise on the carport of his East Memphis home. That was about five years ago. The initial mold was for making caskets. He was working as a consult­ant on space management, doing master planning for church-related expansions, while also coordinating proj­ects on behalf of owners com­municating with architects and contractors. Ledbetter’s background in­cludes earning a bachelor of architecture degree from the University of Tennessee ,a master of arts degree in liberal arts from Dartmouth and 10 years’ experience in architec­tural research on habitability in cold regions for the Corps of Engineers. The architectural research work took him to Alaska, Greenland and Australia. He moved back to Memphis in 1981 where he worked a few years as an executive vice president of a corporate real estate consulting firm. A few years later he started his own consulting and master planning business.

His first foray into the fiber­glass business was making cas­kets. After making the initial mold on his carport he opened a production plant in Hernando, Miss., and hired employees to build caskets in 1992. “Our first order was for 300 caskets. We built 300 caskets. But we’ll never build another one,” Ledbetter said. Making fiberglass caskets proved almost fatal for the up­start company, because of un­anticipated costs and lower-than-expected profits, he said. After the casket experience, Ledbetter was faced with an overhead problem and needed a product line. A call from a con­tractor led the company in a new direction a few years ago. It seems a wood column and trim on a bank in Osceola, Ark., had rotted. The caller was look­ing for an alternative to wood. That call turned on the light bulb, Ledbetter said. He found he could reproduce detailed cornices and other trim at prices that would com­pete with wood.

Examples of his company’s fiberglass moldings and col­umns can be seen at St. Mary’s Performing Arts Center at Wal­nut Grove and Perkins Ex­tended, and on the Independent Presbyterian Church addition at Walnut Grove and Avon. Both projects were designed by Metcalf Crump and Walt Reed, architects with The Crump Firm Inc. Reed also did the detail spec­ification for the moldings and trim, which were then made to order by CBL.

Fiberglass moldings and col­umns are an alternative material to red­wood, which is the best wood for external trim applications, Reed said. ‘‘Al­though it (red­wood) is the best wood for that, it is an ongoing main­tenance con­cern due to moisture deterioration and the need for regular repainting.”

Fiberglass has gotten com­petitive with redwood in price in recent years while offering long-term advantages in main­tenance costs, Reed said. It doesn’t rot and needs painting less frequently, Reed said. The Crump Firm Inc. took bids for the church projects from other fiberglass trim makers but CBL was more competitive, Reed said.

Environmental concerns over spotted owls and limited availability have driven up the cost of redwood in recent years, while fiberglass alterna­tives have gained market share and have become competitive in price, Reed explained, Fiberglass moldings and cor­nice work also is lighter and takes less time in application, said Charles Moses, superin­tendent for MCDR of Memphis. MCDR was general contractor for the St. Mary’s job. “It (St. Mary’s) was my first experience with it (fiberglass architectural elements). I was impressed. I think it’s here to stay.” Moses said. The fiber­glass went up at least twice as quickly as it would have taken to do the same job with wood moldings, Moses said. Fiberglass cornice that would take six pieces of mold­ing to create the same profile can be made as a single piece of fiberglass molding, Reed ex­plained. It is attached to metal studs or wood blocking with countersunk screws.

David Richardson, business manager at Independent Pres­byterian Church, said wood, masonry and fiberglass were considered before fiberglass was selected. Ledbetter’s firm was chosen to supply and in­stall the materials. “There was a lot of trim work involved. We could see where it would save us quite a lot in upkeep, main­tenance and replacement costs,” Richardson said.

Ledbetter’s firm has 15 em­ployees and has sold the mate­rials for small office and other commercial applications. “The momentum has been going strong. We have already sold more this year than we did in all of last year,” he said. He has shipped materials to Atlanta, Philadelphia and Loui­siana. Other current projects in Memphis include columns and shutters for a preschool build­ing for Bellevue Baptist Church, an addition at St. Louis Catholic Church in East Mem­phis and an office building for Shelter Insurance Co.