Guaranty Glass does it all

Richard LaFleur, Earl Mayers and his son, Glen Mayers, lost their jobs with a Lafayette glass company 28 years ago. None of them had ever done anything but work with glass.

"That's all we knew how to do and our jobs were done away with," LaFleur said, "so we opened our own glass business."

Guaranty Glass has grown since then. The West Vine Street shop employs 24 people, including the LaFleur's son, Chad. Besides the shop on West Vine Street in Opelousas, there are locations in Ville Platte, Church Point and Mamou.

LaFleur and his wife, Carrol, are now the sole owners of the business. About five years ago, Earl Mayers died and son Glen sold his share of the business to them before diving into the restaurant business in Lafayette.

The shop does all types of glass work, including residential, commercial and auto glass.

On the residential side, LaFleur and his employees provide and install mirrors, tub enclosures, overhead garage doors and window panes.

"We do all types of custom shower doors," LaFleur said. "That's one of the big things we do and frameless shower units — also heavy glass and special hardware."

They will also install commercial store fronts.

In terms of types of glass, there's tinted glass, safety glass, energy-efficient windows and frosted glass.

"We have all the patterns of frosted glass," LaFleur said. "We also do glass for picture frames. If someone comes in with a frame, we put in the glass, seal it and put hangers on it."

Employees will also replace auto windshields and handle insurance claims for customers.

Although Carrol LaFleur is part-owner of the glass shop, for several years she has focused her attention elsewhere.

"Carrol works with the Father LaFleur monument and the Father LaFleur Foundation. She kind of heads up that," LaFleur said, referring to his late uncle, The Rev. Verbis LaFleur.

LaFleur was Catholic priest and Navy chaplain who died in combat at sea. There is a local effort to begin the process to have LaFleur canonized as a saint in the Catholic church.

As to the glass business, that is left to Richard LaFleur, who seldom does the hands-on glass work anymore.

"I'm mostly in the office," he said. "But I did it for years and years."