Custom Millwork

(continued Jiom page 9) profile desired, Stark Lumber Co.. Denver, Co., stresses that it has nearly 100 patterns on hand. Offering "the most extensive and unique selection of stocked wood mouldines in Colorado" helps save customerJ time and money.

Among the dozens of added services it offers, Southern Lumber & Millwork Corp., Charleston, S.C., provides free 6-inch-long samples cut from any of its stock mouldings or sidings.

Forester Moulding & Lumber, Leominster, Ma., also uses samples to inspire customers: the company gives out a set of random 3- to 4-inch samples, l0 to l2 profiles in all.

Tague Lumber, Philadelphia, Pa., has used high-end custom millwork as a foothold to maintain the business of residential builders. "They provide us with a lot of the trim and window moldings and things like that," said customer Robert Ayerle, Parec Homes. "Any lumberyard can do custom millwork for you, but they put out a really high-quality trim, and they get it to you when you need it.

That makes a huge difference from our standpoint."

And, explains George Bateman, president of lumber wholesaler Bateman Brothers, Woodbury, N.J., "if you get the millwork job, you tend to get the rest of the house, too."

In addition to six retail lumberyards, Mill Creek Lumber & Supply, Tulsa, Ok., owns Wood Systems, an architectural millwork house in Tulsa that works in custom architectural fabrication, and specializes in one-of-a-kind items.

In-house estimators and draftsmen work with builders, contractors and homeowners on custom projects such as staircases, custom mouldings, custom entry units, cabinets, corporate boardrooms, and reception desks.

Mill Creek has also been assembling and pre-hanging wood and steel doors for more than 50 years. Each year, the company produces over 3,000 wood exterior doors, 10.000 steel exterior doors and 40.000 wood and "Masonite-type" interior doors.

Over the last several vears. Mcllvain Lumber, Marcus Hooi, pa.. increasingly has specialized in hardwood mouldings, helping to differentiate itself fiom commodity-oriented competitors such as 84 Lumber.

High quality millwork, explains president Alan McIlvain, "is an expensive product. so you want it to be seen. It's not judged on its durability or strength, but really on its aesthetic value. So in that sense it's a specialty item, and it is typically sotd through a privately owned business like ours."

That's where the specialist's expertise comes into play. "You may look at a board and think of it as beautiful, with a knothole here and the grain going a certain way," Mcllvain notes. "But with our experience we are able to say, 'No, that won't look good.' It's because of this experience that we are well-regarded for having that judgment."

Millwork specialists realize that their businesses truly ride on their reputations. "Quality millwork" has been the rallying cry of Burnett & Sons Mill & Lumber, Sacra mento, Ca., since its inception in 1869. That's not likely ro change any time soon. Along with the addition of modern computerized machinery, an active training and apprenticeship program helps preserve century-old disciplines of the craft.