Knock-Down Standardized Window and Door Frames a Great Retail Money Maker

BY Jack Dionne

I have come to the conclusion after .ri.Juirrg this subject. of knock-down, standardized window an{ door frames very closely for a long time, that here is a srlbject that justifies the best thought and attention of the retail lumber trade, particularly in the Southwest and Middile Western terfitories.

It seems to me that here the retail lumberman, is overlooking one of the best sellers that he can possibly incorporate into his business, and that here the consumer may secure a service far superior to any that he has known in the past-better products and better prices.

I have often heard it said that the easiest thing to get a bunch of retail lumbermen, to agree to do, is to do nothing. They teU me that the sale of knock-down, standardized window and door frames to and through the lumber dealer has been progressing more slowly than the quality of the proposition would seem to justify, and it is because of that report that it seems wise and proper to discuss the subject in these volumns.

To begirr with, the methods employed in Texas-for instance-for supplying door and window frames, is crude indeed. In the average small town or small city of Texas, you will find that the door and window frames for home construction are being made almost entirely by the carpen- ter on, the job. And the material he uses for so doing is full length finish lumber. There is no slower job in home building than the making of the window frames by hand on the job.

And this is not confined to the small places entirely. Many times I hdve stopped to watch men work on a home in Houston, and seen the carpenter on the job sawing up his finish to make the frames.

Ordinarily in the larger cities, the frames are bought from the local planing mill or millwork house, or they are made in the big retail yards. They are NOT carried in stobk, to any great degree. Frames are too bulky to carry in stock like doors and windows. The dealer carries the doors and windows in stock, and when he sells the doors and windows he should naturally sell the frames. There is at least as good a profit in the frames as in the sash and doors. Knock-down, standardized frames, made by a first class congern, are better in workmanship, tightness, and general usefulness, than the frame built by a carpenter' No carpenter can possibly make them as good as unform, machine-made frames.

In addition, the knock-down frames all contain a "pocket," through which the cord or sash weight can be changed

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