Contractor Advantage Sept / Oct 2018

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Columns Inside What's Trending News & Notes Product Platform Tech Talk

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Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. is a Canadian member-owned, Lumber, Building Materials and Hardware buying group representing over 300 member locations across Canada.

Contractor Advantage Magazine is the exclusive publication of Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. featuring quality Castle vendor brands available at Castle Building Centres locations.

Visit castle.ca to find a Castle location in your area.

Editorial Director Castle Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. Jennifer Mercieca Publisher - Espress Labs Inc. Dan Alexander Managing Editor Teresa Christine Art Director Daniel Polsinelli Contributors Lawrence Cummer Melissa Campeau Teresa Christine

Advertising Inquiries Jennifer Mercieca Director of Communications Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. 905-564-3307 jmercieca@castle.ca

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018 Volume 23 Issue 5

Material Contact Maryam Bashir Marketing Coordinator Castle Building Centres Group Ltd. 905-564-3307 mbashir@castle.ca Published and designed exclusively for Castle Building Centres Group Ltd.

by Espress Labs Inc.

About Contractor Advantage

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Contributors

Lawrence Cummer

Melissa Campeau

Lawrence (“Law”) Cummer has more than 20 years of experience writing for trade periodicals, businesses and communications agencies. He writes on topics ranging from contracting and construction, to general business, to information technology, personal finance and occupational safety, and has been a frequent contributor to Contractor Advantage since 2009.

Melissa Campeau is a Toronto-based journalist who regularly contributes to such publications as Yardstick, the OUR HOMES series of magazines, Mortgage Journal, Financial Post and National Post. She lives in Toronto with her husband, seven-year-old son and two-year-old puppy.

Mitzi Perdue Mitzi Perdue is a celebrated speaker, businesswoman, and author of How to Make Your Family Business Last. A cum laude graduate from Harvard University and holder of an MPA from George Washington University, Mitzi draws from her direct experiences in two long-lasting family enterprises to assist businesses in

preparing for lifelong success. She is a past president of the 35,000-member American Agri-Women, a former syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard, and the founder of CERES Farms. For more information on Mitzi Perdue, please visit www.MitziPerdue.com.

Jeff Foley Jeff Foley is a recognized speaker, executive leadership coach, and author of Rules and Tools for Leaders. He is a West Point graduate and retired as a Brigadier General having served thirty-two years in the Army. Drawing

on his unique military experience, Jeff uses his singular insight to build better leaders. For more information on Jeff Foley, visit www.loralmountain.com.

Sue Bingham Sue Bingham is the founder of the HPWP Group, a master coach, speaker, and author of the forthcoming book, Creating The High Performance Work Place: It’s Not Complicated to Develop a Culture of Commitment. At the forefront of the positive business

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movement, Sue supports leaders as they achieve their vision of success, and designs common-sense systems that make people and organizations more effective.

For more information about Sue Bingham, please visit: www.HPWPGroup.com.

Contributors

What’s Inside?

07 News & Notes

You Want Your Family Business to Last?

11 What's Trending

Leadership Legacy

15 Building Better Business

Eight Elements That Comprise a High Performance Enterprise

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Interior Doors, by Design Once purely functional, interior doors are now an integral part of the design process.

29 Supplier Spotlight

Gentek Building Products Metrie, Owens Corning and Steel Craft Door Products Ltd.

44 Product Platform

Premium products from Castle Vendor Partners

77 Tech Talk

High Tech Jobsite Security

36 70

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Keeping Cozy Options and innovations for adding warmth to your abode this fall and winter.

On the Cover Photo courtesy of Concept SGA Inc.

Contents

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CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE

News & Notes

You Want Your Family Business to Last?

Written by Mitzi Perdue

You may be familiar with the statistic that 70% of family businesses don’t make it to the second generation. The big question is: how can you beat these odds?

Family members need to learn some basic cultural attitudes.

They need to know that they’re part of something bigger than themselves. They need to know that they can’t always be right. They need to learn that being a member of a family business sometimes requires sacrifice.

The biggest reason that business families fall apart is that the family hasn’t developed the kind of culture that supports keeping the family business in the family. Families that leave this to chance rarely make it to the next generation.

So, how do you create this kind of culture?

News & Notes

Know Your Family Stories We are the stories we tell ourselves, and high-functioning families have heard their family stories over and over again.

How much does your extended family know about where the family business came from and what made it what it is today? How much do they understand the sacrifices, efforts and tenacity that went into making family business you have today? Do they know stories about family members putting the good of the family ahead of their own interests? Be intentional about telling these stories. The more stories, legends, myths, and parables, the stronger your family’s culture and the more likely your family business is to endure.

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Have Family Vacations Your family vacation could be five people or 100 people, but whether it’s a large group or a small one, having aunts and uncles and cousins spending time together greatly increases the chances of building a family business that lasts. A vacation means time set aside to share experiences and to get to know and appreciate each other and to embed the family’s values. It’s a time for all branches and all generations to build the shared stories and memories that lead to trust and caring.

This is especially important if family members are geographically dispersed, because it allows extended members to get to know each other.

Subsidize a Family Vacation After You’re Gone All too often when the patriarch or matriarch passes on, family members stop seeing each other. Maybe for the first few years they’re together at major holidays, such as Thanksgiving.

And later on, maybe they get together for weddings. But gradually, there’s nothing left and family members have superficial relationships—or no relationship at all. A highly effective

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antidote to this is, leave money in your will to pay for a yearly get-together. Some families subsidize an annual dinner while others pay for a nice vacation. Either way, having an endowed yearly meal or vacation can keep families together across the centuries. Ideally, there’s even money budgeted for baby-sitters and child-friendly activities. Endowed family get-togethers can be a highly-effective tool for helping the family continue across the generations.

Write a Family Newsletter In a geographically dispersed family, a newsletter can play a huge role in helping the family to maintain a strong and vibrant culture. Include in it interviews with the older family members or employees about the early days and some of the company’s struggles. Maybe interview the matriarch or patriarch on such issues as why it’s good to be public, or why our family should never wash its dirty linen in public, or why it’s a terrible thing to be “addicted to being right.” The newsletter can also help people catch up on family news— maybe someone became an Eagle Scout, got into the college of his or her choice, or

News & Notes

got a promotion. It’s also excellent for recording weddings, births, or in the case of an engaged couple, telling the story of how they met. Other topics for your newsletter can include what’s going on in the company, including company milestones. Make it short, ideally no longer than one or two pages.

You want people to read it, and unfortunately, there’s an inverse connection between how long it is and how many people will read it. If it’s limited to one page, your family members are more likely to read it when they get it, as opposed to putting it aside for later and then never getting to it.

Get Help if You Need it Fortunately, there’s a whole new ecosystem of family advisors who can help. There’s no such thing as a family business that doesn’t have conflict, and when there’s a serious family

News & Notes

conflict, the pain from it can permeate every hour of every day. Not to mention that it can blow up the whole family, and with it the family business. So just as you’d get medical help if you had alarming chest pains, don’t put off getting professional help if a conflict in the family is getting out of hand. If you Google “family business advisors” you’ll get more than 45,000 hits in half of a second. Or if you have a financial advisor, he or she is likely to be able to refer you to a professional trained in family business relationships.

Family harmony is so important, that anything you can do to nurture it is a wise investment. Many families don’t stay intact over the generations. This is likely to happen when a family leaves its culture to chance. The good news is, planning is something you can do, and even better, the implementation can be enjoyable and fulfilling.

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Leadership Legacy Written by Jeff Foley

Many successful business people have pondered their leadership legacy—how do they want to be remembered. And many of them struggle to find the answer.

Your legacy is defined by the impact you have on the lives of others after you are gone. It is how you will be remembered.

We are all leaving a legacy, there is no escaping it. If asked, how would you respond to the question of, “What do you want your leadership legacy to be?”

However old or young, you have the opportunity to raise the bar on the legacy you are leaving. Whether you are a

What's Trending

senior executive, in a new position in your business, a new parent or grandparent, a student or recent graduate, you can choose your legacy. Or perhaps you have had a setback in your life, it is never too late to refocus on what you can change - your legacy.

The most effective business leaders are people who ultimately pursue five separate but related behaviors. These five can provide the framework for you in your pursuit of creating a positive leadership legacy in life.

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Character

Excellence

Being a person of character is at the foundation of building trust with others. Character is who we are and what we stand for. It is comprised of many things but its foundation is values; those deep beliefs like integrity, loyalty, and respect. Values do not change overnight; rather they are forged in one’s heart and soul over time. They ultimately drive how we behave. When you think of those people who left a wonderful legacy for you, was not character the essence of the memory?

Both championship teams and successful businesses do not drift to greatness; they commit themselves to excellence.

Commitment means tireless pursuit of doing your absolute best, every day, all the time. Excellence matters in everything you do. If you don’t commit to excellence yourself and demand it from others you will create a culture of mediocrity.

Most people are not interested in mediocrity.

Attitude

Building trusted relationships with others trumps everything else when it comes to leaving a positive leadership legacy in your world. Serving the needs of others builds trust in relationships. You serve by knowing your people, genuinely caring for them, reaching out to those in need, sacrificing and celebrating with them, exercising humility, are all important aspects enabling strong relationships.

These five keys will provide a framework for establishing your approach to leaving a positive leadership legacy in your life. On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being not so good, and 5 being great, how would you assess your behavior in each of the five areas? An action plan should follow your assessment that focuses you and enables you to grow your ability where needed.

Your attitude can change everything you do and everyone you meet. No one enjoys hanging out with chronic complainers or naysayers. A positive attitude can be a force multiplier in daily interactions or long term strategies. A positive attitude creates passion, enthusiasm, and a call to action. It can change outcomes. You have a choice in your attitude. Make it positive!

Vision We all need a vision, or a plan, for our future. A saying attributed to the great Yogi Berra goes: “If you don’t know where you are going, you are likely to end up someplace else.”

A vision provides clear direction for your future. Create your future by putting a mark on the wall of where you want to be 1, 2, 5 years from now. Craft an action plan that identifies your objectives and critical decision points. Establish a set of milestones that will help you achieve your objectives, and then celebrate each of their achievements as you progress along the way!

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Relationships

I wish you the best in your leadership journey.

What's Trending

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Building Better Business

Eight Elements That Comprise a High Performance Enterprise Written by Sue Bingham

Wake Up It’s no secret that the workforce and the nature of work itself are rapidly changing. Many organizations, particularly large ones, are like an ocean liner that can’t turn on a dime. If an organization is not actively promoting and integrating the following eight elements, that organization is already behind and will experience negative impacts as the workforce shrinks and traditional management practices continue.

The root cause is that traditional management practices and H.R. policies have been created to catch the “bad apple”.

Let’s start with the premise that the vast majority of employees are good people—we might even say 95% fall in this

Building Better Business

category. That leaves the small minority of five-percenters or bad apples. Often this group occupies a much larger percentage of managements’ time and attention. To try to rid the organization of these people, penalizing and insulting policies are created that often catch good people in their net. When treated the same as a five-percenter, ninety-five percenters feel embarrassed and de-valued. What’s worse, they create a bureaucratic system that makes it nearly impossible to get rid of those for whom the policies were created.

The following eight elements are common sense and uncomplicated; and, the absence of them will seriously hurt organizations in the near future.

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Positive Assumptions About People Dealing with the five-percent unconsciously taints your assumptions about people. If leaders have spent time dealing with someone who lies, lays out, does the minimum required and tries to get away with as much as possible, that experience can create a distrust and desire to micromanage and control everyone. Evidence of these assumptions is seen when there is restricted access to specific areas for certain groups; doors, cabinets and tool cribs are locked; managers accept performance minimums vs. maximums; information is guarded; and self-management is a distant concept. It becomes irrational for employees to feel like valued adults and in return, the organization receives compliance, a lack of passion and a check the box performance.

Leading with positive assumptions about the quality and integrity of the majority of the workforce promotes pride, passion and accountability.

Most of these negatives are easy to eliminate. Leaders only need to put themselves in the shoes of their hourly-paid employees to see and feel them—and then get rid of them.

Mutual Trust and Respect

Major headway in creating an environment of mutual trust and respect can be achieved by doing the first two elements.

And, if a company wants to be able to unlock supplies and equipment and treat people as responsible adults, there must be recognition that there will probably be some theft and deceit until the five-percenters are gone. However, it will be worth it to have created a high trust environment for the rest of the workforce. In addition, create the standard that trust is a required attribute in order to receive a job offer.

Clearly communicate trust as a core value and treat any violation of trust as a dischargeable offense.

Identification and Elimination of Negatives

Open, Two-Way, Adult-to-Adult Communication

A negative is defined as “anything that minimizes vs. maximizes a person’s feeling of VALUE to the organization”.

Many of these are almost invisible to the people who have the power to eliminate them. Examples include: free water or coffee in some areas and not in others, reserved parking for executives, punitive policies that apply to one group of employees but not another, differences in holiday and vacation schedules, late performance appraisals and wage increases, etc.

In essence, share information, be open, and avoid secrets.

Speak to everyone at every level as you would a neighbor you like. Remember that people, regardless of the type of work they perform, have the same desire for involvement and respect as managers and senior leaders do.

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Employee Engagement

Visionary experts in areas of organizational development predict the end of hierarchies—at least as you know them today. If it can be agreed that the people doing the jobs are

Building Better Business

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the ones who know the jobs the best, why aren’t leaders empowering employees to solve problems and create continuous improvement in every organization?

Training

A company’s investment in training reflects its value for people and a clear belief that good people only get better and produce greater results with an investment in their development.

Manufacturing companies often have a substantial budget for preventative maintenance on equipment, but limit (or even reduce if revenue is low) the necessary dollars for maintaining each person’s potential capacity.

Competitive Wages and Benefits

In a high performance culture, the objective is to make wages and benefits a “non-issue”. If people are challenged, valued and fairly compensated, they are reluctant to take another job for more money. Fairness is perceived and achieved by regularly checking the market value for all jobs and paying competitively (meaning around and often somewhat above the market midpoint), sharing the survey data if someone is interested and being transparent about ranges and the compensation structure. If a company is providing competitive pay and benefits, there shouldn’t be any mystery around this topic.

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High Expectations

Many leaders will admit that they have employees who are only doing the “minimum”. In most traditional companies, job descriptions are specific with regard to the tasks to be performed. Instead, write job profiles that set high expectations for the results versus the tasks involved. And replace that common phrase at the bottom of those descriptions that says, “All other duties as assigned” with “Proactively support the team and company in achieving its objectives”. Now the person who just waits to be told what to do is no longer meeting the minimum.

When leaders don’t set high expectations, they shouldn’t be surprised when average results are achieved. Further, high expectations give people a purpose for their work along especially when their leaders’ believe they will be successful.

Start Now There are many applications under each of these elements that convert the words to tangible actions and practices. If any of these eight elements is missing within an organization, it’s time to take action.

It’s valuing employees and doing the right thing that leads to exceptional performance. It really isn’t complicated.

Building Better Business

CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018

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INTERIOR DOORS,

BY DESIGN

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Feature Story: Interior Doors, By Design

Once purely functional, interior doors are now an integral part of the design process.

Written by Melissa Campeau

Photo courtesy of Concept SGA Inc.

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There was a time when interior doors were something of an afterthought in many homes. The focus was on function, not form. These days, though, there’s a growing understanding that well-chosen doors can offer a serious style injection to any interior space. New technologies, too, mean interior doors can offer better soundproofing, safety and airflow than ever before.

“It used to be there weren’t many options when it came to interior doors, even though there were lots of options available for exterior doors,” says Susan Ryan, Product Line Manager, Doors, at Jeld-Wen. She adds, “Now, interior doors are coming along for the ride and people are matching the interior with what they’re doing on the exterior.”

There’s a recognition that interior doors can and should be part of a style strategy. “People are really thinking of interior doors as a design component,”

Says Ryan. “Changing interior doors has a major impact on the look of your home.”

Clean, Simple Lines One significant trend is a move to a sleeker silhouette; a reflection of a broader trend in interior design. “More and more, consumers are looking for a neat, refined design when it comes to doors,” says Amal Sater, Sales Coordinator with Concept SGA Inc. That simplified feel applies to the colour scheme, as well. “White and espresso colors are popular and go well with any room or space,” says Sater, who points out the company’s popular Ambiance Series meets both these needs.

“Younger generation customers, especially, all seem to like very clean, very uncluttered design,” says Susan Ryan, Product Line Manager, Doors, with Jeld-Wen. Along the same lines, Ryan notes,

“A trend that’s been growing for the past five years is what we call the flat panel design, or the Shaker style.” She adds, “We have that in a moulded panel—the newest design has three panels—and it has nice clean lines,” says Ryan.

Hardy Rahn, Director of Sales for Alliance Door Products Canada, agrees.

“Flat panel moulded doors are increasing in popularity,” says Rahn. “One panel, two panel and five panel doors, which have a look similar to stile and rail flat panel doors, are in vogue right now.” Rahn points out that it’s a clean look and goes well with many cabinet doors favoured by homeowners at the moment, as well.

Ryan notes that her company has seen a trend, on a smaller scale, toward geometric design, too. “Our Studio Line is a little different. It’s minimalistic and has some horizontal and vertical lines,” says Ryan. “It’s a very urban look

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Feature Story: Interior Doors, By Design

Photo courtesy of Concept SGA Inc.

and reflects a design trend that we’re seeing in flooring, tiling and wallpaper.”

Tracking, on Trend Another style that’s been quite hot over the past several years is the barn door on a tracking system. “Barn doors are a hit, with all the rustic, barn-like interior designs people are so crazy about,” says Sater. “That’s especially the case for people who own country homes.”

Feature Story: Interior Doors, By Design

While the “rustic” look is hot in some markets, and waning in others, the tracking system or rail kit is going strong, everywhere. In some cases clients are after a look, “and often times, it addresses a space issue,” says Ryan.

“What’s helpful is that all of our interior doors can be installed with hinges or on the barn tracking,” says Ryan.

She adds, “Using the tracking system is definitely on the rise.”

More Customization Consumers are taking a growing interest in customizing their interior doors. Concept SGA Inc., for example, features a new product called Inspira.

“It’s an aluminum bi-fold door, and what’s interesting about this series is that the consumer gets to pick their own framing and inserts,” says Sater. “There are as many as 30 different inserts to choose from, so there’s something for any taste or décor.”

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Pre-finishes More Popular Advances in technology and production can often result in greater choice for consumers. “We’ve seen a sales pickup in pre-finished doors,” says Rahn. He explains that, “With new technology and finishing qualities

these doors match up with some of the wood cabinetry introduced the last few years.” He adds, “Our rift cut pre-finished hardboard comes in a number of finishes that compliment many of the current design trends in the marketplace,” says Rahn.

Robust, Safe and Soundproof Across Canada, there’s growing interest in upgrading interior doors for better sound proofing and safety.

“You can take any of our hollow core doors and make them a solid core door,” says Ryan. “It will have subPhoto courtesy of Alliance Door Products Canada

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Feature Story: Interior Doors, By Design

The VanAir Ventilated Door by Lynden Door ENHANCING COMFORT AND WELL-BEING IN MODERN SPACES

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Photo courtesy of Jeld-Wen Windows & Doors

stantial weight as well as improved sound attenuation, and a 20-minute fire rating.” She notes that many people choose to add this feature to certain doors like bathrooms or basement, for increased privacy. “As well, people sometimes do their whole home in this type of door just because it has a more robust feel,” says Ryan.

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Doors Get High Tech

Statement Sizing

Technology has also helped to solve some puzzles, when it comes to doors.

For example, the VanAir doors from Alliance Door Products have made the most of tech to help facilitate airflow without compromising sound privacy –two features that haven’t typically been available in the same product.

When it comes to the size of interior doors, there’s a growing demand for larger dimensions, in step with the higher ceilings typical of new builds.

“In terms of height, our doors are available in the standard 80-inch, as well as 84-inch and 96-inch sizes because you do see that trend, especially in

CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE

Feature Story: Interior Doors, By Design

new construction, where you have the larger doors on the first floor, a little bit bigger on the second floor, then standard size in the basement,” says Ryan.

There’s demand for wider doors, too.

That’s partly for scale, as doors get taller, but also to accommodate the needs of an aging population planning ahead for the use of walkers and wheelchairs.

“The fact that you’ve got the population aging, when you’re building in-law

suites, renovating homes, retirement homes, the sizes of the doors will have to be taken into consideration,” says Ryan. “There’s a move towards a 36inch door rather than the traditional 30-inch door.”

Integral Element of Design Whether it’s in response to the needs of an aging population, the preferences of a younger demographic, or a

reflection of home design, interior doors are clearly no longer an afterthought.

Choices for contractors are ample, with a range of sizes, technological advances and statement styles, making interior door selection an integral part of designing an interior space that’s both fashionable and functional.

Photo courtesy of Jeld-Wen Windows & Doors

Feature Story: Interior Doors, By Design

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Supplier Spotlight

GENTEK BUILDING PRODUCTS Gentek stands apart from other suppliers.

As a true one-stop resource for excellent products and customer service, Gentek is dedicated to making your job lines that they manufacture, as well as a wide range of other leading brands, to meet every design and budget.

Bold architectural colours in vinyl, aluminum and steel siding, faux stone and brick, high-performance windows with custom colour options, entry doors, decorative accents and rainware systems are readily available, along with a full selection of building envelope materials, tools and equipment.

Home Studio exterior design apps and the Gentek RenoPro software will help streamline your projects from concept to

gentek.ca

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SHIPLAP | 1667863 | MDF 5

⁄8" W x 11 1 ⁄2" H x 12' L

SHIPLAP | 1676882 | MDF 1

⁄2" W x 7 1 ⁄4" H x 12' L

SHIPLAP CREATE A FARMHOUSE OR BEACH HOUSE LOOK!

SHIPLAP | 1676914 | MDF 1

⁄2" W x 5 1 ⁄2" H x 12' L

This on-trend interior finishing choice adds charm and texture to any space and helps bridge modern and rustic décor styles.

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METRIE.COM

Supplier Spotlight

WHO WE ARE

Since our beginnings as a small family-owned business in 1926, our dedication to creating high-quality, finely crafted architectural elements has helped us grow to become the largest supplier and manufacturer of solid wood and composite moulding in North America. We are also the exclusive distributor of Masonite® doors in Canada.

METRIE® PRODUCT SOLUTIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF CUSTOMER

Professionally designed moulding & interior doors for a high-end, custom millwork look.

Curated moulding & interior door combinations that complement today’s top décor trends.

Pre-painted & ready to install moulding solution that allows you to finish before you start.

METRIE.COM

Interior doors that complement any home and personal taste.

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Recommended by Jim Caruk, Master Contractor, HGTV Host and Editor-in-Chief of Renovation Contractor Magazine

DO-IT-YOURSELF AND SAVE UP TO 20% ON HEATING & COOLING COSTS* The Owens Corning™ AttiCat® Expanding Blown-In Insulation System is a quick, easy, safe and reliable system to help you take control of your home’s comfort and energy usage.

Quick & Easy: Complete in as little as 2 hours† Virtually No Settling: Keeps its energy saving R-value over time Virtually No Mess: Releases and expands inside machine for low dust

THE PINK PANTHER™ & © 1964-2017 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. The colour PINK is a registered trademark of Owens Corning. © 2017 Owens Corning. All Rights Reserved. *Up to 20% heating and cooling savings based on Hot 2000, Version 8.7 run for a 2 storey 1972 type base house with 1149 sf per floor for an increase from R-8 to R-40 in the attic in Canadian climates. Savings vary depending on original amount of insulation in your home, climate, house size, air leaks, and personal energy use and living habits. †Blowing time, based on attic size 100m2/1000 ft2 at RSI 8.8/R-50.

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1-800-GET-PINK® or visit owenscorning.ca

Supplier Spotlight Photo courtesy of Owens Corning

Owens Corning Canada Your home is the most important place in the world to you and your family. So why settle for anything less than the best when choosing home insulation products? Owens Corning invented fiberglass and fiberglass insulation over 70 years ago, and the Owens Corning brand and our full line of PINK® insulation products have long been synonymous with trusted performance in Canada and around the world.

Owens Corning is a global leader in residential, commercial and industrial building materials ranging from insulation to roofing. Owens Corning also makes fiberglass used to reinforce composite materials used in transport, electronics, marine, wind energy and other high-performance applications.

Founded in 1938, Owens Corning have been the world’s leading innovator of fiberglass technology. In fact, every major advance in fiberglass technology has been the result of Owens Corning research and development.

Supplier Spotlight

Each day, Owens Corning people redefine what is possible, delivering high-quality products and services to customers around the world, and dramatically changing the way people live, work and play.

Whether you’re a homeowner or a building professional, Owens Corning Insulation offers a wide range of precise, efficient and durable products and systems designed to help you achieve the thermal performance demands of your projects.

We’ll help you plan your project and choose the insulation products you’ll need.

Call 1-800-GET-PINK® or visit www.owenscorning.ca Contact Your Local Owens Corning Representative.

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LOOKS GOOD. WORKS HARDER.

Contemporary Series Cedar At Steel-Craft, we overengineer every part of our garage doors to ensure they work hard from the inside out. That’s because we know you want a door that doesn’t just look good – but performs even better.

Contemporary Industrial Series

Therm-O-Dor Series

THE DOOR WITH MORE. For a complete list of products and specs, visit Steel-Craft.ca 34

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Elite Series Walnut

Esteem Series Black

Supplier Spotlight Photo courtesy of Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd.

Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd The Door with More Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd. builds high quality commercial and residential overhead doors using the highest-grade materials and best manufacturing techniques. Their attention to quality and detail enables them to build doors ideally suited for the Canadian climate. The high R-value and steel composition of their doors lowers heating and cooling costs by keeping interiors warm during the winter and cool during the summer. Produced from a recyclable-product steel, Steel -Craft doors are the sustainable choice. Durable, highly efficient, and 100% Canadian-manufactured, Steel-Craft doors are built to last.

For more information visit steel-craft.ca

Supplier Spotlight

Photo courtesy of Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd.

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LEAVE THEM FLOORED Flooring options to leave homeowners happy and coming back for more.

Written by Lawrence Cummer

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Feature Story: Leave Them Floored

Where there were once mainly choices between carpet, tile and hardwood, today there are options abound, allowing contractors to provide just the right performance and aesthetics to meet or exceed customers’ specific needs.

The last year has seen major shifts in consumer trends and the popularity of new alternatives to traditional wood flooring. “The flooring market has changed more in the last eight to twelve months than I’ve ever seen in my career,” says Jeff Morrison, Vice President of LBM at Goodfellow Inc. In 2017, Morrison notes, homeowner interest was shifting from hardwood to laminate, but now vinyl flooring — specifically luxury vinyl flooring — is beginning to overtake laminate in many provinces. (Laminate continues to be more popular in Quebec and Atlantic Canada, he suggests.)

“The popularity of luxury vinyl has gone absolutely crazy,” he says. “But this isn’t sheet vinyl like what was in your grandmother’s kitchen,” he adds, pointing to the high-performance and top-grade appearance of today’s vinyl flooring products.

Although luxury vinyl was considered a very high-end option in the past, changes in production and “new recipes” have brought down its price tag, says Sven Johnson, General Manager of Flooring at Taiga Building Products Ltd. “It’s now a very affordable floor for what it’s there to do, which is to perform well and to be water-proof.”

The Vinyl Revolution Morrison is calling it “the vinyl revolution” and he says it’s being driven by the same desire for low-maintenance being seen elsewhere — virtually everywhere —in the home. In areas where water-resistance and resilience are a factor, such as entrances, luxury vinyl tiles or planks (LVT / LVP) can provide the

Photo courtesy of Goodfellow

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necessary performance while offering flexibility and beauty. “It’s built more for life,” Morrison says. “I always say, ‘life happens’ and it’s a hell of a lot better if life happens on a vinyl floor.”

At its Core

There are a few differentiators when it comes to LVT and LVP flooring. One of the most important to look at is the material used in the tile or planks core, as well as the thickness of the core.

Older luxury vinyl flooring cores were made with fiberglass, which provided the water-fastness required but was more sensitive to sunlight exposure.

Newer options such as wood-plastic- composite (WPC, sometimes called waterproof core) and stone-plastic-composite (SPC, sometimes called rigid core) have helped overcome earlier challenges and breathed new life into the category.

The thickness of the core should also

be considered. Value-priced products may have only a 3.2 mm core, while more premium products will boast 4, 5 or 6 mm cores. A thicker core, Morrison notes, provides greater integrity to the locking system and can help compensate for uneven subfloors.

Loose or Click?

While laminate typically uses a 5G lock ing system enabling simple and fast installation by vertical snap, luxury vinyl typically uses the newer 5G-i system allowing for wider planks to create a wider visual.

Loose-lay vinyl planks are gaining interest, particularly in Western Canada.

These boards use a fiberglass mesh or sheet cores. Morrison notes that fiberglass mesh helps to deal with undulations in the subfloor, while Johnson says fiberglass sheet boasts greater stability. Because loose-lay LVP uses

pressure sensitive adhe- sives, single boards can be changed more easily than those installed using a click system.

“Dryback or loose-laid (planks) is getting a lot of excitement,” Johnson says. “It’s especially popular with contractors,” he adds, since the ease of installation lets them get in and out of the jobsite more quickly but still create high-integrity and professional results.

Aesthetics to Please

Johnson agrees that vinyl flooring is becoming more and more popular, in its variety of formats and permutations. “LVP, LVT, all these acronyms mean something, but can also spell confusion if you’re not aware of what they are.”

He attributes some of its popularity to one of the category’s newest additions: SPC. “It’s considered a hard surface, so it’s low maintenance, but it also has

Photo courtesy of Taiga Building Products

Photo courtesy of Goodfellow

Photo courtesy of Taiga Building Products

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Feature Story: Leave Them Floored

Photo courtesy of Ames Tile & Stone Ltd.

Photo courtesy of Ames Tile & Stone Ltd.

Photo courtesy of Centura Tile

some beautiful designs and colours or décors. It’s very much in vogue with imitating real wood looks and tile or real stone visuals such as marbles, granite or concrete looks.”

New printing techniques have created less uniformity between planks and tiles, creating a more realistic and visually attractive appearance. “The market doesn’t want uniform. They want variation. And they want lowgloss. All of which is easier to pull off with these floors,” Morrison says.

Tile Innovations Innovations in the digital printing and etching have made porcelain tiles a more attractive option for homeowners as well, especially for those seeking the look of real stone (such as marble) without its cost and with greater resiliency. Tiles that look like marble are “so popular it’s unreal,” says Ross Keltie,

Feature Story: Leave Them Floored

Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Centura Tile.

Newer options don’t stop at appearance alone. “It looks like marble and performs better. They use these special inks that give it a realistic look and feel.

If you touched a marble or a porcelain tile (made to look like marble) today you wouldn’t feel much difference. You wouldn’t know the difference, but the porcelain is far superior around installation and ongoing maintenance.”

Chris Stanton, Sales Consultant at Ames Tile & Stone Ltd. attributes the popularity he’s seeing toward marble reproductions in part to the ebb and flow of home fashions, but to the reproduction capabilities of the factories manufacturing the tiles. “Some of the lines we carry have up to 35 different faces, so you aren’t getting much repetition.”

Stanton says he loves real stone but does note that porcelain is more resil-

ient (it can even be used in a commercial setting), and natural stone floors cost more than even the most expensive Italian manufactured tiles.

Classic European and Mediterranean Charms Imitating real stone is just one of the visuals homeowners are turning to tiles to create. Keltie says, “We are seeing a lot of people going back to, and manufacturers producing this old ‘retro’ look, which is printed patterns with definite designs on them."

“The patterns are an older Mediterranean or European look. Like the old villas, where they had circles and abstracts. You see it a lot in magazines right now. It’s nice stuff,” Keltie says.

Also increasing in popularity are hexagonal and larger tiles, Stanton says, as well as mosaics (although particularly for backsplashes). “Colours seem to be

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SIDEBAR

Keeping Basement Floors High and Dry Few areas are more at risk to a water incident than the basement, and one solution may help prevent that expensive investment in a new entertainment room or man cave from going to waste: a basement subfloor.

“In the average lifespan of a house, 98% of homes will at some point have a moisture problem in their basement,” notes Bob Smith, Product Developer at DRIcore Products. That’s a compelling reason to invest in a subfloor, he says, to protect the greater invest-

ment being put into the basement floor — and furniture or electronics sitting on it.

Smith developed DRIcore’s floating subfloor, which is made with a raised high-density polyethylene moisture barrier base bonded to an engineered core designed to allow air to flow underneath the subfloor system keeping floors warm and dry.

Its interlocking panels link easily without fastening or gluing and polyethylene cleats on the underside keep the wood off the basement floor, preventing moisture exposure and

acting as a layer of insulation from the cold, hard concrete.

If a flood does happen, by raising the floor 7/8” off the concrete using a DRIcore subfloor (versus a ¼” membrane), homeowners can protect their investment — having to replace only the subfloor. “When you look at the cost of finishing a basement these days, spending a thousand dollars on a subfloor is a pretty cheap insurance policy,” Smith says. “It’s a cheap investment, it’s great protection, provides warmth and comfort by lifting you off that concrete floor.”

Photo courtesy of Marco Sobrevinas Canada.

Photo courtesy of DRIcore 40

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Feature Story: Leave Them Floored

Photos courtesy of Centura Tile

big this year,” he adds. “We’ve brought in some different lines with more colour.

That’s more focused on the designer.

Designers love to throw in some colour.”

The Right Material for the Job No one size fits all. Whether laminate, hardwood, luxury vinyl, porcelain or stone, of course it’s important to closely review each flooring solution for which is ideal for the application at hand and not to cut corners that may come back to haunt you.

Feature Story: Leave Them Floored

Stanton also reminds that contractors must educate themselves fully on the differences between each product and its application or they will do a disservice to their customers but also the flooring industry. He stresses, just because tiles were installed one way 20 years ago, it does not hold true now. “Each thinset (mortar) is different, each grout has a different application,” he says. “These products differ vastly.”

Contractors should consider that each material has its pros and cons based on

the traffic, UV light, water spillage or other factors, adds Johnson. Hardwood has warmth but doesn’t deal well with water; laminate has become a practical and affordable option; vinyl is inert and so water resistant, but some will fade, wear, shift or shrink in direct sunlight.

Each area will have different exposures and could need different solutions.

“You have to be very aware of the surroundings and environment that you’re putting in these particular flooring options.”

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Photo courtesy of Taiga Building Products

SIDEBAR

Taiga adds Huber OSB AdvanTech In July, Taiga Building Products announced it would be distributing Huber Engineered Woods OSB products, including AdvanTech Flooring, high-density engineered wood panels.

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“We are excited to be partnering with Huber Engineered Wood in our Canadian markets on their Zip, Zip-R and AdvanTech product lines,” says Steve Barber, Panel manager at Taiga.

“In terms of the AdvanTech products, as it pertains to flooring, we are pleased to be able to offer our customers the top ranked flooring panels available on the market today.”

Barber says that AdvanTech has been consistently voted #1 OSB in quality for more than a decade (since 2002), carries a no-squeek guarantee when installed with the AdvanTech adhesive and provides “unsurpassed strength, stiffness and fastener holding capabilities.” It carries a lifetime limited warrantee and 500-day no-sanding guarantee.

Feature Story: Leave Them Floored

BEAUTIFUL FLOORS HAVE NEVER BEEN SO EASY OR AFFORDABLE. Durable and waterproof, Easystreet SPC is perfect for kitchens, bathrooms, entryways and basements.

COMPOSITE DECKING • ENGINEERED WOOD • FLOORING • INSULATION • LUMBER • PANELS • ROOFING • MOULDINGS • SIDING • PRESERVED WOOD

Innovation, from product to distribution, makes us leaders in the category. Whatever it takes. taigabuilding.com CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018

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PRODUCT PLATFORM

Latest & Greatest Products Available at Local Castle Building Centres

Krono Original® Premier Prestige Krono Original® Premier Prestige is an elegant medium format plank with beveled edges. At 12 mm thick, Krono Original® is backed by a 30-year warranty and is compatible with radiant heating system. Also Krono Original® is stain and impact resistant. Krono Original® is available in a multitude of colors to complement every individual's unique aesthetic tastes. Additionally, Krono Original® is composed of natural wood and low emission bonding agents ensuring that the flooring is eco-friendly giving you the peace of mind that installing beautiful floors in your home won't compromise the beauty of the earth. With Krono Original® you will find strength and beauty in harmony.

For more information visit www.krono-original.com

Photo courtesy of Krono Original

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Product Platform

Product Platform Photo courtesy of Taiga Building Products

EasyStreet SPC Rigid Luxury Vinyl Planks EasyStreet SPC Rigid Luxury Vinyl Planks click together effortlessly. Featuring PU Coating, Easystreet SPC is highly dent, scratch and stain resistant. Additionally, Easystreet SPC is durable and waterproof, which makes this a perfect floor for bathrooms, kitchens, entryways, and basements.

This flooring comes in both tile and plank, which makes it easy to create a room to any individual’s specific style.

Easystreet SPC comes in a variety of colours to add a finishing touch to any room. Backed by a 20-year residential warranty and 3-year light commercial warranty you can trust that Easystreet SPC will look amazing for years to come.

For more information visit taigabuilding.com

Product Platform

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THE JM ADVANTAGE

MINERAL WOOL

POLYISO SHEATHING

SPRAY FOAM

FIBREGLASS

dedicated service. That’s the Johns Manville promise and that’s what makes JM one of the most preferred insulation brands in Canada today.

46 Johns SEPTEMBER CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE © 2018 Manville./ OCTOBER All Rights2018 Reserved.

m i t t ed Par

t

r

including Castlegard®, world-class building science expertise and

om

ne

A complete line of quality building insulation products,

AC

BLOW-IN

Sin c

e 1977

Visit www.JM.com/Canada or contact your local sales representative to learn more.

Product Platform Photo courtesy of Royal Building Products

Celect Cellular Composite Siding What distinguishes Celect Cellular Composite Siding by Royal® from other siding? It’s hard to narrow it down to just one quality. Start with the pronounced curb appeal that comes from its virtually seamless lines. And the woodlike presence and range of colors and styles that elevate virtually every kind of home style.

Continue with Celect’s near total lack of maintenance and the highly durable properties engineered into it, like

Product Platform

patented interlocking joints that eliminate gaps and buckling; Kynar Aquatec® coating that helps it withstand all weather conditions and climates; and gravity lock design that maintains structural integrity.

From gorgeous looks to innovative engineering minimal upkeep, Celect Siding shows its superiority from every angle.

For more information visit celect.royalbuildingproducts.com

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Fiberglass Insulation Castlegard速 products meet the highest safety, performance and quality standards. Castlegard速 Insulation is Formaldehyde-free, offering a healthier and safer indoor air quality. Castlegard速 insulation is a cost effective home insulation solution for your home with proven safety and performance ratings.

The EcoLogoTM ensures that your Castle insulation product is the environmentally friendly choice.

Castlegard速 products can be found exclusively at your local Castle Building Centres location across Canada.

MANUFACTURED IN CANADA BY

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Product Platform Photo courtesy of Weiser

Home Smart Phone Your iPhone is a part of your daily life. With the Premis app installed, your iPhone becomes your mobile security command center. So you can continue on with your life with security and peace of mind. You've managed important aspects of life from your smartphone for years. Why not have the same control over your home? Premis is designed to help you look after your home and family—even when you're away.

Named after the volcanic rock, Obsidian is a visually striking touchscreen that eliminates traditional keyways and opts for a low profile, contemporary design to deliver a stylish, modern smart lock that is secure, innovative and convenient.

When designing Obsidian, Weiser created the sleekest smart lock available. Obsidian's style-forward design seamlessly blends with any home's decor and offers key-free convenience with its capacitive touchscreen.

For more information visit ca.weiserlock.com

Product Platform

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Product Platform Photo courtesy of Owens Corning

Find Cash in the Attic!

Did you know there are over 7 million under insulated attics in Canada? An outstanding opportunity to generate incremental sales.

Diversify your business, differentiate yourself in the marketplace and grow your profits by using the Owens Corning® AttiCat® Blown-In Insulating System – containing 73% recycled content* and 3rd Party GreenGuard Gold Certified for indoor air quality.

In today’s environment, homeowners place a high value on energy efficiency. Topping up the attic to R-60 will add comfort and savings to the homeowner’s residence.

For more information visit www.owenscorning.ca, YouTube or call 1-800-GET PINK. *Based on Stats Canada Census 2006 and code analysis by industry expert, Keith Wilson. *73% recycled content is based on the average recycled glass content in all Owens Corning fiberglass batts, rolls and unbonded loosefill insulation manufactured in Canada, SCS certified.

Photo courtesy of Owens Corning

Product Platform

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sico.ca

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Wall to Wall Confidence is a trademark of PPG Group of Companies. Sico is a registered trademark of the PPG Group of Companies.

Manor Hall and Sun Proof are registered trademarks of PPG Architectural Finishes, PPG Paints is a trademark of PPG Industries Ohio,

CONTRACTORInc. ADVANTAGE © 2016 PPG Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Product Platform Photo courtesy of Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd.

Contemporary Series Sleek and effortlessly modern, Steel-Craft’s Contemporary Series offers the look, feel, and texture of real wood without the maintenance issues. The door’s flush, clean finish fills a growing demand in the market for designer inspired products.

The Contemporary Series features Steel-Craft’s uncompromising durability and function. This climate ready insulated steel door has an exterior that won’t require staining or painting. Unlike real wood, it will not warp, shrink, peel or crack making it ideal for the Canadian Climate.

Contemporary Colour Options

Cedar

Charcoal

Walnut

About Steel-Craft We use the finest quality Canadian galvanized steel finished with primer and exterior polyester paint. This paint acts as a barrier protecting the underlying zinc coating and extending the life of your garage door. Every door is finished with a factory applied, baked-on, two coat exterior polyester paint finish on both sides – giving years of maintenance free operation.

Steel-Craft products are 100% Canadian and are designed for use in Canada. The highest possible grade of perimeter weather-stripping provides excellent protection from outside elements, while a continuous weather seal is inserted between each door section, preventing air from getting through.

For more information visit www.steel-craft.ca

Photos courtesy of Steel-Craft Door Products Ltd.

Product Platform

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Product Platform Photo courtesy of Bissett

Bissett Fastener Finder Founded in 1929, Lance Bissett Limited began as an exclusive distributor of Bostitch office products. Over several decades the company evolved into a leading Western Canadian distributor of construction fasteners and related accessories. Starting in 2014, under new ownership, the vision of expanding the brand nationally quickly became reality aided in part by the 2015 acquisition of another long standing Canadian fastener distributor. Today, Bissett Fasteners Limited is the largest privately-held distributor of fasteners in Canada with 11 warehouse locations across the country. Bissett Fasteners has quickly risen to become an industry leader for professional users. The slogan, “Driven by Professionals”, is a testament to the company’s commitment to providing professionals with the best quality products available.

Product Platform

Photo courtesy of Bissett

The Bissett product offering is represented by a dynamic merchandising program that includes nearly 500 branded SKUs. Always seeking to innovate the platform, the company offers customers a web/app called the “Bissett Fastener Finder” where users can quickly and easily find which fasteners are compatible with their tool. All Bissett Fasteners are directly compatible with a wide range of market leading pneumatic tool brands such as Bostitch, Hitachi, Max, Paslode, Senco, and more. Bissett Fasteners is a trusted Canadian brand with the most rigorous quality control program in the industry, thus reducing reliability concerns and making job site performance issues a thing of the past!

For more information visit www.bissettfasteners.ca

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CASTLE PUBLICATIONS DIGITAL IS HERE! Check it out at contractoradvantage.ca Everything you love about Contractor Advantage, IDEAS and Rough Construction is now available online. The new digital publications platform features all new and existing content in a high-end visual presentation.

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Product Platform Photo courtesy of Isolofoam Group

ISOCLAD: the Permeable Home Envelope Solution ISOCLAD is an expanded polystyrene insulation panel laminated to an air barrier membrane for above grade wall.

2-steps-in-1 product, ISOCLAD is ideal both for new construction and retrofit.

ISOCLAD is an air barrier and vapour permeable solution that provides a continuous insulation and air barrier envelope.

Designed for our Canadian rigorous climate, ISOCLAD is a tried-and-tested product since 1998 that helps reaching airtightness targets of your projects.

For more information, contact us or visit our website at Isolofoam.com

Benefits: • Highly permeable insulation board: Close to 3 times more permeable than the ≥60 ng minimum required for non vapour material: 1” = 176,5 ng/ (Pa* s*m2) 2” = 74,9 ng/ (Pa* s*m2) • Shiplapped 4 sides for better air and water tightness • Permanent R Value • Continuous layer of insulation: eliminates thermal bridges and heat loss • Fast and easy to install • Available in heights of 8’, 9’ and 10’ to insulate joists • CCMC # 12980-R CCMC # 12981-R, CAN/ULC-S741, CAN/ULC-S742

Photo courtesy of Isolofoam Group

Product Platform

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Start Painting Castlegard has everything you need to start painting including a premium line quality of paintware. Whether professional or DIY, Castlegard has the painting accessories you need to get the job done.

Exclusively at Castle Building Centres locations. Visit www.castle.ca to find a Castle near you.

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Product Platform

new traditional

INTERIOR MOULDING & DOOR COMBINATIONS

The most popular trends, reimagined by our top designers.

We deconstructed on-trend styles to understand their inspirational elements. Then, we paired them with Option {M}™ interior finishings – moulding and interior door combinations that make it easy for you to find your design voice, and bring your rooms to life.

vintage industrial

shabby chic

Encourages Upgrades modern farmhouse

bohemian

TO L E A R N M O R E A B O U T O U R C U R AT E D S T Y L E S P L E A S E V I S I T:

METRIE.COM

Eases Product Selection CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE MAY / APRIL 2018

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JELD-WEN – Engineered for Home Comfort Homeowners want their windows to look great, but they also want windows that make them feel great. We call this comfort engineering. Whether the goal of a window upgrade is to add warmth to a sunny breakfast nook, or block UV rays in a south-facing living room, windows can have a significant influence on the air quality and temperature of a home. By choosing between dualpane and tripane glass, and the correct low-emissive coating (Low-E) for each window, you can create a cozy, comfortable

Three glass panes separated by two sealed airspaces - providing improved insulation.

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Windows and Doors

Manufacturer of the Year

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018

Windows and Doors

2018

Manufacturer of the Year

2017

2016

environment in any climate.

Manufacturer of the Year

CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE

Windows and Doors

Ask your local Castle dealer about the full range of JELD-WEN products.

Choose Low-E 180 for passive solar heat gain.

Choose Low-E 366 for an ideal balance solar control.

Product Platform

EXPLORE WHAT’S WITHIN JELD-WEN moulded wood composite interior doors are highly versatile, adding practical value as well as class to any home or individual room. They provide a source of privacy, comfort and sound reduction to the home while helping to define the personality of each room. Help your clients choose an interior door that meets the functionality of their homes, and also makes a statement about their personality.

Door Construction

STYLE MEETS SUBSTANCE – Not only can you choose the architectural style that works best for your client’s home, but you can also choose between

Hollow Core

Solid Particleboard Core

the classic look of wood grain, or a sleek and smooth finish. JELD-WEN moulded wood composite doors come primed and ready to paint so that they can be

1 3/8" Door

customized to suit any taste.

Blocking behind panels for support

DURABLE CONSTRUCTION – JELD-WEN products are designed to create lasting value. That is why we back our moulded wood composite interior doors

1 3/8" Door 1 3/4" Door 20-minute fire rating available for 1 3/4" up to 3'0" x 8'0"

with a five-year limited warranty. Our 1 3/4” doors are also available with 45, 60, or 90-minute fire ratings. Your clients will get the best of both worlds with a ®

stylish and durable door to satisfy the needs of their home.

SUPERIOR SOUND REDUCTION – All JELD-WEN interior moulded and flush

Solid Mineral Core All–Wood Frame

doors are available with ProCore the quiet door construction. This solid-core ®

door option offers superior sound reduction. Allow any home to enjoy enhanced

1 3/4" Door

privacy, without sacrificing its aesthetic appeal. Furthermore, this option helps

45- or 60-minute fire ratings up to 3'0" x 8'0"

prevent the dents and dings of daily life.

Windows and Doors

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Visit jeld-wen.com to find the perfect interior door for your next project.

Manufacturer of the Year Windows and Doors

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ME IL FRA A R L A C RYS T

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SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018 CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE more62ideas at regalideas.com

Product Platform CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018

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6Ǒ8dbeaZiZǑ=dbZǑ Protection System That Outperforms Expectations Your first upgrade should be comfort Insulating and air sealing new or existing homes is the easiest way to avoid the air leaks and moisture intrusion that can lead to structural issues such as mold and decay. Blanketing homes in a continuous layer of insulation and air sealing gaps and cracks around the home creates an air-tight, moisture resistant structure that provides long term: ǑǑ=dbZǑXdb[dgiǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑ ǑǑ9jgVW^a^inǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑ ǑǑ>begdkZYǑ^cYddgǑV^gǑfjVa^inǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑǑ ǑǑAdlZgǑbdci]anǑji^a^inǑW^aah

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FOR CONTINUOUS INSULATION

STYROFOAM™ CLADMATE™ CM20 insulation is designed with the builder and contractor in mind.

Changes to many Building Codes include requirements for increased R-values and improved air sealing control measures.

With these new requirements come many options, which sometimes leads to confusion over how to meet code and which products to use. One of DOW BUILDING SOLUTIONS the biggest changes to complying with the Code, is the requirement of continuous insulation (ci).

1-866-583-BLUE (2583) Continuous Insulation (ci): An uninterrupted layer of insulation that spans over structural members without thermal bridging, other than fasteners and services. A continuous layer of insulation helps reduce the potential for condensation within the wall where mold and mildew can accumulate undetected.

www.dowbuildingsolutions.com

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Product Platform

One Solution

www.task-tools.com

MORE THAN JUST DUST CONTAINMENT

With 132lbs of load bearing capacity, the Task® Quick Support Rod® (QSR®) is much more than a way to contain dust on the job site – it’s also an extra set of hands to hold things in place, a makeshift barrier or guardrail, or even a way to light up a room. Add an accessory or two, and there are hundreds of uses for one rod.

Task Tools is celebrating 50 years of success in 2018!

For over 50 years Task Tools has focused on manufacturing professional quality, ultra durable tools for the North American building market. Please join us in celebrating 50 years – we couldn’t have done it without you.

From our family to yours, thank you for choosing Task Tools!

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CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE TASK TOOLS • East 1.800.268.2304 • West 1.800.663.0160 • www.task-tools.com

Product Platform

www.task-tools.com

The ultimate framing and decking blade: Look for the 6 important features to look for in a quality framing and decking blade:

1. Tough tungsten carbide tooth – a C3 carbide tooth is recommended (hard and durable) 2. Brazing of the tooth – look at the colour of the brazing (the weld of the tooth onto the blade). Silver = stronger bond for extended cutting life and safety. Copper = weaker, leading to tooth loss.

3. Hardened steel body – for a true cut, less vibration, less warping and long life.

4. Heat expansion slots on the outer edge of the blade are designed to expand the steel when heated and keep the blade cool, to avoid warping and extend the life of the blade.

5. Anti-vibration slots - usually S-shaped, these laser cut-outs on the blade body are designed to damper vibration, which reduces heat and noise.

6. Anti-kickback delimiters - located behind each tooth, angled in the opposite direction, designed to minimize kickback.

The Task® Barracuda blade combines all of these features, and also cuts fast and easily through wood with nails. The ultimate blade, at a value price.

Task Tools is celebrating 50 years of success in 2018!

For over 50 years Task Tools has focused on manufacturing professional quality, ultra durable tools for the North American building market. Please join us in celebrating 50 years – we couldn’t have done it without you.

From our family to yours, thank you for choosing Task Tools!

ADVANTAGE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018 TASK TOOLS • East 1.800.268.2304 • West 1.800.663.0160CONTRACTOR • www.task-tools.com

67

We Can Help With Your Next Interior Project Designed for Customizing Constructed from industrial grade steel, Rubbermaid’s ventilated wire shelving collection is designed to provide storage options for every area of the home: storage rooms, utility rooms, laundry rooms, garages, pantries and closets.

• Provides easy gliding surface for hangers • Resists chipping • Will not discolor or peel • Will not become tacky over time

www.rubbermaid.ca

• • • • • •

Exterior and interior applications Add curb appeal on exterior applications Install anytime, and anywhere Redefine the look of a fireplace, backsplash or feature wall Clips and screws included Bulk packs available for larger applications

www.fusionstone.ca

Quality and security are an integral part of every Weiser product.

Knowing that all our products will function properly and provide the added protection and security you expect, allows you to choose from a number of stylish products with confidence. Weiser is committed to continuously introducing new styles and finishes that fit the needs of today’s changing lifestyles and fashion trends.

www.weiserlock.com

Visit our catalogue for more information 68

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ENGINEERED WOOD CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE

www.canwel.com

| SIDING & TRIM | DECKING & RAILING | INSULATION & WRAP | INTERIOR FINISHING

Product Platform

BEAUTY THAT TRANSFORMS A HOUSE INTO A HOME. For more than 40 years, CanExel® prefinished siding has protected, enhanced and improved homes.

With a beautiful finish, lasting durability and an authentic wood-grain look, CanExel siding creates products you can enjoy for years. With more than 21 colours and endless styles, it’s easy to find the perfect match.

The Ridgewood D-5™ lap siding has the genuine look and warm appeal of Dutch lap siding. Ced’R-Vue® lap siding delivers the stunning beauty and durability of cedar without the drawbacks. UltraPlank™ lap siding combines style and versatility.

LP sets the standard in prefinished siding with an advanced multi-coat, heat-cured finish for durable beauty.

All LP CanExel products offer a 25-Year Limited Warranty against peeling, separating, and chipping, including a 15-Year Limited Warranty on the finish, and a 5-Year, 100% Labour and Replacement feature.

A product with integrity, builders can trust LP CanExel Prefinished Siding to provide: BEAUTY: Deep woodgrain available in a variety of siding styles.

RELIABILITY: CanExel has been subjected to outdoor testing in 7 different North American climates and its built to last.

EFFICIENCY: Self-aligning system reduces installation time, and special tools are not required.

VARIETY: Choose from a wide range of colors and styles.

SUSTAINABILITY: Wood sourced through programs certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program.

For project ideas, visit www.canexel.ca

©2018 CanWel Building Materials Division. All rights reserved. LP, CanExel, Ced’R-Vue, UltraPlank and Ridgewood D-5 are all registered trademarks of Louisiana-Pacific Corporation. All other trademarks are owned by CanWel Building Materials Division.

distributed by:

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KEEPING COZY

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Feature Story: Keeping Cozy

Options and innovations for adding warmth to your abode this fall and winter.

Written by Lawrence Cummer

Photo courtesy of SBI International

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The multi-hued beauty of falling leaves, crisp autumn air, the harvest moon, pumpkin pie; fall brings with it a lot to love. It also heralds the chilly temperatures soon to come, making it a perfect time to take a fresh look at how to keep your home comfortable and warm.

While each region of Canada has its own favoured method to heat the cool months — from natural gas furnaces in Ontario, or electric central heating in hydro-cheap Manitoba, to the electric space heaters more popular in Quebec — many options exist to supplement or replace existing heating system to improve comfort or reduce the ever-growing energy costs.

Not only are choices becoming more energy efficient, but solutions are increasingly becoming attractive additions to home décor. Let’s look at a few:

High-Efficiency Wood and Pellet Stoves Solid-fuel heating is nothing new for many homeowners, but where wood and pellet-burning stoves differ from a traditional masonry fireplace is in the efficiency — turning fuel into clean heat. “If you have a fireplace in your home, for the most part you’re contin-

uously feeding the fire, because most of the heat is going straight up the flue.

Whereas if you’ve got a high-efficiency wood-burning stove or an insert (basically a wood-burning stove designed to fit into a masonry fireplace), the unit will radiate heat much more than a traditional fireplace,” says Neill Gibson, sales director at Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Que. based Stove Builder International (SBI), which designs, builds and markets residential heating products for use around the globe.

Gibson says the number one motivation for products like his company’s DIY solid-fuel burning stoves— branded Drolet and Century — is independence from the grid. “Anybody who has suffered through any elongated loss of electricity… A lot of people in Southern Quebec remember back to the 1998 ice storm where households were without electricity for up to two weeks,” he reminds. He says demand for wood stoves peeks after weather events, since being able to supply heat without being plugged into the infrastructure provides homeowners with security.

SBI has also seen increased interest in cook stoves, so has begun importing and selling its own options for home-

owners wanting more than just a secondary heat source. “There’s nothing like the smell of fresh bread cooked in a wood stove,” Gibson says.

Innovations to Reduce Particulate Emissions Wood may be one of the oldest heating sources, but even in the 21st century the stove industry strives to refine our ability to burn solid fuels cleaner. As a by-product of increased efficiency, solid-fuel burning stoves are becoming consistently more environmentally-friendly to meet industry standards. In 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set emission standards for wood and pellet stoves limiting them to 4.5 grams of particulate emissions per hour paralleled in Canada by the CSA B415.1-10. Going forward 2.5 grams* is the target in 2020**. Various Canadian municipalities are following suit. Montreal is the first to set a bylaw that wood burning stoves reach this 2020 EPA standard by Oct. 18, 2018. The good news is manufacturers like SBI have been working for the past three years to improve the efficiency with which their stoves burn.

Currently SBI has three wood stoves and a fireplace insert within the Drolet

Photos courtesy of SBI International

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Feature Story: Keeping Cozy

Photos courtesy of Glen Dimplex Americas

line-up alone that meet what will become the new norm, and generally all its pellet-burning stoves — which are by nature more efficient — already do.

“Some of this innovation comes from SBI’s desire to maintain solid fuels as an inexpensive means to heat the home, while trying to make wood and pellet heaters attractive to first time home owners. And some is based on the new regulations pushing the industry to be as environmentally friendly and have as little impact as we can,” Gibson says.

Note: Because provinces and municipalities abide by their own rules when it comes to emissions, it is critical to take

Feature Story: Keeping Cozy

this into consideration when choosing your appliance. In addition, homeowners looking at solid fuel stoves would do well to check with their home insurers as to installation requirements. Many models exist that are easy enough to install for a weekend do-it-yourselfer, but your insurer may require an inspection and WETT certification to honour your policy. (*Tests completed with cord wood / **It is possible that this date will be delayed until 2023.)

Electric Space Heaters The heating system of choice in Quebec, according to Mario Boivin, National

Sales Director for Glen Dimplex Americas, electric space heaters aren’t limited to areas where there are pre-existing preferences.

“They are good in my neck of the woods,” Boivin notes from his Montreal, Que. office. But they are also popular in areas with central furnace systems, he adds, “when you have that one room that stays too cool, so you need to heat it (separately). The garage is another place, since central heating rarely reaches it.”

Once you’ve made the decision you need a heater in the room, Boivin says to look at four key factors:

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• Room size, which will affect the wattage needed. A good rule of thumb is 10 watts per sq. foot; however, cathedral ceilings, efficiency (or R-value) of windows and other elements can change this guideline.

• The heater technology. There are two main options in electric heaters: convection or fan-forced. Convection heaters have no moving parts, making them quieter and “practically unkillable,” Boivin says. Their silent operation makes them great for bedrooms, for example. Fan-forced blow air through the heating element, heating rooms more quickly making them ideal for areas like entryways or bathrooms.

• The space or room you plan to install it.

A traditional baseboard heater can be as long as 9’ for a 2500-watt heater.

Without such room, you may need short-board, wall panel convector, or a kick space heater (fits under kitchen cabinets).

• What’s controlling the heater. Electric space heaters can be controlled either with an integrated thermostat or a wall thermostat. Whatever your preference, Boivin strongly suggests choosing an electronic version over a mechanical one, which will make a significant difference on your heating bill!

As controls go, the smart home trend is one that’s improving homeowners’ comfort and power of control. Dimplex recently developed the CONNEX system, a solution that consists of smart heaters, WiFi-enabled controllers and more recently, a smart thermostat to convert existing heaters to smart ones. With it, homeowners can control their heating from anywhere using a mobile app.

“Our future version will incorporate geo-location, so I have my cell phone in my pocket and when I get within 5 km of my home the unit just turns on. You won’t even have to think of it.”

Infrared Wall Panel Heaters A new technology twist has come to electric space heating: infrared panel heaters. According to J. Marc Hofman, Sales Director at Winnipeg-based Spacio Innovations Inc., the WEXSTAR Wall Panel Heaters provide impressive heat but with less electricity consumption. Popular in Europe for years, Hofman says his company is bringing this technology to America.

“While most heaters on the market are 1500 watts, our heaters are 400, 600 and 800 watts,” Hofman says.

Developed in Austria, these wall panel heaters generate infrared rays that provide comforting heat using the same

principle as the sun. The Infrared heat is distributed uniformly around the room and absorbed by objects and walls that release the warmth back to the room creating an overall feeling of warmth, rather than heating the air around them. This, Hofman says, creates a more comfortable feeling of heat, as well as not drying out the air in the room.

Eco-friendly, Hofman says that a high percentage of the energy consumed is converted to warmth. Each model has a larger range of surfaces it covers: the 400-watt unit is for 120 sq. ft.; the 600watt can handle 200 sq. ft., while the 800-watt unit warms up 250 sq. ft.

The panels are easy to install, can be wall-, ceiling- or leg-mounted based on the needs of your rooms décor, and are simple to relocate. Can you mount drywall screws? Then you can hang these wall panel heaters, Hofman suggests. To further ease installation, the units plug into a standard 120V electrical outlet. While the placement of a convection heater is crucial to its operation (to create a convection channel of heated air), the same principle is not applicable for these infrared units.

This versatility allows them to be placed almost anywhere. The heaters use no fan which means 100% quiet

Photo courtesy of Spacio Innovations

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Feature Story: Keeping Cozy

Photo courtesy of Spacio Innovations

and no stirred-up dust, ideal for people suffering from asthma or allergies.

Hofman says he expects this new technology option to become increasingly popular over the coming years, based on its price point and the energy savings it can provide. “There are so

Feature Story: Keeping Cozy

many options. You can use them for general heat, or for more targeted applications, say an office or basement; even commercial ones,” he says. “It’s a flexible system that just has so many uses.”

These are just a few considerations to keep you and your family comfortable

over the coming months. Whatever you choose to warm your hearth and home, you can be confident an ideal option is out there, so that neither rising energy costs nor power outages will force you to suffer winters chills. Stay cozy.

CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2018

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Continuous Insulation Solutions that meet the new Building Codes EFFECTIVE R-23 HALO® WALL ASSEMBLY 8 1/32” Wall Thickness

THE HALO® EXTERRA® R-23 WALL ASSEMBLY

HALO® EXTERRA® DOES IT ALL! [ Highest long-term R-value (R-5 per inch*) [ Breathable (will not trap moisture) [ Meets Building Codes as a Weather Barrier (when joints & fasteners are taped) [ Eliminates the need for any additional weather barrier

BuildWithHalo.com 76

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CONTRACTOR ADVANTAGE

Tech Talk Photo courtesy of Brinno

High Tech Jobsite Security Written by Teresa Christine

Whether you are a small construction business looking to protect your business against vandalism or a aspiring business wanting to showcase your work, protect by creating a unique marketing video, this job-site technology might be of interest.

Tech Talk

Brinno’s BCC200 Jobsite Time-Lapse Camera is a unique innovation in jobsite tech that is creating a lot of buzz. The camera makes it easy to document your entire construction project, no matter the duration, days, months, or years and then replays the footage of the entire project in just a few minutes.

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The BCC200 is manufactured with industrial-grade materials that are wire-free, weatherproof and easy to install with the industrial-grade aeronautical aluminum alloy mounting clamp. It can be fixed onto a wide variety of surfaces, from pipes, cylindrical objects to tree branches, you name it.

Don’t worry if you aren’t “tech-savvy”, this baby boasts a wireless system, so no wiring installation or cabling is required, and no technical skill is required.

The camera is powered by a HDR-sensor producing quality images with high contrast, even in challenging

lighting conditions. Switch to night mode at the end of the day and the camera will still deliver exceptional time-lapse video with even the most challenging backlights and/or dark conditions.

BCC200 model is the higher-end construction camera bundle is affordable and a great addition to your toolbox.

As you wrap up construction this year, think about how the BCC200 can be used for future marketing by capturing your project from start to finish for years to come. Learn more at brinno.com

Photo courtesy of Brinno

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Tech Talk

SURFACES

WALL & CEILING COVERINGS

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F-SERIES

CARRY YOUR REPUTATION IN THE TRUCKS WITH A BEST-IN-CLASS REPUTATION. F-Series trucks are engineered to make difcult work easier. High-strength, military-grade^ aluminum alloy allows weight to be reinvested elsewhere to deliver best-in-class towing* and hauling** capability.

And use less fuel when you’re between job sites.

Add in our class-exclusive driver assist features and take con dence on the job site to the max.

When it comes to choosing your truck, trust the Commercial Vehicle specialists at Ford. Our team is driven to make choosing your truck easier.

FORD.CA/BUILTFORBUSINESS

2018 F-150

2017 SUPER DUTY

• Best-in-class max. payload 3,270 lbs† • Best-in-class gas efciency‡ • Best-in-class towing 13,200 lbs‡‡ • Available Wi-Fi Hotspot with SYNC® Connect^^

• Best-in-class max. towing 32,500 lbs* • Best-in-class max. payload 7,630 lbs** • Impressive diesel torque 925 lb-ft*** • Best-in-class gas torque 430 lb-ft ¤

Vehicle(s) may be shown with optional equipment. ^6000-series aluminum alloy. Lighter EPA curb weight, versus predecessor generation. *Maximum towing capacity of 32,500 lbs on F-450 DRW 4x4 with 6.7L V8 diesel engine. When properly equipped with available factory-installed equipment. Class is Full-Size Heavy Duty Pickups over 8,500 lbs. GVWR based on Ford segmentation. **When properly equipped. Maximum payload of 7,630 lbs on F-350 DRW 4x2 with 6.2L V8 gas engine. Class is Full-Size Heavy Duty Pickups over 8,500 lbs. GVWR based on Ford segmentation. ***Maximum diesel torque of 925 lb-ft on F-250/F-350 with 6.7L V8 diesel engine. When properly equipped. †When properly equipped. Maximum payloads of 3,270 lbs on F-150 4x2 with available 5.0L Ti-VCT V8 engine. Class is Full-Size Pickups under 8,500 lbs. GVWR based on Ford segmentation. ‡ Class is Full-Size Pickups under 8,500 lbs (3,856 kg) versus 2017 Competitors. 2017 F-150 4x2 equipped with the 2.7L V6 EcoBoost® and 6-speed SelectShift® automatic transmission, estimated fuel consumption ratings are 12.2L/100-km city, 9.3L/100-km hwy, 10.9L/100-km combined, based on Government of Canada-approved test methods. Actual fuel consumption will vary. ‡‡When properly equipped. Maximum towing capacity of 12,200 lbs on F-150 4x2 with available 3.5L EcoBoost engine conguration. ^^Certain restrictions, 3rd-party terms, or message/data rates may apply. 4G network complimentary 5-year subscription (after which, fees apply) for remote features excluding Wi-Fi hotspot included, activates with vehicle sale date. Requires compatible 4G cellular network connectivity, and is subject to 4G network availability. Evolving technology/cellular networks may affect future functionality. Wi-Fi hotspot includes complimentary wireless data trial that begins at time of activation and expires at the end of 3 months or when 3GB of data is used, whichever comes rst (after which, data plan required). ©2017 Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. All rights reserved.

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