Good Millwork Architectural Moldings, Exterior Shutters, Wood Siding and Rare Woods

Making Architectural Moldings

by stephaniesuesansmith on April 11, 2011

Architectural moldings are not new. You can find them in most of the palaces in Europe that are still used. Rooms and rooms of highly decorated paneling, crown molding, molding on the ceiling, anywhere they could put it. Sometimes the result is quite beautiful. Sometimes it is rather garish.

Think, though, for a moment about how much labor was involved in making all those moldings. Everything had to be made by hand. The trees were felled with axes or saws. While there were water driven sawmills by the 15th century, the rough planks had to be sawn to the right dimensions by hand. Then they were planed smooth. Finally, a special plane with the molding profile needed was used to plane the mold into the strip of wood. And that was just one strip of wood among thousands.

Building a palace or other major building took a small army of master carpenters with their journeymen and apprentices just to do the molding and decorations. Master carpenters often had workshops near kings, dukes, or other powerful and rich men to build items they needed or work on their buildings. Sometimes these workshops became famous, other times they labored in obscurity. Most of the workers there would spend their lives working on a single building or major work.

Fortunately, moldings today are not so labor intensive. Good Millwork has state of the art equipment to cut your molding in about a week rather than a lifetime. If you need molding, please give us a call. We can help with that.

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 1 comment }

Ocean Front Building? Think Wood

by stephaniesuesansmith on April 8, 2011

in General

We have been conditioned to believe that metal is stronger and more lasting than wood. In some cases that is true. Wooden skyscrapers do not work well. However, in other cases, wood lasts longer than metal.

Metal corrodes in the presence of moisture. The water draws ions out of the iron and forms rust. This rust further degrades and flakes off. If enough of this occurs, the metal becomes weak and fails. This is a problem in a house, but is a worse problem for something such as a bridge or pier. Metal can be galvanized to resist rust. Paint helps protect metal, too, which is why ships are constantly being painted to keep them in good shape.

Wood may have some faults, but rusting is not one of them. Actually, in the proper environment, wood can last a thousand or more years. That is how old some of the pilings around the old London Bridge were before it was removed for a more modern structure.

Wood excels when building in coastal areas with constant salt spray. The sticky feeling one gets at the beach is the salt deposit left on your skin by the spray. Imagine the buildings being bathed in that all the time. It is very corresive.

Rot resistant wood such as deadhead sinker cypress or African mahogany really excel in this situation. They last a long time and continue to look appealing even after years of salt spray. African teak also works very well in this situation. Teak used to be used to build ships because it could cope with the salt spray so well.

Of course, you do not have to be in a corrosive environment to use wood. It just helps to know wood is around if you need it. To discuss your building needs or place an order, give us a call today.

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 2 comments }

The Components of a Cabinet Door

by stephaniesuesansmith on April 6, 2011

in cabinet components

When looking at a cabinet door such as this pecky sinker cypress door, it is tempting to assume that it is all one piece. Looking closely, however, you can see that there are a couple of lines where wood joins wood. There are several components to a cabinet door. That is a good thing, as it gives you a chance to design a cabinet door to fit your home and tastes.

Most cabinets have five parts. You have the top rail, the left and right stiles, or vertical edges, the bottom rail, and the panel. Each of these pieces can be personalized.

The panel can have a variety of profiles routed into it, so that it has a design around the edges, or is straight and seamlessly meets the stiles and rails. There is an inside edge profile and an outside edge profile. All of these are choice points in the development of your cabinet door.

The frame is the stiles and rails assembled into what would look like a picture frame, but bigger. They are joined with mortise and tenon joints for strength and to allow the wood to move a bit with changes in humidity but still stay together. The door is the piece when the panel is added to the frame. Of course, you still have to choose the hinges, but that isn’t woodworking.

Good Millwork can mill the wood for your cabinet doors. We have the right equipment and around 300 species of wood available. We also have almost 10,000 molding profiles. Put them together and we can make your cabinet doors any way you want them. Why not call us today to discuss your order?

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 2 comments }

Restoring a Wood Floor

by stephaniesuesansmith on April 4, 2011

in Fixer-Uppers and Do-It-Yourself

What happens if you move into a house and find it has a wood floor that has not been loved? Or you rip out a carpet only to find solid wood flooring under it? It is possible to restore such a floor to its’ former glory. It takes time, elbow grease, and some money, but can be done.

The first option is to hire a professional to sand the floor down and refinish it. This person should check for loose or damaged boards, remove tack strips and carpet glue, and make sure the floor is solid before proceeding. Some boards may need to be patched or replaced. Good Millwork can mill replacement boards in almost 300 species, so we can probably match the species of wood in your floor.

If you cannot afford to have the floor sanded and refinished by a professional, there are some things you can do. First, remove tack strips, bits of carpet pad, and any other debris on the floor. Does the floor appear to still have a finish, or has that worn away? In older homes, the finish may have worn away to the point that you are dealing with weathered wood.

If there is still a finish, you can mop with one of the products intended for finished wood floors. That may be enough to brighten the floor. You can use a floor wax after the floor has dried completely from being mopped. If that is not satisfactory, you will have to rent a buffer and go over the floor with that.

If there is no finish left, it will take more work to help this floor. First, wash it with Trisodium Phosphate to remove the layers of dirt and grime as well as any remaining finish. TSP is a caustic substance that should be used with caution. Be sure and follow the label directions.

After the floor has dried from being treated with TSP, you should sand it with 150 grit sandpaper to open the pores so they will accept a finish. You can rent buffers that will sand it for you. Do not use finer than 150 grit sandpaper because that closes the pores instead.

Now comes the fun part. Tung oil is a nontoxic finish you can apply yourself, but is a lot of work. You need to thin it with a solvent for it to penetrate into the wood. Solvents range from mineral spirits to citrus solvents, with the latter being relatively nontoxic. The Real Milk Paint Company has very good directions on how to refinish a wood floor with Tung oil on their website.

Whether or not you finish the floor yourself or have a professional do it, wood floors will give years of service if properly cared for. When bad things happen to them, we can mill replacement boards for you. Our precision instruments can match the size and shape of the offending board exactly so the new board fits into your floor like a glove. Give us a call today!

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 4 comments }

Care and Feeding of Your Wood Floor

by stephaniesuesansmith on April 1, 2011

in Home Improvement

At Good Millwork, we make some beautiful tongue and groove floors out of woods such as mahogany and deadhead sinker cypress. These floors do not stay beautiful for long, however, if they are not cared for. Care is not difficult, but does require some routine maintenance.

Dust and excessive moisture are the primary enemies of a wood floor. Sunlight and scuffing as furniture is used are the secondary enemies. Controlling these factors will enhance the life of your floor.

Dust acts like sandpaper as it is tracked into the house and across the floor. One simple step you can take is to put small rugs at the entry and exit to the floor. These catch a lot of the dirt before it reaches your floor. The rugs should be taken outside and shaken to remove the dirt regularly. Sweeping the floor regularly is also necessary to catch any dirt that makes it past the little rugs.

Wood floors look like they should be mopped with lots of water to keep them clean. Nope. Use the minimum water you can and still clean the floor. Water makes wood swell and the grain rise, and that can cause the floor to buckle or become rough. Do not use ammonia or bleach on your floor as that eats away at the varnish covering the floor. By the same token, clean up pet accidents quickly so the urine does not do the same thing.

Sunlight can fade or bleach out the wood in your floor. We all like sunlight in our house, but be careful to protect the floor with area rugs where the sunlight is directly on it. By the same token, protect the floor from being scuffed by furniture as chairs move back and forth, tables are used, and other things move. You can get little coasters that fit under the legs of the furniture to protect your floor.

Sometimes, bad things happen to good floors. Having a professional strip the floor by sanding it down a bit, then reapplying the varnish layer, can make the floor look like new. During this process, you may find a board or boards that need to be replaced. Good Millwork can take your board, or the measurements from it, and mill a replacement board for your floor. Give us a call to discuss your replacement board needs today.

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 2 comments }

Replacement Windows for Historic Buildings

by stephaniesuesansmith on March 30, 2011

in Historic Restoration

Renovating or restoring a house is hard work. Trying to maintain the essential character of a house, especially if it is a historic property, can be difficult. One area that is often overlooked is the windows.

It is not enough to match the number of panes and the general size of the window. Modern windows have different dimensions for many of the important parts of the window than older windows have. Putting a modern window in a historic home is like putting lipstick on a pig. It wastes the lipstick and ticks off the pig.

The City of West Palm Beach has an excellent discussion of why repairing your windows is better than putting new windows in. In fact, if you have a property in the Historic District of that town, you cannot replace your windows until the City does an assessment and determines they cannot be repaired. Most of the time, they order the windows repaired, not replaced.

Most of the time, individual wooden parts of the window that are damaged or rotted can be duplicated by a millwork company such as Good Millwork. In fact, if you give us the original piece, we can duplicate it exactly and you can retain the proper dimensions of the window. If a piece is missing, send a photograph and we can work with you to come up with something that maintains the character of the building. We help people restore their buildings every day by fabricating replacement parts for historic properties. Give us a call and let us help you today.

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 3 comments }

Wood Siding Versus Vinyl Siding

by stephaniesuesansmith on March 28, 2011

in Home Improvement

“Never paint your house again” the ads scream. They tell you that if you put vinyl siding on your house you will never have to paint it again. Sounds good, but wood is better. Here are some reasons why.

Deadhead sinker cypress is rot resistant, strong, and develops a nice patina as it ages. Wood breathes, letting the moisture that comes with humid climates out so it does not build up. Bugs do not like to chew on cypress, either.

TimberSil, a pine/silicon meld, is guaranteed to be rot resistant for at least 40 years. It, too, looks nice and is strong, fire resistant, and bug resistant. A house clad in TimberSil can breathe just as a house clad in cypress can.

Vinyl siding, on the other hand, has problems. Wile it does not need painting and does come in a number of colors, it was not designed to be the primary siding on a house. It was designed to be installed over an existing water tight siding. When installed as the primary wall siding, costly damage can occur.

Because vinyl expands and contracts with temperature fluctuations, it cannot be caulked and sealed like wood. In other words, it leaks. The underlayer is supposed to stop the water but it has been punctured with the nails holding the siding on. This can lead to water getting trapped in places and causing mold and rot problems.

Vinyl also squeaks and creaks in the wind. This is because there has to be some allowance for movement when the vinyl is installed, so it has room to move in the wind. Finally, if your lawnmower throws a rock and hits a vinyl panel, it may break. Then the whole panel must be replaced.

As you can see, vinyl has some significant problems those TV announcers do not tell you about. In contrast, wood is good for at least forty years, looks nice, and is more environmentally friendly than vinyl. Why not call us today for a quote on siding for your home?

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 5 comments }

Everything but the Squeal

by stephaniesuesansmith on March 25, 2011

in General

Timber operations used to be terribly wasteful and leave behind stripped tracts with debris and stumps sticking out that would not support much of anything. In some places, that kind of strip logging, or clear cutting, still happens. In most places in North America, at least, both the pressure from environmentalists and the economic contingencies make that much rarer these days. Sustainable harvesting of timber, which is done with minimal waste or damage to the ecosystem, is the most common practice today.

Good Millwork buys timber that has been sustainably harvested, is recycled, or both. We do not knowingly buy timber that is from clear cut, slash and burn outfits. In fact, one of our signature products, deadhead sinker cypress, is the ultimate in recycling. It was clear cut 150 years ago, then lost in rivers and canals until it was pulled out, dried out, and milled into beautiful lumber.

Country people say they use everything from the pig but the squeal. Sustainably harvested wood is the same way. Small diameter trees that need to be cut to give other trees room to grow are pulped for paper or chipped for mulch. The tree branches off of larger trees are used the same way. Big trees are cut into lumber. The sawdust created during this is sold for use in horse stalls and other such things. Nice logs are sliced into veneer in a process that looks a lot like peeling an apple. Chips and scraps are used to create MDF boards. Everything is used to avoid wasting wood or wasting money. This is a lot different than it used to be.

Do some logging outfits make poor use of the world’s resources? Of course they do. There will always be some bad apples in any group. As a whole, however, sustainable harvesting is the rule, not the exception. Even if a person doesn’t see the need for such care from an environmental standpoint, they see the need for it from an economic one.

At Good Millwork, we make sure our new lumber is sustainably harvested. Our recycled lumber keeps wood out of the landfill and in use. We live here too, and we never forget it. Call us today to discuss ordering wood that is responsibly obtained as well as beautiful.

{ 2 comments }

Student Designed Larch Chapel

by stephaniesuesansmith on March 23, 2011

in Architecture

This beautiful larch chapel was designed and built by students of an Advanced Design/Build Studio at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture in Chicago. An ecumenical church co-operative in Boedigheim, Germany asked for the help of the students in designing a chapel where prayer and reflection would be welcome, but that also could serve as a rest stop for weary hikers and bicycle riders.
Students developed three designs, with the one chosen being the one the people in Germany, where the chapel is located, liked the most. Boedigheim, Germany, is where the chapel is located. They donated the larch from their municipal forests to build the chapel. They also gave permits to build it after the students turned in drawings that met German construction standards.

The entire wooden structure was cut on a CNC machine according to the student’s drawings. The receiving slots in the four main columns of the tower for the louvers were subsequently hand routed. Not a single plank was sawn on site. The students developed the drawings in various CAD programs and produced the individual components with hand tools and computer-assisted machinery. Then they shipped their giant jigsaw puzzle to the site.

With the help of the townspeople, the chapel was built in just 8 weeks. Over 400 people attended the dedication ceremony. Although the chapel is visible from the road, the only way to reach it is to hike or ride a bike.

Good Millwork can mill and cut your lumber for your giant jigsaw puzzle, too. All you have to do is call and tell us what you need, and we will make it. Call us today.
Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 5 comments }

Jointer versus Carpenter

by stephaniesuesansmith on March 21, 2011

in Historic Restoration

Before the Black Death, or plague, Europe was divided into rigid guilds of craftsman. Because there were more people wanting to work than their was work for craftsman, territory was rigidly marked out. There was no such thing as vertical product integration, where one shop did everything to produce a product. This was true even for woodworkers.

You may wonder how a woodworker can be restricted in their work. First, the lumber was felled and cut into planks by lumber jacks. It was purchased from these men by the woodworker. The lumber was rough, so it had to be planed to size and smoothed before use.

The glue needed to make things was hide glue. Usually, fish hide glue was used for intarsia or inlay, while ox hide glue was used for general purposes. The hides had to be purchased, and often the glue was made by a glue maker. Any metal had to be made by a blacksmith, for only a blacksmith was allowed to do that. Everything was made by certain people who held a monopoly on the right to make that item.

The other division was by the type of item being made. Carpenters did buildings. They were not permitted to make mortise and tenon joints. Those joints were used in furniture, cabinets, and other inside things. Only jointers could make them.

Thus you had the rough equivalent of framing carpenters and finish carpenters early on. The Plague changed some of that, as there simply were not enough skilled craftsmen left to do all that was needed. None the less, things remained rigidly divided for centuries afterward.

Fortunately for our customers, Good Millwork can do both the milling of lumber and the cutting of mortise and tenons for cabinets and other items. You have only to call or email us and we will get right to work on providing you with all your wood needs.

Have Questions? Contact us or call (888) 209-9307

{ 7 comments }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

Good Millwork

Making Architectural Moldings

Ocean Front Building? Think Wood

The Components of a Cabinet Door

Restoring a Wood Floor

Care and Feeding of Your Wood Floor

Replacement Windows for Historic Buildings

Wood Siding Versus Vinyl Siding

Everything but the Squeal

Student Designed Larch Chapel

Jointer versus Carpenter

Items of Interest

Moldings

Good Millwork In 100 Words

Search

Most Popular

Follow on Twitter

Categories