Most orders are
shipped by common carrier and are packaged in a plywood crate.
IS THERE ANY ASSEMBLY REQUIRED, OR IS IT FULLY
ASSEMBLED?
Mantles, wainscoting,
bookcases, etc. are shipped as shop assembleditems as
opposed to Ready to assemble (RTA), or items billed as
some assembly required. RTA or similar items often appear to be
a bargain at first (this is known to be the “hook” is sales terms”),
until the back end charges for site work are added in. Products that
are designed for site assembly usually incorporate compromises in
order to avoid special equipment and labor intensive assembly
techniques associated with real wood joinery executed by experienced
craftsmen.
Installation instructions are available for viewing
on the website.
Use the guidelines on
the
mantle order form. If you have any
questions, please call, and we will let you know what to measure and
happily fill in the order form for you. We always send a shop
drawing after the order is placed before any parts are cut to ensure
we have it right before we start building your mantle.
For wainscoting, you
can fax or e-mail a simple hand drawn sketch with you measurements.
This is more than enough for pricing. After your order is placed, we
will provide a detailed shop drawing that is very easy to
understand. As with mantles, we will not cut any parts until we are
sure that we have everything correct, and we have answered all of
your questions. The
wainscoting order form
is available on the website.
Moldings can be
shipped in any length from 4’ through 16’. Crown moldings are
generally run and kept in 14’, 15’, and 16’ lengths to avoid
unnecessary seams. All moldings are available in specific lengths
for a small charge. For items such as crown moldings or door and
window casings, this is recommended to reduce the waste factor and
usually proves to be a more economical approach.
Most of our paint grade material is
Poplar (occasionally Basswood). We use kiln-dried, defect free
material and we consider to be paint grade because of the species
used. Poplar and Basswood are smooth, tight grained hardwoods that
take a paint finish nicely, but do not stain well because of the
grain characteristics or the background color. In the case of
Poplar, the color of the wood may go from green to almost purple.
You may have seen Poplar or Basswood products billed as stain grade
and they are generally the same grade of wood that we use for paint
grade that has been sanded with a finer grit paper necessary for a
stained finish (we consider this to be another variation of the
"hook" and we have never seen these species stained and finished
under job-site conditions with satisfactory results. Furniture
companies will sometimes use these species for stain and are able to
get acceptable results with the use of shading lacquers which
contain VOC's and should be sprayed under controlled conditions.
This technique is never used in the "top of the line" furniture, as
it does result in a slightly point-like appearance.
