You're Not Getting Your Money Back: Investing in a Home Remodel

Everyone is so worried about resale!

Don’t be afraid to go bold. One of many bright, fun colors we offer.

Homes have turned into an investment vehicle first and a place to live second, and I think that’s malarkey. Let me explain. There are many factors contributing to the rise in this sentiment, but part of it comes from the remodeling industry itself. Kitchen and bath designers like to send client the “Cost Vs Value” report where pundits lay out what it costs for a kitchen remodel and what it does to your home’s resale value. You’ll see that a minor kitchen remodel with midrange finishes can recoup 82.4% in Denver, 94.3% in the mountains, and 96.1% elsewhere. It makes it easy to sell higher margin products and services like re-facing and refinishing. For a major kitchen remodel with luxury finishes, you’re talking about recouping 29.9% of your investment. You’d do far better off buying bonds or contributing to your retirement account!

But that’s only the case if you’re treating your home as a financial instrument. We don’t work with real estate investors for a reason: we build for our clients. We want to help our customers live better lives by making their homes beautiful and functional. If your first thought when making your remodeling design choices is resale value, I worry that you’re missing something crucial. Don’t neglect your own needs, passions, preferences, and lifestyle for some hypothetical future homebuyer’s bland tastes. Do you love the bright red high gloss? Let’s do it. There are a million greige and white boxes on the market if that’s what a future buyer wants.

In the luxury market especially, the first thing many new homebuyers do to a home is completely gut it. I couldn’t tell you how many really nice kitchens I’ve thrown in a dumpster or donated simply because they weren’t in line with the new buyer’s tastes. Many of these items, like a 48” subzero refrigerator for instance, are hard to re-home for several reasons. First, the kinds of homes that have room for such an extravagance don’t want a used appliance. It’s not worth any potential cleaning it may need and the risk of it failing prematurely. Then the people who want a used refrigerator and happen to have room for one are scared off by the potential repair and maintenance costs they may incur down the road. I can’t say that I blame them either. I regularly see luxury appliances worth $3-5,000 needing a $1,000 part. If the owner wants to make the investment, they still have a used appliance even after the repair. Many times these are either given away or hauled to the dump destined to be replaced by a $1,000 new appliance of inferior quality.

In short, if you want to make an investment, talk to a financial advisor. If you want a home that you’ll love raising your family in, call a contractor, designer, architect, or better yet just call us.

Cost Drivers #3: Wall Panel Details

The offices of Cole real estate investment -- photo from GL veneer website

A mainstay of contemporary modern interiors are these veneered wall panel details. To the uninitiated, these types of wall paneling seem straightforward. Simply attach plywood panels to the walls. To really pull off this detail in a way that looks correct though takes much more planning and precision than meets the eye.

Prep Work

The room either needs to be perfect or be made perfect. These types of panel walls were first popularized in commercial interiors where the floors are concrete and the ceilings are either tall and open or a drop ceiling treatment of some variety. In residential spaces, there is usually a lot more variation in floors and ceilings as wood substructures are more prone to movement and irregularity than steel and concrete. The floors and ceilings must be parallel, the inside and outside corners need to be parallel, and if there are any humps or bumps in the walls, they need to be corrected. Perfecting walls is a tedious, time-consuming task. I allow 2-4 hours per 16 foot x 8 foot wall section.

The Materials

Veneered wall panels are generally made from a composite core panel material like particle board or MDF which is then veneered with a thin layer of decorative wood. Each panel has to be balanced so that it remains perfectly flat. This means that the panels are veneered not only on the visible surface, but the back surface is veneered too with some type of balance veneer—usually either phenolic backer or an inexpensive wood like poplar or birch. When there is a difference in surface tension, an unbalanced panel tends to cup as moisture levels equalize.

It’s common to use factory-veneered panels that are mass-produced, but this type of veneered panel isn’t ideal for a number of reasons. First of all, factory veneered panels are veneered with a very thin layer of decorative wood. This layer is very easy to sand through during finishing, and over time if the panels are worn or damaged, it can’t really be refinished or repaired very easily. You’re also not going to generally get top grades of veneer laid up on mass-market sheet goods. The very best veneer is kept as veneer for the luxury market. For more information on veneer panel grades, States Industries has a nice write-up on their web site.

The highest grade of veneered wall panels are made from custom lay-ups of veneer that are stitched together, glued and pressed in a large industrial press. This type of veneer usually comes in thicknesses ranging from .023" - .038", substantially thicker than what you find on manufactured sheet goods. The standard veneer thickness in manufactured sheet goods used to be 1/42" (.024") for raw veneer, but many manufacturers are shipping panels that conform to international standards of .5mm (.0197"). These panels are sanded after lay-up, making the veneer even thinner that that before they leave the manufacturer.

The types of shops set up to do custom veneer work are generally very large operations with high overhead costs which are factored into their retail price. While custom panel companies are out there such as GL, they charge a substantial premium over what you would find at your local specialty lumber yard. Expect to pay on average 2-4x more than a premium mass-market sheet good.

It’s also important to consider the continuity of the veneer. High end installs are typically done with sequence-matched veneer, meaning that the flitch of veneer is laid up in the order it was cut from the log, creating a very consistent, natural appearance. The American Woodworking Institute has defined the layout standards for this kind of application in excruciating detail.

from AWI standards, ©2014 AWI | AWMAC | WI 2nd Edition, October 1, 2014

The problem with sequenced panels though is if someone makes a mistake and lays up something wrong, mis-cuts an outlet hole, or installs a panel upside down, it’s a very big problem. This adds risk and risk adds expense.

Installation

High end panel installations generally use all hidden-fasteners, so you won’t see any screw holes, nail holes, or other hardware. That means some precise layout, because you’re attaching mounting hardware both on the panel and on the wall that have to line up with zero adjustment. This is time-consuming and error-prone. To add another layer of complication, the panel seams need to be equally-spaced. Speaking of panel seams, do you want an even space that casts a shadow line in between the panels, or do you want a tight seam that blends in and disappears? To create a shadow line, it requires some edge treatment like edge banding (a strip of veneer applied to the edge of the panel). Of course the AWI has drawn up many of these details too for your reference.

The Frustration of Bidding Paneling

These types of details can be done perfectly, creating a beautiful feature that incorporates some luxury into your interior. However, if your millwork shop takes shortcuts, it won’t even look acceptable. Two adjacent panels slightly out of alignment look terrible. When panels are slightly out of level, they take on this stair-stepping look where the discrepancy grows from right to left, leaving unsightly gaps at the floor. The difference between doing a really nice veneered wall detail and simply attaching some veneered sheet goods to the walls is a night and day difference in cost. A contractor who simply wants to Liquid Nails sheets of plywood to the walls and brad nail the edges will under-bid me by a factor of 10 or more. Expect pricing to start in the $1,500-$2,500 per 4x8 sheet as a rule of thumb for a veneer panel wall, installed and go up from there for exotics or more complex layouts.

Anyways, I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions or would like a custom veneered panel wall of your own.

Cost-Drivers #2: Construction Estimating Shortcut: Using Multipliers / Factors

In a low-volatility market like lumber, it’s easier to track and calculate pricing data than many other industries. There’s a glut of good data out there to parse too, so why not take advantage of it? In q4 of 2023 I started focusing on building up our butcher block countertop division. There’s several different revenue streams that are marketed at different segments of the construction industry.

1. Homeowners: These clients want a turn-key product, so that’s material selection, finish selection, estimating, template, fabrication, sanding, profiling, sanding, finishing, delivery, installation, and warranty service.

2. DIYers and Other Carpenters: We can produce wholesale glue-ups for clients such as other cabinet shops, stair builders needing treads, designers wanting to use their own installers and finishers, millwork shops wanting door stiles and handrail blanks, turners wanting column or baluster blanks, etc.

3. Contractors: Builders wanting a one-stop-shop for any of the above.

Here’s an example that I use regularly to help calculate pricing on butcher block solid hardwood countertops. I do all of these calculations in Google Sheets.

1. Scrape all butcher block pricing from a company like Floor and Decor or Boos Blocks. You can do this with XML importing or simply copying and pasting.

2. Calculate square foot pricing, board foot pricing, delivery cost, and make note of details like the cut of the lumber and if it’s a continuous strip lamination or finger-jointed, how thick the laminations are, and if it comes sanded and finished.

3. Sort all of this data. Divide the total square footage by the total slab price, then sort unit prices low to high. Divide each unit price by the lowest unit price to yield a multiplier. This number should be a number between 1 and 3, where 1 is your cheapest lumber and 3 is your most expensive.

4. From there, If I know my base cost, I can simply multiply by that factor to estimate a unit cost in a different species, as long as it’s in my spreadsheet. For instance, if I estimate something in Beech, I know that is would be roughly 2.5-3x that price in Walnut. Now instead of pricing all of these products in all of these woods, just update everything quarterly and multiply as needed. Don’t forget to add real pricing for each item as it’s purchased so you can check your math.

The beauty of this method is for ballpark pricing even something like trim, take the unit cost in a known species and multiply to show the different price points available. Prices still fluctuate, but not enough to not be captured by your margin. I hope this helps.

Cost-Drivers #1: Custom Mudroom

“This is what I want!” holding photo from Architectural Digest

I’m often sent example projects early in the design phase of a project that illustrate the design direction a client wants to pursue for their project. These are helpful, but there are caveats. The projects that you see in magazines, on web sites like Pinterest or Instagram, and in luxury homes incorporate features that add significant expense.

If you want those features and they are intended to be part of your design goals, then great, we can make that happen for you. However, if you just like the layout or the color for instance and don’t necessarily care about some of the premium features, then estimating from a photo like this can leave you with sticker shock.

Let’s look at a few examples:

This mudroom cabinetry above is beautiful. It would be costly to emulate because of a few features:

• Full inset construction

  • This style of cabinetry requires extra precision to do well. The spaces around the doors all need to be exactly consistent or they stick out like a sore thumb.

• Miter-folded outside corners.

  • See where the exposed end panels turn the corner back toward the wall? These seams have to be cut at an angle like a piece of baseboard so that they wrap evenly around the corner without a seam.

• Funiture Base

  • See how the baseboard around the drawer unit sits proud of the cabinet like baseboard? This complicates installation and requires more costly material over a recessed toe-kick

• Drawers

  • The average cost addition of a drawer box is around $150 per drawer. If these were doors or even open cubbies, it would reduce the overall cost of the project. This project has 4 drawers, which add up fast.

• Finished Panel Ends

  • This features looks great, but rather than a flat end panel, this requires making 3 additional doors and 2 additional face frames, then fitting those doors within those tight margins. It adds additional material cost and labor

• Tall Doors

  • When we build doors over about 40” in height, it adds additional expense. For instance, here the doors need a mid-rail (horizontal cross-piece), which means we’re now fitting 2 center panels instead of one. The doors also require an additional hinge or sometimes even two to bear the weight. This adds additional hardware expense, but more importantly it adds labor.

  • The lumber used to build tall doors has to be even more perfect than standard door-grade hardwood lumber. This means culling additional material to select the straightest boards without the ability to cut around defects like we can in shorter doors

  • Additionally, if the cabinetmaker orders doors from a door company (very common), the door company may not warranty doors this tall.

• Dark Color Paint Job

  • While all cabinet-grade paint jobs requires a lot more labor than clear finishes, a dark colored finish is especially challenging. This color shows every detail, making the finishing process more challenging.

  • Many shops charge a premium for dark painted finishes like this.

• Flush Top Trim

  • When a project calls for top trim or crown tight to the ceiling, it requires additional planning and time during installation.

  • Here, the designer has to account for the added precision in overall height. Since these cabinets are inset, there’s no “faking it” with fillers. They either fit or they must be rebuilt. This adds risk and risk adds expense.

Value Engineering.

Value engineering is an integral part of what we do during our pre-construction process. If you sent me this mudroom as an example of what you want, but only actually want blue cabinets with enclosed cubbies, you’re going to get sticker shock. In many cases, I can create a project to fit your budget that also delivers the features that matter to you. When I ask for a budget, I’m not trying to squeeze every last dime out of you. Quite the opposite! I’m aiming to see how we can maximize the value we deliver. If you want finished interiors and an inset look on a budget, I’m going to sell you a melamine interior and a panel-wrapped full-overlay cabinet rather than a continuous inset face frame cabinet in maple and a Baltic Birch painted interior.

I hope this helps!

Wrapping Structural Ridge Beams: Thoughts on materials and approaches

With all of the “open concept” remodels being undertaken today on older homes, adding large structural beams has become increasingly popular. People love the unobstructed sight-lines they make possible, but the beams themselves aren’t the most attractive.

To address their aesthetics, a few common approaches are undertaken:

• Drywall Wrapping

  • The beam is wrapped on 3-sides in sheetrock. The bottom corners are capped in corner bead, and the ceiling joints are taped and floated.

  • Pros: This is your most cost-effective solution

  • Cons: It’s a messy process, creating tons of dust and requiring finished spaces to be meticulously protected to prevent dust and overspray from priming and painting. All the finishing has to happen in place, meaning all of that mess is happening inside your home.

• Urethane Foam Faux Beams

  • If you can find and off-the-shelf solution to fit around your beam, this is a great option.

  • Pros: Less costly than solid hardwood. Less labor to install; they’re light enough to be installed by 2 people off of ladders only (no scaffolding required). They’re also pre-finished, so no mess and minimal down time.

  • Cons: ore expensive than some finishes due to freight (over length for common carrier delivery). The lengths are limited and seams can’t be easily sanded and touched up because they’re textured and finished in a factory with proprietary techniques. Also due to how they’re produced, long lengths will appear repetitive due to the molding process used, so for a 24’ span, you would see same pattern repeat 3 times and have 2 obvious seams to disguise.

• Composite Wood Panels

  • By using MDF composite panels, your carpenter can create a seamless, perfect beam of any length.

  • Pros: Relatively inexpensive materials. Won’t crack or warp with changes in temperature and humidity.

  • Cons: Labor-intensive to install. A sheet of MDF 3/4” thick weighs about 80 pounds. This requires scaffolding and 2+ workers to install safely.

• Composite Veneered Wood Panels

  • The same MDF panels mentioned above can be wrapped in a thin layer of wood veneer for aesthetic purposes.

  • Pros: More elegant appearance. More cost effective than solid wood (generally speaking), and more stable that solid wood

  • Cons: There will be seams which have to be addressed somehow. This could be done by adding an accent moulding. Sequence matched and/or reconstituted veneers in non-standard lengths (10’, 12’ +) make seams less noticeable, but they double or triple the price of the veneer. Often with the cost of veneering and fabrication, you might as well use solid material.

• Solid Wood Panels

  • The most popular choice in beam wraps is solid wood. They have a lot of advantages in this application

  • Pros: Can be distressed for a more visually interesting look. The seams can be staggered to make them much less noticeable and with sanding and toning, they can practically disappear. While the material costs may be higher, they can save on labor. Solid material can be lock-mitered also so that seams practically disappear, or they can be assembled on the ceiling to make installation simpler in some instances.

  • Cons: Cost. This is the most expensive wooden option. Since this is a natural material, it may warp, crack, or check over time, but this can be minimized with proper finishing, storage, and joinery methods.

I hope this is helpful. There are many good options out there for your beam wrapping needs and this isn’t even an exhaustive list, but these are the options we most commonly see in the Denver, Colorado area and are what our clients generally opt for.

The building code is not for you--it's for your community

As a cabinetmaker and installer I regularly run into a few building codes that people don’t want to follow, and I’m the last line of defense. Don’t ask a tradesperson to violate the building code. It’s trashy, first of all, but it’s also indicative of an overall adversarial relationship with society as a whole. Here’s one for example.

Q: “Why won’t you just cover my outlet?”

A: Because it has to be accessible. I cut it into my cabinetry and pull the box into the carcass with a spark ring if possible, or I have an electrician pull it into a box in the cabinet. I won’t just cover it for a few reasons:

1. outlets fail and can cause a fire in the future.

2. Something can work itself loose and it will leave one of my fellow tradespeople looking for the open circuit with the actual problem covered up.

3. It’s against the law and you should be ashamed of yourself for asking.

Q: “But we didn’t pull any permits on this job or they’re already closed out.” wink

A: You’re really missing the point here. The code isn’t for you, it’s for:

1. Firefighters to know that they’re entering a safe building.

2. Future homeowners shouldn’t have to disassemble the building to know that it was built in accordance with accepted minimum guidelines.

3. Future tradespeople should be able to troubleshoot, upgrade, and retrofit systems without having to work backwards first.

4. Your neighbors who don’t deserve to have their house burn down because you don’t respect the building code.

5. Children and guests who visit your home who are either not able to consent to enduring your poor judgement or not aware that they shouldn’t assume your house conforms to minimum requirements of habitability.

6. The code protects me! There is no insurance or contract clause that will shield me from liability in the event of negligence. I know better (not that it changes anything if I don’t) so I do better. I’m here to protect you from your ignorance.

What Drives the High Cost of Pocket Door Installation in Remodels?

Pocket doors can be expensive to install in existing construction for a few reasons:

1. Structural changes: Installing a pocket door requires altering the existing wall structure to accommodate the door pocket, which can involve significant changes to the framing, electrical, and plumbing systems. This can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, which can drive up the installation costs.

2. Customization: Pocket doors are often custom-made to fit the specific dimensions of the opening, and this customization can add to the overall cost of the door. Additionally, the hardware required to operate the door may also need to be customized to fit the space, which can also add to the cost. There are some great premium kits on the market, but anything off-the-shelf needs to work with standard sizes.

3. Skilled labor: Installing a pocket door requires specialized skills and tools that not all contractors may possess. Contractors who specialize in installing pocket doors may charge higher rates for their services, which can contribute to the overall expense of the installation.

4. Wall finish: Installing a pocket door often requires removing and replacing the wall finish, such as drywall or plaster, which can add to the overall cost of the installation.

5. Surface Protection and Isolation: working in an occupied space in particular comes with its own set of challenges. Since pocket doors are most commonly installed in smaller homes, even having room to work on the project can be a challenge. Removing drywall is one of the messiest processes in demolition and this is always a part of the pocket door retrofit process.

Overall, the cost of installing a pocket door in existing construction will depend on the specific circumstances of the project, including the complexity of the installation, the materials used, and the level of customization required. It is always recommended to consult with a qualified contractor to obtain an accurate estimate for the installation of a pocket door in an existing wall.

6 Tips for Making Your Mudroom More Functional

Mudrooms are often an overlooked area of the home, but they can be incredibly functional and useful spaces. Here are some tips for making mudrooms more functional and easy to use:

1. Maximize storage: Mudrooms are all about functionality and storage. Consider installing built-in cabinets, shelving, or cubbies for shoes, jackets, and other outdoor gear. Hooks or pegs on the wall can also provide additional storage options.

2. Include a bench or seating area: Having a comfortable place to sit while putting on shoes or taking them off can make the mudroom more functional and enjoyable to use. A bench with storage underneath can also provide an extra place to store items.

3. Choose durable materials: Mudrooms can get messy and dirty quickly, so it's important to choose materials that are easy to clean and durable. Consider using tile, vinyl, or concrete flooring, which can withstand heavy foot traffic and be easily cleaned.

4. Add lighting: Adequate lighting is essential in a mudroom, especially if it doesn't have any windows. Consider installing overhead lighting or adding lamps to brighten up the space.

5. Use color to your advantage: Mudrooms can be drab and uninspiring, so consider adding color to make the space more inviting. A bright coat of paint on the walls or colorful accessories can liven up the space and make it more welcoming.

6. Make it multi-functional: Depending on the size of your mudroom, consider making it a multi-functional space. You could include a laundry area, a pet washing station, or even a home office.

By following these tips, you can make your mudroom a more functional and enjoyable space that adds value to your home.

What does AI mean for the cabinet industry?

The internet is abuzz with discussions about newly-released innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the implications it could have for workers and industry. I haven’t seen anyone discussing these trends in the cabinet industry specifically yet, but don’t worry! The cabinet industry won’t be left unscathed by these innovative new technologies. Here are few observations and predictions:

Design Powered By AI

I used an AI program called StarryAI to design a few mudroom cabinet elevations using minimal prompting. I didn’t include any dimensions for instance, or any guidance on layout, but wanted to see what the program could put together for basic “inspiration” images comparable to renderings you’d see in a preliminary design packed. There are quirks. There are artifacts and aberrations. Overall though? They’re pretty good.

Most clients would never notice these inconsistencies. And compared with the time required to produce their traditional equivalents, they were a bargain. I see the interior design field transforming dramatically in the next five years. The first company to market with a full-stack AI-enabled CAD/CAM package for the cabinet industry wins.

Other Areas

I suspect a lot of customer service will be handed over to AI soon; much of it already has! E-mail, texting, some calls, and online chat are all great places to plug AI into your workflow. These tools could generate blog content, web site descriptions, parse contact form entries, answer frequently-asked questions with a bit of training, and eventually even weigh in on upcoming business trends.

Final Thoughts

Hands-on work by skilled artisans isn’t going anywhere. We already use CNC machinery, CAD, and other CAM solutions right now to get our work done. Installing will always be done by humans more than likely.

Now are these changes going to be net positives or negatives? That remains to be determined. Largely that’s going to depend on how our business community and government leaders decide to adapt to the changing nature of work. Based on how we’ve managed climate change, the housing crisis, industrialization, and globalization I’m not very optimistic, but I would love to be wrong!

New Baseboard in an Older House: A few things to consider

When it’s time to upgrade the baseboard trim in your historic home, there are a few things that often come up that aren’t generally an issue in newer construction. Here are few things that I always like to check:

• Plan for Plaster Damage.

  • While we always try our best to avoid damaging plaster walls, it’s somewhat inevitable in an older home that something will be damaged when baseboards are removed. There are things that can be done to minimize damage such as using a “trim puller” pry bar and using a wide board behind your pry bar to pull against, but some amount of spalling and cracking is inevitable so plan accordingly!

• Have you floors been refinished? There will be a ridge.

  • If your floors have ever been sanded down with the base trim in place, there will be a ridge around the perimeter of the room where the baseboard sat. It may even extend under a shoe moulding if it wasn’t removed (it should always be removed prior to refinishing FYI). This may mean additional labor or make shoe moulding a requirement.

• Your base trim is likely two pieces!

  • What looks like a single tall baseboard is often just a cap over a more generic base with a tapered top profile. What I often suggest to homeowners is if their base cap is custom, have that custom made and use a stock baseboard that’s “close” even if not an exact match. This doesn’t really draw the eye and saves a lot on knife grinding charges which are generally billed by the inch (around $50 an inch is standard).

• Baseboard Outlets.

  • A lot of older homes have single gang outlets mounted sideways in the baseboards. Sometimes these have been upgraded to modern romex cable, but often I find original knob and tube or cloth-wrapped wire in these boxes. It’s wise to upgrade at this time, both your wire type and to a modern grounded receptacle. If you don’t have baseboard outlets, now would be a great time to add them! Avoid the expense of trenching through your plaster in the future.

• Heat registers and return air.

  • If you have baseboard-mounted heat registers, now could be the time to upgrade them. You can often get by with a smaller register that will integrate better with your baseboard. If you want to add registers to your home, this is also the time to do it. Many old furnaces required substantially more return air than modern systems too, so you may be able to eliminate some return air vents or at least down-size them. If you have drop-in floor grates, you can have you carpenter build and install flush wooden floor registers that can be sanded and refinished along with you floors.

• Planning to make any changes to your doors or door trim? Now is the time.

  • Baseboard runs into your door casing, so these should really be done first to avoid any re-work.

• Reuse what you can!

  • Many old baseboards can be reused. Drive the nails out through the face of the board to save as much as you can. They may look a little rough with chipped paint and such, but you’d be surprised what a fresh coat of paint can do. Even badly cupped boards can be used if you keep cuts sequential, meaning if you cut outside miters from the same board, one beside the other, the cups will actually match up. Inside corners need to be coped anyhow, so a skilled carpenter can simply scribe the cup into the cope.

Anyhow, I hope this helps.

As always, we take pride in helping our community to maintain its cultural heritage.

Reach out with any questions and I’ll do my best to help.

—Nate Cougill, owner

New Shop Space!

Big things are happening over here, and I’m extremely grateful to all of you who helped make this possible. We’ve quadrupled our workshop space this month and are set up to finally bring all of our manufacturing operations off-site and in-house. What does this mean for our clients?

• Shop-building as much of our work as possible to decrease the time we spend on-site in our customers’ homes.

• Increased capacity to take on larger projects. We can now build (and store) much larger projects that we could previously. Now we’re equipped to take on things like an entire kitchen for instance.

• Expanded milling capabilities. We have a moulder that is capable of cutting profiled trim up to 7” wide, both straight and curved parts. While it’s not a machine suitable for high volume milling, it’s more than adequate for milling entire houses worth of trim. This will be especially helpful for our historic home clients.

• More veneering capabilities. We are starting to offer more veneer work using vacuum bag clamping. We are shop sawing thick hardwood veneers on our resawing bandsaw as well as laying up commercial veneers where applicable. For our clients this means better grain-matching, higher quality veneered faces, thick veneer countertops in species where solid isn’t cost-effective (white oak, walnut, exotics), and potentially taking on exterior entry doors using stave core construction.

Check out this wainscoting paneling we built in the shop and delivered in 4 parts! 2 days on-site counting finishing and installation.:

"An' it harm none, do as ye wilt": Our promise of tolerance, love, and mutual respect

To our customers, in the spirit of tolerance:

The construction industry has a bit of a reputation for bigotry and what can I say other than the construction industry has earned it. And then some. This is just to say that we operate under the ethos of Live & Let Live. There is no place for intolerance on our projects or in our communities. I don’t care if you’re a master at your trade. I don’t care if you’re our biggest supplier. I don’t care if you’re our largest contract in our company’s history. Get on board or get lost.

We create interior woodwork for our clients’ homes that supports their chosen lifestyles and pursuits, whatever those may be. We work for all types of people, from deeply religious families of 12 to atheist retirees, from Latinx lesbians to newlyweds in their starter home. I’ve hung church doors, built puritan-style pulpits and pews, king size beds with a suspicious number of lashing points, and installed all the cabinetry for a dispensary or 3. I’ve built the offices of a real estate developer and a coat closet for an urban farmer. I’ve built indoor stalls for a dog training kennel and reproduction balusters for a 19th century mansion.

In short, we love this city and are proud to serve our clients and our community, whatever that looks like. We support your lifestyle whether it’s like ours or different or even hostile to our own. And while we’re guests in your home, we’ll respect your home, your views, and your boundaries.

Sincerely,

Nate Cougill, owner.

Accent Walls: 4 Great Options for Distinctive Walls

Looking to add some texture and style to your drab white walls? Sometimes an accent is the perfect solution. We offer several products we think you’ll love, ranging from contemporary to traditional.

3-D Panel Options

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Fretwork Panels

These unique panel products from Ekena Millwork add visual interest and texture to any room.

These decorative panels are new to the market and we’re the first company in Denver to offer them. Our Fretwork Panels are laser cut from 1/4” materials in a variety of finishes that can then be applied directly over drywall with minimal prep work. Paint to match or stain a natural wood panel for a unique style. Most profiles can be ordered in several different sizes, and there are literally hundreds of options to choose from! Check out all the product offerings at our vendor’s web site

Abstract Molded Panels

These abstract 3-D Textured panels add some sleek contemporary styling!

Made of a durable plastic, they can be used indoors our outdoors, in residential or commercial buildings.

Available in hundreds of options!

Vendor Catalogue

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Shiplap & Plank Options

Some would say it’s been overdone, but it’s no passing fad if you ask me. There are enough varieties of wooden shiplap and tongue and groove products to keep things interesting. We offer 2 main collections: Dakota Rustic and WindsorOne:

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The Dakota Rustic line of products is a pre-finished, weathered and distressed wooden plank product.

This collection was once a conceptual dream for two salesmen at Forrest Products Distributors in Rapid City, SD located in the beautiful Black Hills. Cody and Todd were looking for a product to take to market that would meet the needs of today’s growing popularity of building accent walls, rustic furniture and crafts. Countless hours were spent with the design and development stage to bring the product alive. They offer 9 different finishes.

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WindsorOne offers two main varieties of wall cladding, Tongue and Groove and Shiplap.

These products come pre-primed and both have two textures to choose from on each plank. T&G has a beaded side and a smooth side (see below). Shiplap has a smooth side and a rough side. All of these products are indoor/outdoor, and all are a stabilized pine product with finger joint composition (no knots or defects allowed).

Check out their product offerings here or see them in action at our Custom Laundry Room build

WindsorOne Tongue and Groove collection, beaded side and flat side on each size.

Wooden Block Walls

Add some warmth to your contemporary interior. We install these contemporary block mosaic panels that are guaranteed to add some “WOW” factor to your home. This one is in solid walnut and comes pre-finished to keep the mess to a minimum

But all of these products have one secret that sets them apart from the competition….

The best part about all of our accent wall offerings of course is that they’re all Proudly Made in the USA from domestic materials, so you can keep your carbon footprint modest and your decor BOLD.

Bookcase Doors: finer points of designing a hidden door

We were approached recently by a client who wanted to add a bookcase door under the enclosed stairway of their 1910’s Tudor Revival cottage. There was a substantial amount of inaccessible space underneath the stair after a closet had been walled off during a previous remodel. The build is still in progress, but I’m going over the finer points of the install here while the details are fresh with the intention of updating this post after drywall repair, paint, and a few other odds and ends after the holiday.

Preparing the Opening

To allow access from the entry wall where the bookcase door was intended to go, we had to do some fairly intensive demolition. There were load-bearing studs underneath the stair that were supporting the mid-stair landing and the subsequent string to the second story. We doubled up the trimmer studs on either side of the opening with new bottom plates with the point load bearing directly over floor joists. A double 2x6 header with a double hanger provided adequate load transfer to remove the studs in the way.

Now, we had a rough opening ready for a bookcase door, but there were still some obstacles. The clients wanted an out-swing door to maximize the already limited space inside the closet, and the door needed to clear a floor grate, the air intake for the furnace. For this reason, we opted for an inset double face-frame design which had a few major advantages:

• Strength: With the cabinet and its hardware bearing on two 3/4” maple face frames, we virtually eliminated any risk of racking in the front

• Function: by swinging out 2-1/4” over finished floor, we would miss the air intake entirely.

However, this did present a few additional challenges. Most pocket door kits are designed to mount directly to the floor or to hinge off of a 2x4 jamb using something like a Soss hinge. In this scenario, the wall was 3” thicker than the framing due to a prior remodel which added furring strips and drywall over the existing lath, horehair plaster, and original trim. There wasn’t room in the budget to rip it all out and start fresh, so we opted to keep the current wall depth and work around it. The best fix seemed to be adding 2”x2”x8” hardwood blocking to the back of the outer face frame. This created adequate bearing points for two heavy-duty pivot hinges. With this system, we could build the entire unit off-site and test/adjust hardware before enclosing the unit in a wall cavity. Work space in this home was tight already; building everything off-site was highly preferable.

The Finer Points of Bookcase Door Function

Racking

Many bookcase doors have fixed shelves because they provide additional support. This limits what the shelves can store though, so adjustable shelves are a better choice if possible. This does require a bit of planning though to keep the whole unit from sagging. A heavy duty face frame in hardwood glue and screwed ensures that the face of the unit won’t sag and distort over time. The back of the bookcase was rabbeted in, then glued and stapled. This provides additional resistance to racking and binding over time. Finally. the whole shelving unit was built from plywood to keep weight down to a minimum. Because of plywood’s high strength-to-weight ratio, the unit can hold more books without putting undue strain on the supporting structure.

Clearance

A bookcase door is a rectangular prism moving through a rectangle, so there has to be clearance on the strike side (the side opposite the hinges). This presents a few challenges with the design, since you’re hoping to maximize space, any wasted space should be minimized. When we face this same problem with swing doors in standard jambs, we bevel the door, usually about 3 degrees, to clear the jamb when swinging through the jamb. To accomplish this with bookcase doors, we oversize the face frame and undersize the bookcase so that there’s a gap on the strike side. In this case, the bookcase itself is 7-1/4” deep on a 3/4” face frame. That means I need the hypotenuse of the triangle formed by the jamb, carcass side, and pivot point to clear the jamb. I drew all this up in cad and pivoted it to see if it would work, then adjusted as needed. I’ve seen too many of these with awkward modifications to clear jambs and didn’t want to have to deal with that on-site.

Bearing

All of the hinge options out there for this are pushed to their limits swinging an over-loaded bookcase, so by managing the depth and using the heaviest-duty hardware available, you at least have a fighting chance. The obtain the same load rating in a Soss hinge as a pivot hinge, the cost would have doubled, not to mention the added labor of a complicated 2-step mortise required. I like InvisiDoor’s system that can be purchased through Custom Service Hardware.

initial install

The out-swing unit fitted and swinging

initial install, closed

The unit sitting with properly-spaced reveals, closed and flush

rough unit, prior to sanding

bookcase after initial assembly, prior to sanding and priming

site conditions

floor grate that predicated the inset strategy

site conditions

The site conditions after framing work with plaster and drywall cut back.

SketchUp Tutorials: drafting a radiator cover

Here’s a 30 minute tutorial I put together while drafting a radiator cover. It demonstrates some of the key features I use to design cabinetry and other millwork projects using SketchUp Pro 2021 from Trimble software (formerly a Google product).

Trifecta Plant Stand: free woodworking plans

Trying something new. Here’s a free set of plans for one of my woodworking designs. Get it touch if you build it! I’d love to see the outcome and would greatly appreciate the feedback as I’m planning to release many more similar projects in the coming months. I’m also planning to produce limited runs of several smaller household items so stay tuned…Plan Set (dropbox)

Who Used to Live in Your House?

Did you know that there are census records available for most Denver homes that were standing prior to 1940? These can be accessed through the Denver Public Library’s research portal.

1. Go to the Denver Public Library’s main page

2. Click on “research” at the top of the menu

3. Choose “Ancestry Library Edition” database

4. Log in with your library card number

5. Start your search!

Click to enlarge.

Here’s an example census from one of our projects. You can trace these individuals through multiple census years too and follow their life changes and such. Couple that with birth, death, marriage, and obituary records and you can start to get a sense for who these people really were. Cool, eh?

A Pair of Bookcases for a 1910's Denver Square

These basic bookshelves are meant to take a backseat to the homes original millwork. Even though they’re pretty simple, nailing the details here completed the look. Here are a few features that make these work:

• The width of the cabinets was adjusted to match the distance from the wall to the center mirror’s widest trim detail (the base moulding). The cabinets were built so that the face frames were flush the the inside of the cabinet, giving me an overhang on the wall side to fit to the wall. The house’s original base trim just barely fits in between the cabinet and the center mirror’s base plinths.

• The depth of the cabinets was set by the air return on the wall. It had to clear the trim with some space so it didn’t look crowded.

• The countertops were designed to just tuck under the window trim with extra overhang that I could fit to the adjacent walls.

• The face frame is mitered where it wraps around the cabinet so that the reveals would be equal.

• This pair of cabinets was built to a modest budget, from poplar and MDF.

Check out these finished photos after paint!

Flex moulding: Tips and Tricks

Radius millwork used to be a much more difficult proposition than it is now. It involved gluing up large pieces of hardwood in thin strips, layer by layer, around a form. The wood “springs back” slightly, so you have to build the form at a slightly tighter radius to account for it, and then that piece of wood has to be profiled. It’s an awesome product when it’s done well, but it’s extremely expensive and time consuming.

Today, we usually use a product called Flex Moulding, a urethane rubber trim product that’s cast in 10’ sections and installed like a piece of wooden trip. It sounds great, and it is in some ways, but it’s challenging to work with for a few reasons:

• It’s heavy! a 10’ section of a large-ish crown moulding weighs about 60 pounds. Now, imagine holding that over your head to fit it into position and nail in off.

• It’s a little unruly. Imagine now that that piece of moulding isn’t just a 60 pound dead load, but it moves more like a python. It’s floppy, droopy, and has “memory” meaning it wants to return to the position in which it was shipped. It ships coiled in a roll and stuffed in a box, so it constantly wants to curl.

• Temperature completely changes its working properties. It’s a urethane rubber, so when it’s cold it’s as hard as any hardwood. When it’s hot, it’s like a giant eraser. At room temperature it’s pliable, but difficult to maneuver.

• It’s not wood, so a wood glue doesn’t work very well.

• When it’s cut, the “dust” looks like a prop shop’s idea of shredded parmesan. It’s not biodegradable. It’s statically charged so it sticks to everything.

• It’s expensive. Like really expensive.

• When flex crown is pushed into place, it likes to roll up longitudinally and become slightly concave. It’s not noticeable until you try joining a seam. The joints like to gap at top or bottom 1-3 degrees.

When you’re working with this unruly stuff, there are a few tricks that I’ve found make it easier:

1. Add blocking before you begin. It’s heavy, so they added structure is good. Plus, this solves the aforementioned rolling issue.

2. Stick to stock profiles. If you can’t find your crown in flex off-the-shelf, lead times are crazy and cost doubles. Match your flat trim to your flex, not the other way around, if you must do custom.

3. When you’re cutting, use a vacuum dust extractor, and add a back-stop of easy mask plastic film. That static charge will grab any dust that the extractor misses.

4. Don’t use conventional wood glue. Use high-temperature hot glue or hi-pur. Don’t use regular nails to stitch your outside miters together; use 22 ga fine wire upholstery staples ideally, or 18 ga narrow crown staples can work. Set and bondo your crowns. You’ll need that grab. Back you outside miters with hot melt and dowels for added stability. For splices, I tried scarf joints with mixed success. I prefer butt joints with a #20 biscuit. Try to splice over your blocking. You can use pinch dogs to stretch the joint tight, but opt for wider pinch dogs if you have them.

5. Keep a heat gun around to warm up sections and get them to relax. This especially helps before joining a seam to prevent cracking if the material springs back.

6. Use crown moulding hooks to set flex crown. Fastcap makes some. Make some better ones from metal flat bar. You’ll need a helper or two to install this stuff.

7. Add adhesive behind your trim. For flat stock, PL works well. For sprung trim like crown, I had good luck using loctite spray foam adhesive applied after installation through a bore hole that I later fill.

8. Use Bondo automotive body filler on seams. Use spot and glazing putty on nail holes. It’s virtually inevitable. There will be heavy filling in some areas.

It’s a cool product! Two bonus tips:

• keep your off-cuts and cut sections of coves, ogees, rounds, etc. and use them as sanding blocks for future projects.

• For sanding your joints, make a custom sanding block by sticking blue tape to your face profile and adding a big glob of bondo on top with extra hardener. When it’s try, peel it off and stick sandpaper to it. Boom. Countoured sanding block.

Here are some radius crown moulding jobs I’ve worked on:

Handrails over winder treads

Handrails are always a bit of a challenge, but some of the quirks of winder treads in particular can present some challenges. This is especially true when the railing is more angular and contemporary. First, probably best to clarify a few terms in this jargon-heavy subject.

• Winder treads are a stacked triangular treads used to turn a corner when space is at a premium. They are a method of eliminating a landing while maintaining code-required rise and run distances. The rise and run are measured at the “walk line” on all stairs, but it becomes of particular significance on winder and circular stairs because the spacings are not compliant at all points on the stair.

• The Walk Line is the line that a person naturally travels while ascending or descending the stair and not trying to be cute about it. That’s 12” from the narrow side of a winder tread all the way up.

• The rake angle is the pitch of the stair, the angle at which the stairs rise in relation to the horizon. Most stair builders make a pitch block to assist them in laying out handrails, especially challenging ones.

• A blind tread butts into a wall. It may be a short wall at the rake angle that the balusters attach to, or it may be a full-height wall. An open tread or exposed tread ends in space, so the tread and riser ends are exposed, and in all but the crudest of executions, are capped with a skirt board and nosing returns so that no end grain is exposed.

I was helping a friend and fellow stair builder with a handrail that had winder treads in a challenging configuration. It was a 1-story ascent quarter turn stair with 3 winders, blind on one side, and exposed on the other. This was a remodel railing, and part of the job was converting the stair in two key ways. First, the carpeted treads were converted to false tread ends, meaning that the carpet would look more like a runner down the middle with stained treads ends and painted riser ends. It’s a common look in our region. In this case, the risers are mitered to the skirt board for a nice upgraded luxury look which further complicated matters. Second, it was originally an “over the post” railing, which runs continuously from start to finish using curved fittings. The railing is pegged to newels with dowels on their tops, and generally ends with a turn-out or volute. It’s a more traditional style of formal handrail that was popular when this house was built around the early 2000’s. The client wants this new rail built as a post-to-post handrail where the rail is fitted between newels with decorate caps on top. It’s a popular look currently, and a nod to earlier craftsman-style homes.

This is already looking like a complicated project, before you factor in that the winder section mid-way doesn’t turn at 90, but at 45, in keeping with the tradition of the 90’s-2000’s in Colorado of architects playing with the angle tool in AutoCAD to come across as more edgy. That takes a complicated stair and makes it fairly infuriating because it presents a few more issues:

• the skirt board is now a compound miter as it carries around that inside corner while also ascending and connecting 3 different rakes.

• The miter returned risers are connected to that infuriating central piece and all must be mitered at odd angles to the skirt.

• Add to this the further complication of winder treads being at a steep rake at the extreme ends.

A winder tread is especially tricky because while its rise remains constant, its run goes from really short, to really long to be standard rake at the walk line. That changes the rise and run ratio (the rake angle), which means a winder stair must have a really steep rake on the short side and a really shallow rake on the wide side. If you were to try to add a rail to winder treads open on both sides, imagine how wacky that handrail would look!

Here are a few process photos from the planning stages:

This steep angle isn’t too much of an issue until you start considering that stair fittings (goosenecks, upeasings, etc) are not designed for extreme rakes but for standard rakes, so that may not be an option. Newel cap projections don’t account for intersecting the rail at a steep angle, newel cap spacings that we’re used to seeing are closer to the top of handrail than a steep rake will allow (and still have hand clearance for grip). There should generally be a newel at each direction change, so now you’re mortising a tread around a newel at a funky angle. If you’re using a craftsman-style newel, you need the face mould (where the rail intersects the newel for our purposes here) to meet the newel at the spot everywhere, so good luck figuring that out in advance.

He and I worked it out eventually after much frustration. The end result was worth it I suppose. Will I ever do it again though? Not on your life! Want to see the finished product? Check out his company, Millcrafted Carpentry, on instagram for final photos!