Moisture and dry-rot: two words that strike fear into any builder. You know the drill: a home without the proper envelope will get you callbacks quicker than anything else you do. Damage and problems cause by water infiltration aren’t going away. Thankfully, there are window and siding products that can help you control problems associated with moisture—assuming you’ve done the proper work installing housewrap and flashing.

Truitt and White not only offers you durable options, they also offer you and your customers peace of mind with two products: Advantage Plus siding from Kelleher and JELD-WEN Pozzi windows made with AuraLast.

Durable siding and trim
Advantage Plus is a sustainable and sturdy siding and trim product imported from New Zealand. It’s derived from radiata pine, a fast-growing softwood tree with a timber that is generally straight-grained. Early last year Truitt and White started stocking a selection of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified radiata pine siding and trim from Kelleher. The stability and consistency of this product has made it a top performer and a favorite with customers.

The EPA-approved wood’s preservative system for the pine, called BodyGuard, is an organic timber preservative, based on organic biocides like those used on food crops. BodyGuard is treated with an organic timber preservative based on three active ingredients: tebuconazole, propiconazole and permethrin. Though the three are used for wood protection applications, additional uses for the ingredients include treating foods, such as grapes, wheat, barley, oats, bananas, cherries, peaches, nectarines, peanuts, and coffee.

Benefits to using the radiata pine include a 20-year warranty, easy installation, and easy maintenance. Unlike wood they’ve used in the past, builders like the product since it’s free of defects and it gives them more consistency in size. It also takes most fasteners on the market, such as annular ringed, shanked nails manufactured from hot-dipped galvanized steel, stainless steel, or aluminum. Stay away from plain or electroplated steel nails or staples.

And, since it’s been treated with a two-coat priming system, it has a superior finish for painting. The quality of material and machining, finger joining and edge gluing along with the two-coat priming system gives it very little telegraphing of wood grain.

New options in windows
For years, builders who wanted to offer their customers exterior wood windows had to settle for products that were hard to maintain, couldn’t hold paint, were prone to moisture problems, and a host of other difficulties. Over the years, manufacturers have continued to refine and improve their window and door products. JELD-WEN Pozzi windows and patio doors has just taken the next big step forward with AuraLast wood. Manufactured from sustainable Western pine, AuraLast comes with an industry-first 20-year warranty against wood decay and termite infestation.

AuraLast is pressure treated with a water-based vacuum/pressure process. “It’s really high tech and very effective. The treatment process gives the wood great durability without getting the teeth marks you’d have in other types of pressure treated wood,” says Joel Trestrail of Truitt and White. “It’s dried out at a certain rate so the material stays stable; there’s no splitting and cracking,” he adds.

The environmentally friendly solution—a water-based chemical with a 96% reduction in volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions—penetrates the durable, high-performance wood. The wood isn’t just dipped or envelope treated either. “The beauty of this is if you cut it or screw it, it won’t compromise the integrity of the wood,” says Steve Brant, product marketing manager at JELD-WEN wood windows.

Looks
Whether doing a whole-house remodel, restoration or building a new home, builders and architects wanting a more traditional, historical look will find the new generation of Pozzi windows a perfect fit. As you well know, wood offers the ability to match historic settings or complement existing windows, which is hugely popular in the Bay Area. “Architects really love wood windows. It gives them design freedom,” says Steve. “I’ve always recommended Pozzi windows in the past,” says architect Bronwyn Barry of Urban Structures. “AuraLast now lets me offer Pozzi’s unique styles along with long-lasting durability to my clients. That’s huge,” she adds.

For cladding, Pozzi uses a combination of both extruded and roll-form. Extruded aluminum has a more rigid look, because of the way it’s manufactured. Roll form, on the other hand, is manufactured by rolling out a sheet of aluminum, then bending it like a piece of sheet metal.  Aluminum cladding is typically prefinished with a commercial grade, 70% Kyner 100, which resists fading and chalking.

The extruded frames include an integral nailing fin that offers faster and easier installation, more secure attachment, and improved performance and reliability.

If customers choose their windows unclad, they have the option of untreated wood or primed wood that can be painted. “Though the vast majority of our sales is in aluminum clad, AuraLast could change that to a 50/50 mix,” says Steve.

Pozzi offers 12 standard colors, 27 luxury colors, and the ability to color custom match. Over 80 colors are available on aluminum cladding, which gives users more options and designers more flexibility and opportunities to do something unique. For instance, on a recent remodel, Bronwyn mixed colors on the window units. “The sash was champagne, and the jamb charcoal, which gave the house a more interesting color palette,” she explains.

Besides aesthetics, there’s also the ever-important green angle. The AuraLast treatment isn’t a toxic solution. The solution used to impregnate the wood is recycled, making it a closed loop system, with minimal waste at the factory. The process is very environmentally friendly. “It’s a huge green benefit for me and my clients,” adds Bronwyn.

Both Kelleher Advantage Plus and JELD-WEN Pozzi continue to grow in product offerings and options providing better choices and more design flexibility. Ask the Truitt and White staff for more information on these two outstanding products that give your customers a durable, attractive exterior and you one less callback.

Copyright © 2004 Truitt & White, all rights reserved