Speaking Of Discount Centers…
Today was the second Saturday of the annual MBA Spring Tour Of Homes. It poured and drizzled rain all day so I was curious as to the attendance potential. We had about 30 visitors in all at the 3 open locations. Not too bad, considering.
One hot item we are showing is the option of having a 2 panel door instead of a 6 panel. This is nothing all that new. 4 years ago, I made sure our new model homes back then were going to show 2 panel doors. Back then, 2 panel were a newer thing. Back then, arch topped cabinets were just going “out” of vouge so I made sure the doors were also squared on the top panels. It has taken a while for this trend to catch on, but it seems like it is now here. Today when I was at our Jackson Spring Tour model home, it came to mind how popular this 2 panel idea has now become.
This Jackson home looks pretty complete in most ways, except it is missing 3 doors and the corresponding door frames. You see, door frames usually come WITH the doors attached and all is stained and finished. I have been waiting for the last 3 , 2 panel doors to arrive to this job. My supplier tells me he has tried to get these doors at several distributors, and they all seem to be experiencing a run on these doors. Today’s home buyer still sees a lot of the more common 6 panel doors. Funny thing, the 2 panel doors cost MORE than the 6 panel. The reason is because while it may appear cheaper to make 2 panels instead of 6, the 6 panels are made in such huge quantities and are so plentifully warehoused, the factories are seeming to take longer to re-tool and re-organize to change the emphasis to the 2 panel doors.
Another thing I run into all the time when it comes to selling the upgraded 6 panel doors is the seemingly informed consumer. The consumer is not the problem, the mega-home center phenomenon is the culprit. When we quote someone the current up-charge for a solid wood door, we find many times our client does not understand why our up-charge is more than the price of a new door at Menards or Home Depot. Today, you see 6 panel doors in newspaper flyer’s for these type of stores touting a low $99(more or less) per door price , and we are charging $125 or $135 for the seemingly same door.
We find this same situation occasionally in the area of lighting or plumbing or whirlpool tubs. Funny thing, on many other items , we usually find our prices often lower than those big stores. Let me try to generalize an explanation as to why SOME builder items MAY sometimes cost a little more than at the mega-discount home centers.
Let’s take the 6 panel pine door. The mega-stores usually use a common pine species of wood. Common pine can be troublesome to stain as it may look blotchy since stain unevenly absorbs into common pine. The grain of common pine doors is usually uneven and not especially attractive when compared to hardwoods like oak , maple, or cherry. The type of pine doors we use is a higher-end species of Riata pine. Riata pine takes a stain considerably better and has graining that is more attractive than common pine.
In the past, we have ordered doors from the mega-home centers. When we have had an issue of peeling veneer or splitting jambs occur well after the warranty period, the stores understandably will not cover the deficiencies. When we have issues with our supplier’s doors, they are usually quick to resolve the issues, even (in some cases) long after the warrenty period is over.
Remember, if you do see a door listed in a home center flyer, it is usually headlining the lowest price “starting from” kind of price. This is to say the smaller the door , such as a 24 inch door, the less the price. You need to also make sure the low cost doors are pre-finished since staining and varnishing the doors and jambs would cost anywhere from $25 to $35 per door if the door is raw wood. You need to also know that the price for the builder’s door usually is including the labor to install it and the cost of the door knob/lever and that hardware’s installation as well.
Lastly, you need to consider the color matching. Home centers do offer pre-finished doors. The problem is that if the finish of the doors do not match the general color of the rest of the surrounding woodwork, it may not be an easy fix. I will be first to admit, that a pine door , or veneered oak or maple door may never be an exact match for the solid wood trim in the home. This is the nature of wood species and of pre-finished products in general. Whenever I run into the client who is hyper-critical about having all the home’s trim match precisely, I point them to take another closer look at our model homes. Our models trim and doors do not precisely match. I will say however, they are usually pretty darn close .
Despite my efforts to make accurate representation of what a client may expect in this color-matching idea, we still get 1 out of 100 clients who becomes fixated on having all the home’s cabinets , doors, and trim match precisely. In these cases, I seriously doubt any home center would jump through the hoops and go the extra mile we need to try to make the client happy. Other than ripping out the home center’s doors and returning them with no easy color-match resolution in sight I can not imagine them doing what our door reps do to try to please the” unusual” demand.
In the end, we want to try to build the best quality home with the least potential for call-backs. Using a supplier who has a proven track record of working with your builder is well worth any little extra nickels you think you are saving in the short term. Building homes is a long-term endeavour.
I hope to see you all out at the Spring Tour this weekend (12 to 4) or this coming Monday or Thursday nights form 6 to 8. I will likely be in either the Milwaukee or Jackson locations.
Blessings,
Tom Hignite
