Premium High Quality Sapele Louvered Exterior Wood Shutters
Exterior Wood Shutters from Premium Hardwoods
Estate Millwork crafts elegant exterior wood shutters using premium exterior hardwoods like Sapele and African Mahogany, Spaish Cedar, Western Red Cedar and Teak. Built to last using time tested joinery including solid rails and stiles, full tenons and authentic hardwood doweling through the tenons, our exterior wood shutters are also authentically beautiful. There is no substitution for real, solid exterior wood shutters -- vinyl and composites look cheap because they are cheap. Real wood means real reveals, real raised panels, character, charm and authenticity. Don't cheap out on your most important asset - your home.
Exterior Wood Shutter Styles
Use Estate Millwork's advanced shutter designer to explore the many styles and options available through our website. We manufacture beautiful flat panel shutters that are appropriate on Federal and Colonial style homes. Our raised panel shutters have solid wood panels raised with a rich profile and are appropriate on Georgian and traditional homes. If your home demands a louvered exterior wood shutter, we have many styles that feature deep seated louvers with a variety of louver profiles, spacing and pitch options.
Long Lasting Exterior Wood Shutters
Because we manufacture our exterior wood shutters using premium hardwoods which feature natural resistance to fungus, mould and insects, you can expect a long period of enjoyment from our custom shutters. In addition to the natural resistance to the elements our premium wood materials provide, we offer factory finishing that can include oil based wood primer, and two finish coats which seal the wood against the elements and insure that your beautiful custom exterior wood shutters will serve you years into the future.
Exterior Wood Shutters add Value to your Home
Because of the authentic lines and shapes that we build into our shutters, they will achieve an additional element of detail for your home's exterior elevations. Whether you live in a Mediterranean style home which demands Tuscan board and batten shutters, or a gorgeous southern Belle that calls for louvered exterior wood shutters, we have the product for you. You can greatly increase the curb appeal and charm of your home with the addition of perfectly sized, elegant wood shutters. Our products are used by the nations top custom home builders who know the value of the charm and authenticity that are provided by authentic exterior wood shutters.
Green Exterior Wood Shutter Manufacturing
Because our mill is highly automated, we achieve astonishing yields from the lumber we purchase. We optimize each board to give the maximum useful volume with the minimum of waste. We even burn our scraps to heat the plant and sell the millings and sawdust fines to local farmers for livestock bedding. Many of our products are made from the Appalachian forests that surround our mill, and for domestic species, we own our own timberland, deal with local sawmills and operate our own efficient kilns for maximum quality and the best possible price for our customers.
Solid Wood Mortise and Tenons
True Tenons
Our premium quality shutters are carefully constructed using a time consuming and precise operation. Whereas other lower quality shutters are made using screws, nails, dowels or biscuit joints, each of our exterior wooden shutters has a minimum of 4 hardwood tenons. The end of each rail is painstakingly machined to have a 1/2" X 1 7/8" tenon by a custom built tenoning machine that Estate Millwork developed so that we could continue to provide the best quality joinery in the industry, at an attractive price. We gave up the cost, but not the quality.
Deep Pocket Mortises
Each stile is precision machined with a minimum of two deep pocket mortises, and these mortises perfectly fit the associated tenon. Again, Estate Millwork has used precision automation to preserve the quality of our products, while reducing the cost. We have software that connects our website directly to the machines in the plant, and when a customer places an order with us, all of the precision programs for machining the mortises into the stiles are sent to the plant for automatic execution. The mortise tenon joint, is the strongest joint in millwork, and adds tremendous strength, even without the use of glue.
Hardwood Dowels
Once the tenon and mortise have been machined, the parts are put together and a hole is drilled through the mortise and the tenon. A slightly oversized hardwood dowel is driven into the hole, locking the tenon into the mortise for the life of the shutter. Even though glue is not required, Estate Millwork takes the added step of gluing the tenon into the mortise, and gluing the hardwood dowel into the stile.
Hand Assembly
In our commitment to preserving the best of quality millwork traditions in each wood shutter, we have automated much of the drudgery of some of the operations, but assembling a shutter is still something very much in the realm of craftsmanship. After all the parts of each wooden shutter are manufactured, one of our skilled craftsmen fits them together in a specialized jig for dry fitting and final assembly. We do not use pneumatic or hydraulic clamps as they can damage or over-stress the wood. The craftsman uses his innate feel for the materials to set the appropriate clamping pressure prior to drilling and doweling. Each wooden shutter receives the individual attention of craftsmen all along the way, but the final assembly is where the shutter comes together the first time, ready for years of service on your home.
Precision Crafted Louvered Shutters Using State of the Art CNC Machinery
Solid Louvers
Each louver in our louvered shutters is precision machined in a 5 head moulder that can be configured to mould any of our 3 standard production profiles, or custom profiles as specified by the customer. We offer 1/2" X 2 1/4", 3/8" X 1 3/4", and 1/4" X 1 1/4" bullnose profiles, but also have tooling for chevron, beveled, and other louver profiles. Whether the louvered shutter is to use fixed louver or operable louvers, we can even create custom tooling to match existing millwork, or to provide the ultimate in personalization and detailing.
True Louvered Shutter Mortises and Louver Mortises
Each louver in a fixed louvered shutter is seated in a 7/16" deep mortise in the shutter stile. Our CNC machining equipment be instantly programmed to program any variation of louver size, profile, pitch, and spacing, that gives us unlimited flexibility to match historic millwork, or to create custom louvered shutters to a precise specification in terms of louver count, rail placement, and air flow. In the same pass as the louver mortises are being created, our equipment also creates the larger mortises for each rail in the shutter. Unlike many custom shutter manufacturers today, Estate Millwork does not use cheap dowels, veneers, screws, or biscuits. Instead we use old fashioned mortise and tenon joints, even though they are considered by other custom shutter manufacturers as too expensive. Because we have invested heavily in automation, our cost to produce highly custom louvered shutters using solid materials and premium joinery is much lower than other manufacturers, hence: higher quality, lower price.
Solid Tenons
The tenons on both ends of each rail are engineered to give maximum stability to the louvered shutter frame, and when combined with our hardwood dowling, the shutter frame will stay together and be extremely stable, even without glue. But of course we use glue for added strength. For larger louvered shutters, we use a 10 inch baserail that has two tenons and a third feather tenon for additional strength that connects the two main tenons. These tenons are precision machined on a propriety tenon machine that Estate Millwork designed and custom built. Our sophisticated mortise and tenon joinery preserves 100% of the quality of traditional mortise and tenon joinery at a fraction of the cost.
Shutter Options
Thickness, Width, Height
The "slab dimensions" are the size of the actual exterior shutter from top to bottom, left to right, and the thickness. Our default standard thickness is 1 5/16", but that can be varied from 7/8" to 2 1/4" to match existing exterior shutters. The length and height can be specified to the nearest 1/16" inch. Depending upon the style of the shutter, we have made widths up to 20 feet wide, and heights up 30 feet.
Shutter Frame Dimensions
Because all of our exterior wooden shutters are custom built from true rail and stile construction, we have the ability to replicate any component dimension on existing shutters, including rail height, placement, width, thickness, and stile width and thickness. Typically, the bottom rail of our custom shutters is 4. high, and all other rails are 2 1/2" inches. Stile widths are usually 2 1/2" but we have the ability to make them of virtually any width, including different widths for left and right stiles -- sometimes used for pairs of shutters.
Custom Sticking
Out standard products are S4S, or square shoulder sticking, but we have the capability to mould any feasible profile to the inner or outer frame fields. Common choices are ogee, cove and bead, bevel, cove etc. In addition to our stock sticking profiles, we can also custom grind tooling to achieve any desired profile to either match historical wood shutters, or to meet an architects or home owner.s specifications and preferences.
Shiplapping and Beading
For operable shutters, or for decoration, our wood shutters can be machined with a bead on one face of the inside edge of the shutter, and with a ship lap on the other, allowing the shutters to overlap by 3/8" when they are in the closed position - permitting a tighter fit. The left and right shutters are machined as pairs so that in the closed position, each face of the pair has a decorative bead visible.
Panel Profiles
Our raised panel shutters can be raised with our standard scoop profile, but we offer bevels, coves, ogeees and other profiles as well. Additionally, for the extremely discriminating home owner or architect we can create new tooling to match existing historical panel profiles, or to meet with a unique custom requirement.
Louver Styles
Our louvered shutters can be fitted with either our standard bullnose louvers in 3 sizes, or with a chevron or bevel profile as options. And because we are a custom shutter maker, we can also accommodate any special profiles that are specified by the customer.
Cut Outs
Raised Panel and Flat Panel Shutters can have a limitless variety of decorative cut outs machined into the center of the panels. Common shapes are moons, anchors, trees, hearts and we have a large number of stock cut outs which we offer, as well as the ability to match custom patterns that are provided by the customer
Finishes
Estate Millwork can ship our custom wooden shutters in natural, primed, painted or stained finishes. We can match national brand color numbers, pre-tint primers for light or dark finishes, and apply hand rubbed stain finished, even to the time consuming louvered shutters.
Exquisite and Durable Sapele Hardwood: A Hidden Treasure
Sapele lumber, sourced from the sapele tree native to the tropical regions of West Africa, stands as a prized gem in the realm of fine woodworking. Renowned for its stunning appearance, remarkable durability, and versatile nature, sapele wood is cherished by woodworkers and builders alike for its myriad of applications.
Often hailed as the "African mahogany," sapele hardwood boasts a captivating palette ranging from rich reddish-brown to deep mahogany, acquiring a luxurious patina with age that enhances its innate elegance. Its distinctive ribbon-like grain patterns and lustrous finish add an air of sophistication to any project, captivating designers and craftsmen seeking to create visually striking pieces.
Beyond its aesthetic allure, sapele hardwood offers exceptional durability, withstanding wear, decay, and rot with ease. Whether utilized for interior or exterior projects, sapele's stability and strength ensure longevity and functionality for generations to come.
Highly workable and responsive to finishing techniques, sapele hardwood lends itself to a myriad of design possibilities. Whether applying a clear finish to accentuate its rich grain or opting for a darker stain to infuse depth and character, sapele adapts effortlessly to achieve desired aesthetics. From fine furniture and cabinetry to boat building and musical instruments, sapele hardwood proves its versatility time and again, cementing its status as a valuable asset in the world of woodworking and interior design.
Handcrafted with Sustainably Harvested Lumber
At Estate Millwork, we employ a meticulous process to ensure the quality and sustainability of our lumber. Our commitment begins with the careful air drying of much of our lumber, followed by further refinement in low wattage dehumidification kilns to achieve optimal moisture levels.
Every single piece of wood we acquire undergoes thorough utilization in our production processes. Leveraging advanced automated saws and optimization software, we achieve an exceptional yield ratio of 94 percent. This means that nearly all of the wood we purchase is transformed into usable products. The small remainder, comprising mainly sawdust and chips, is utilized efficiently: either utilized as fuel to power our operations, or repurposed by providing bedding and contributing to composting for local cattle farmers.
Our dedication to minimizing waste extends to the sourcing of our materials. A significant portion of the lumber we use hails from Amish farmers within our county. These farmers adhere to traditional practices, utilizing horses for harvesting and operating vintage 1920s sawmills. Such methods not only contribute to the preservation of heritage techniques but also entail lower environmental impact compared to modern industrial approaches.
Furthermore, our commitment to sustainability is evident in the sourcing of our imported lumber. We exclusively procure lumber from plantation-grown sources, thereby ensuring that our operations do not contribute to deforestation or the depletion of natural forests. By prioritizing responsible sourcing and efficient utilization, Estate Millwork strives to uphold environmental stewardship while delivering exceptional craftsmanship.
To learn more about our sustainability practices click here
