When it comes to enhancing the curb appeal of your home, few elements make a more significant impact than premium exterior wood flat panel shutters. These elegant and timeless additions not only protect your windows but also add a touch of sophistication and character to your property. In this guide, we'll delve into the world of premium exterior wood flat panel shutters and discover how they can transform your home into a true masterpiece.
Unmatched Elegance: Premium exterior wood flat panel shutters are the epitome of timeless elegance. Crafted from high-quality wood, they exude a warm and inviting atmosphere that can turn any house into a home. Whether your property boasts a traditional, colonial, or contemporary design, these shutters seamlessly blend with various architectural styles, offering unmatched versatility.
Durability That Lasts a Lifetime: Investing in premium wood shutters means investing in durability. Unlike their synthetic counterparts, wooden shutters are designed to stand the test of time. They can withstand harsh weather conditions, including rain, snow, and intense sunlight, without losing their charm or integrity. This longevity not only enhances your home's aesthetic but also reduces maintenance costs in the long run.
Customization Galore: One of the most significant advantages of premium wood shutters is their customizability. These shutters can be tailored to match your home's unique style and color scheme. Whether you prefer a natural wood finish, a striking paint color, or a specific size, the possibilities are virtually endless. This level of personalization allows you to create a truly one-of-a-kind look for your home.
Energy Efficiency: Wooden shutters offer more than just visual appeal. They also contribute to your home's energy efficiency. When closed, they act as an additional layer of insulation, helping to regulate the indoor temperature. This not only reduces your energy bills but also minimizes your carbon footprint.
Low Maintenance: Maintaining premium wood shutters is surprisingly easy. A simple regular cleaning routine is all that's needed to keep them looking their best. Occasional refinishing might be required to maintain their luster, but this is a small price to pay for their longevity and enduring beauty.
Increased Property Value: By enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your home and providing practical benefits, premium wood shutters can increase your property's value. Potential buyers often place a premium on homes with well-maintained, high-quality shutters, making them a wise investment for both short-term enjoyment and long-term resale value.
Elevate Your Outdoor Space with Estate Millwork's Flat Panel Outside Shutters
Discover the epitome of durability and craftsmanship with Estate Millwork's meticulously crafted Flat Panel Outside Shutters, designed to brave the most challenging outdoor conditions. Crafted from premium Spanish Cedar, Cypress, or Mahogany, our shutters boast innate resistance to moisture, fungi, and insects, ensuring they withstand the elements for years to come.
At Estate Millwork, we prioritize excellence in every detail. We meticulously hand-select each board from the highest quality lumber, guaranteeing superior performance and aesthetic appeal. Unlike our competitors, we operate as a fully integrated vertical operation, overseeing every aspect of production from timberland management to the final finishing touches. Our state-of-the-art facilities include a green sawmill, dry kilns, and a dedicated finish mill, complemented by skilled craftsmen in our CNC department and hand assembly teams.
This vertical integration empowers us to maintain strict quality control, ensuring that every shutter meets our exacting standards. It also enables us to offer competitive pricing without compromising on quality. When you choose Estate Millwork, you're investing in more than just shutters – you're investing in unparalleled craftsmanship and long-lasting value for your outdoor space.
Uncompromising Craftsmanship: Our Shutters Engineered to Brave the Elements
At Estate Millwork, we adhere to traditional craftsmanship techniques to ensure the utmost quality in every shutter we produce. Each board undergoes meticulous hand jointing, a labor-intensive process that eliminates the need for lamination, staves, or finger joints. This method not only results in solid wooden shutters but also mitigates stress-related issues that may arise over time. Even as we employ advanced technology in our operations, such as our highly automated finish mill, the human touch remains paramount.
Once hand jointing is complete, our lumber enters our cutting-edge finish mill, which is customized to your specifications when you place an order on our website. This innovative system swiftly and accurately transforms rough lumber into precisely sized components for your custom shutter. By automating many aspects of customization, we're able to offer fully tailored shutters at a competitive price point, without compromising on quality or craftsmanship. Experience the perfect blend of tradition and innovation with Estate Millwork.
Unparalleled Customization: Tailoring Every Detail to Your Specifications
At Estate Millwork, we pride ourselves on the extensive customization options we offer for our shutters. Our commitment to quality begins with the meticulous hand jointing of every board in every shutter, a labor-intensive process that ensures the integrity of each piece. By eschewing lamination, staves, or finger joints, we create solid wooden shutters that are resilient and free from stress-related quality issues.
Hand jointing serves as a crucial step in our production process, alleviating the inherent stress placed on wood during drying, even within our carefully controlled dry kilns. Once hand jointing is complete, our premium lumber moves to our state-of-the-art finish mill. Remarkably, this highly automated facility is programmed according to your preferences when you place an order on our website.
By harnessing cutting-edge technology, our finish mill seamlessly converts rough lumber into precisely tailored components for your custom shutter. This level of automation not only streamlines the manufacturing process but also allows us to offer fully customized shutters at an exceptional value. At Estate Millwork, we empower you to create the perfect shutter for your space, with every detail meticulously crafted to your exact specifications.
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.
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.
Understanding Cypress: A Versatile and Durable Hardwood
Cypress, revered for its versatility and resilience, boasts a distinctive composition that distinguishes it within the realm of hardwoods. In its natural state, cypress exhibits a pale sapwood, which forms a minor fraction of the tree's composition. The heartwood of the Bald cypress, on the other hand, showcases a spectrum of hues ranging from a soft yellow-brown to a deep reddish-brown, occasionally presenting shades reminiscent of ebony. A general rule of thumb suggests that the darker the heartwood, the greater its resistance to decay—a testament to the wood's inherent durability.
Prized for its durability, stability, and innate resistance to water and rot, cypress wood finds its place in a plethora of construction endeavors. Whether for exterior applications such as boats, doors, shutters, or siding, or for interior uses like trim, architectural woodwork, doors, and flooring, cypress proves itself as a reliable and enduring choice.
Cypress hardwood, with its adaptable nature and distinctive aesthetics, is a sought-after species renowned for its longevity and unique character. Its warm, reddish-brown tones, complemented by intricate grain patterns, infuse spaces with rustic charm and timeless appeal. Particularly noteworthy is cypress's exceptional resistance to decay, rot, and insect damage, making it a preferred option for outdoor projects like decking, siding, and fencing, where exposure to the elements is a constant challenge.
While traditionally prominent in its native growth regions, cypress has transcended its geographical boundaries, finding favor in various applications across the United States, once dominated by cedar, redwood, and treated pine. As its versatility continues to be celebrated, cypress remains a steadfast choice for architects, builders, and artisans alike, promising enduring beauty and reliability in every project.
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
