Gedar windows and doors

Cedar has many different textures and a wide color spectrum, ranging from a white to a dark wood. We color select each component piece so there are no natural variations in the finished product."

"It's not a wide industry," he admitted. "Most doors are made out of Douglas fir or oak, often veneers. But for 25 years we've been manufacturing cedar doors that are solid wood. As time goes on, with the shortening of wood fiber, we may have to start looking at other things. But we're going to hold out as long as we can."

Although John Mathews, Dynamic

Story at a Glance

Custom cedar doors and windows are unique niche products western red vs. yellow cedar.

Windows & Doors Inc., Abbotsford, B.C., likes the look of cedar, he does not recommend western red cedar for doors or windows. "Western red cedar is very soft," he explained. "We want something sturdier for door and window packages, things that stand the test of time."

Dynamic specializes in custom wood windows and doors for highend builders, with a niche in yellow cedar (about 5Vo of their total production). Yellow cedar is an attractive pale wood, but unlike western red cedar is a very hard, durable wood. It's long lasting due to natural oils and it stains beautifully. Specialties include grand front entranceways with raised mouldings and inlay panels, and curved glass in any radius for both doors and windows.

The company started supplying cedar doors and windows for expensive log homes and post-and-beam dwellings in Whistler, B.C., ski resorts. Their market area soon stretched to Aspen, Co., due to skiers who saw the products in Whistler and wanted it for their homes. Many Southeast Asians who immigrated to the B.C. area also began demanding yellow cedar because it is similar to the rare Japanese species hannoki. And, naturally, Dynamic now sells yellow cedar directly to Japan.

There are few producers of yellow cedar doors and windows because availability of the wood is so limited. "Yellow cedar only grows in the Pacific Northwest from Northern Oregon up to the Yukon. and the Japanese tend to buy everything they can, in bulk and export it. So the mills tell niche players like us they don't have any. So what we can get, we mill ourselves," Mathews said.