The line on prefinishing

f UMBER retailers and wholeI-lsalers lookins to increase sales and margins increlasingly are turning to prefinished products.

According to factory finisher Cabot Stains, prefinishing provides everyone in the distribution chain with a competitive edge in quality and service. The manufacturer offers factory finishing in a wide range of colors with a five-year warranty for single-coat applications and a l5-year warranty for a two-coat job, which can be extended by an additional 15 years with a reapplication of the product in the field.

As construction costs continue to skyrocket, machine finishing can provide a beautiful way to economize. First, it virtually eliminates weather delays because application is a factory process that is done year round, and it eliminates the problem and expense of subcontractor scheduling.

Second, factory finishing can often be less expensive on a square foot basis than on-site application of finishes. There is less chance of on-site waste and loss.

Siding, decking and fencing can be factory finished in a wide variety of surface types, including cedar, redwood, cypress, hardboards, fiber cement and other manufactured siding materials.

The prefinished siding can be packaged and delivered when the builder and homeowner are ready for the material, fitting their scheduling requirements.

The quality ingredients in the paint/stain, combined with the factory application, result in a finish that offers maximum durability and protection against nature's harmful elements. Application of the finish under a controlled climate ensures the ideal environment for the coating to be applied to the substrate, ensuring maximum product performance.

Since all exposed surfaces of the wood have been machine finished, shrinkage never causes bare areas to show. The net result is a top-quality, long-lasting finish that minimizes future maintenance, a benefit your customers will pay for in advance.

A POORLY designed Yard can sink la,a building material business.

Costly inefficiencies include poor traffic flow, deficient storage space, inadequate weather protection for materials, illogically organized or poorly accessible materials, storage requiring unnecessary or excessive material handling, or a lack of self-service for customers.

The retailer now boasts the largest rack-supported drive-thru building in the country.

For 50-year-old RaYmond Building Supply, the answer was a drive-thru yard. A drive-thru facilitY would allow customers to drive a truck or car down the aisle of a warehouse within close proximity of needed products for quicker loading.

Earlier this year, RaYmond, with yards in Fort Myers, NaPles and Port Charlotte. Fl.. realized such a structure might help-but it couldn't be a typical drive-thru building. The huge inventory of materials necessitated a building of enormous proportions and the varying product lines dictated different storage needs.

Company vice president Duane R. Swanson enlisted Sunbelt Material Handling, Inc. to design, engineer, and install its new facility. The building incorporates both pallet rack and cantilever rack and covers a full acre. The retailer now boasts the largest racksupported drive-thru building in the country.

"As large as our inventory and product base are, we knew we needed a very large, versatile facility," says Swanson. "This building added the storage space and material protection we required, increased the efficiency of our yard, and saved us money uP front."

The saving came as rack-suPPorted buildings reportedly are cheaper to install than building a warehouse and then adding racking. In this facility' racks, which would have been in the building anyway, were merely extended a few feet to support the trusses; less steel was used, and fewer labor hours were required for installation. The structure is accessible from all sides, creating efficiencies in product placement and removal, yet products are protected from the elements.

The facility was designed specifically according to Raymond's needs, so no space is wasted. Wide aisles and a high ceiling offer plenty of room for customer vehicles, forklifts and company trucks. And, the building itself is more rapidly depreciable than a traditional warehouse.

Most companies don't require a full acre of storage space under one roof. The actual size of a typical drive-thru building varies depending upon site and yard requirements, but the configuration is a rectangular warehouse with aisles cutting through it along the long axis. The typical building has a clear ceiling height of at least 18 ft., with 2O ft. or more being preferable. Aisles vary in width depending on the size of materials being stored, but dimensional lumber requires at least 20 ft. wirh 24 ft. being preferable. The doors are as wide as the aisles, so overall, it is easy to enter and exit.

Raymond Building SuPPlY, aside from the honor of owning the largest rack-supported structure in the United States, now boasts one of the most efficient yards, as well.