The line on prefinishing

f UMBER retailers and wholeI-lsalers lookins to increase sales and margins increisingly 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.

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Sequoia Lumber Co., Ca., is closing Nov. I years...

Visalia, after 93

Copeland Lwber fards plans to relocate its 7O-yeai-old Trllamook, Or., yard to a;ite twk€ as large near U.S. 101 ...

Erb Ace Hatdware hns relocat* ed from downtown Lewiston, Id., to the forrucr Ernst Home Center building in, Lewiston Orchards, Id.; company Hq. remain at rhe downtown building, wlrich is being remodeled for-the addition of Comerstone Interiors; Erb is owned by Richard'Bennett, Bennett Lumber Products, Elk City ad Princeton

Speckert Building & Supply, dba SBS Buitding & Flome Cleitii, Nlmysville, Ca., is closing Oct. t0 after approxim*tely 35 years ...

Gray Lumber Co., Tacoma, Wa.,-held a grand opening this month for its new store: the new building, containing hardware store, sales center and finance and adminstration offices, replaces its store destroyed last suinmer by fire...

. HomcBase held a grand reopen- ing of a remodeleii store ii El Monte, Ca. ...

Supply One, Reno, Nv., opened its long-awaited superstore in a former Kman in Grants Pass, Or.; GraverThomas, mgr. -..

Eagle Hardware & Garden is set to begin construction on 12.2 qes in Torrance, Ca. ...

Orchard Supply Hardware opened a new store Sept. 26 in Citrus Heights (Sacramento), Ca.; Mike Bozarth, store mgr.

_ BMC Wesr has acquired Buell Supply, Austin, Tx., with door shops in Austin, San Antonio and Houston

Home Depot opened new storcs Oct. 8 in Lancaster, Ca.; Fort Collins, Co., and fOanb fatis, t*., and Oct. 15 in Panorama City, Ca. .., ft" chain is nearing compietion of p, unit in Albaay,-Or.; anticipates a mid-1999 opening for its first- North Idaho location, a 115,382-sq, *. storre with 14-212sq. ft. garden center in Coeur d'Alene...

Home Depot has acquired 13.9 acres in Meridian, Id.; paid. Emerson Electric Co. $6.3 miilion for a 170,000-sq. ft. buildins in La Habra, Ca., which it willraze; received preliminary ciry council appr*val to build on 22 acres in Carson, Ca., and seems finally about to begin construction on i 112,000-sq. ft. unit in Bend, Or., after county commissioners approved a settlement between rival developers whose legal wranglings have stalled progress for two years

Homq, Dep*t stores in Monrovia and Torrance, Ca., are now open 24 hours a day, bringing to 4 in Los Angeles and 19 total the number of always-open units neighborhood opposition is forming agains: plans to remodel llarbor Center in Costa Mesa, Ca., to accommodate a Home Depot ...

White Cap Industrr'es, Costa Mesa, Ca., due to its slumpins stock price, has called ofi iti planned acquisition of l2-unit lanior's Tbols, Santa Ana, Ca. ...

Anniversaries: Steves Hardware, St. Helena, Ca., l20th Gray Lumber Co., Tacoma, Wa., 95th

New Web sites: Dunn Lu*ber' Co., Seattle, IVa-, www.dunnlum. com ... ,Sqftwccd Exporr Council, www.softwood.org ...

Wrorrurns/Hrrurrcrunrns

Barr Lumber Resale Co., Alta Loma, Ca., is a new wholesale firm {lo affiliation with retailer

&a/r lamber Co., Rosemead, Cn.l srtarted by former Barr principalDennis Parker, who plans to open 6 new reload centeis in So. Ca. over tftg nefit few rmnths ...

Capital la**b*r Co., Fhornix* A?., l-tar reactcd an *grre€msnt ir= principle to d the assets of its Custom Forest Products subsidiary, Sacramento, Ca., to Saryr Mowlding, Yuba City, Ca. ...

Colvitte ftdidn :Precibitia €;ae Co., Omak, Wa., is installing a new mechanical sorter and opti- mizer trimmer to help increise production next year by 20 million bd. tt.

Truserv Corp. by year's end will close its 423,000-sq. ft. Portland, Or., DC, serving rirembers from its larger, recently renovated DC in Springfie{d, Or. ...

Idaho Timber Corp.,Boise, Id., has started up a new manufacturing facility in Henderson, N.C. ...

MacMillan Bloedel agreed to sell Clarion, Pa., and Pembroke, Ontario-, MDF plants to TempleInland Inc. for $i0O mittion; while exiting the MDF business, MB has decided to retain its Wawa, Ontario, OSB plants and partnership interests in two otheri.,. MB completed the sale of its interest in Canadian packaging producer MacMillan Bathurst to yenture partner Stone Container

ArnericanTbol Cox., /nc. agreed to buy British tool maniifailurer Polyhe&on Holdings PLC

Oregon's forest indrutry is battling a November ballot measure that would immediately halt logging on 60%-70% of the state's forest land and possibly in time ban all logging

, Housing starts in Aug. (latest fj8s..) dronned-55%, the bigges declme rn nearly two years, to ffi adjusted annual rate of 1.613 million, still 16.6% ahe,ad of the yearearlier level ... single family starts fell 4.2Vo, multifimily 9.'SVo slarts decliaed most sharply in the lVest, drryping 8.6Vo **alysts sxpsc.t k*using to rem***r.=*rsng, after mortgage rates rpached their lowest bvels in 27 years.