Kestrel Shutters & Doors – Blog

Sliding Closet Doors made from Spanish Cedar

Bifold Doors or Sliding Closet Doors; Which Cost Less?
When buying new closet doors most people look for a way to save money without compromising on quality. One way to do this is to consider the cost differences between sliding closet doors and bifold doors.

How Many Doors for Your Closet?
We custom make all of our doors to the custom sizes that you need. The time involved to make an 18″ wide door is about the same as that needed for a 36″ wide door. This means that the fewer individual doors that you have covering your closet, the lower the cost. So if your closet is 72″ wide, using 2 doors, each 36″ wide, will cost less than using 4 doors, each 18″ wide. Since wider doors are typically hung as sliders this does make sliding closet doors less expensive.

Bifold Closet Doors with 3.1/2" Louvers

What if Bifold Doors Are My Only Option?
If your application requires bifold doors you can still keep costs down. We also offer the 200FD line of bifold door hardware by Johnson that can handle individual doors up to 48″ wide.

In the end it is not so much that sliding closet doors cost less than bifold doors. Instead it is keeping the number of individual doors to a minimum for your closet that keeps the price down.

If you are not sure how you want to hang your closet doors you can read one of older posts: Should I go with bifold or sliding closet doors?. You can also give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Arched Tongue & Groove Door

Tongue & Groove vs Beadboard for Shutters and Doors
While we are all familiar with flat and raised panel shutters and doors there are other choices when you are looking for something solid. Two popular alternatives are Beadboard and Tongue & Groove.

Profile of Beadboard

Profile of Tongue & Groove

Tongue & Groove
The name Tongue & Groove actually refers to the way the boards join together. If you look at the images above you will see how one end has a slot milled in to the wood (the “groove”) while the other end is milled so that part sticks out (the “tongue”). To join the the boards the “tongue” on one piece slides in to the “groove” on the next piece. The design we mill has chamfered edges that give it the look of a “V” where two boards meet up. The nice thing about Tongue & Groove is that it can be milled on to most any thickness of wood so that doors (like the one to the left) or board & batten shutters can be made without any frame.

Door style 6162H with partial herringbone pattern

We also offer doors and shutters where the tongue & groove fits within a frame like our 6162H shown to the right.  In this design instead of the tongue & groove running vertically we have it cut at an angle. This way when 2 shutters or doors are side by side they take on a Herrignbone pattern.

Style 6570 doors with Beadboard

Beadboard
Our Beadboard is really just a variation on Tongue & Groove. It uses the same joinery method, but instead of  a “V” channel there is a 1/4″ diameter bead running vertically on each face of the wood.  We tend to see more of  the Beadboard design with cottage style homes where it is matched up to Beadboard paneling and wainscoting.

Boards vs Sheets
Something to point out is that our Beadboard and Tongue & Groove panels are double sides unlike most of what is available on the market today. Where the industry standard is to just mill a “V” channel or bead down the face of plywood we still prefer the more traditional method where each board is milled individually to give a more authentic look and feel.

If you are considering designs of exterior or  interior doors and shutters that have Beadboard or Tongue & Groove, but are not sure which will work best for you please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Tongue & Groove Doors

Tongue & Groove Shutters

Spanish Cedar Shutters are ideal for a Bathroom

Using Wood Shutters and Doors in a Bathroom
When it comes to using wood shutters and doors in a bathroom there are a few things that you need to consider; privacy, ventilation and humidity.

Privacy
Privacy in a bathroom is obviously important to many people. Most styles of doors or shutters will offer some degree of privacy. Louvered Doors offer line of sight privacy while solid interior doors with raised or flat panels, tongue & groove or even frosted glass have the added benefit of sound insulation. For bathroom windows operable louvered shutters have always been a favorite. They can be adjusted to allow as much light in as you want or closed for privacy. How much and what type of privacy you want is up to you but can also depend on whether you need ventilation.

Ventilation
In some cases ventilation is required. If your bathroom has an air return for central air conditioning then you need to to have a bathroom door with ventilation so that when the door is closed the air condition functions properly. Check with your a/c service company to see how much air flow you will need. If you want a door that has privacy with a bit of ventilation you may want to consider some of our combination doors of tongue & grove with louvers.

Louvered Doors for a Bathroom and Linen Closet

Humidity
If it is a full bathroom then you may need to contend with a build up of moisture from a shower as well as water spray landing on the shutters and doors. Having interior shutters and doors that are properly painted and maintained will help prevent any water damage. A better choice is to use wood shutters and doors that are made from Spanish Cedar which is what we use for our exterior shutters and doors. Yet another option is to go with our Faux Plantation Shutters which will not be affected at all by the moisture and also resists bacteria which could form in the bathroom.

Operable Louvered Doors for an outdoor bathroom

If you are not sure which designs of interior doors or shutters will work best for you please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Spanish Cedar Louvered Doors covering an outdoor laundry for a home in Hawaii

Choosing Utility Closet Doors
When you are looking to buy new doors for a utility closet you need to consider both the requirements that any equipment in the closet might have as well as any other features you would like to see in the doors. Typically this means choosing styles of closet doors that allows the proper amount of airflow while keeping the sound down.

style 6162 - 12" of fixed Plantation louvers at the top allow for some ventilation while the rest of the door holds Tongue & Groove for sound reduction.

Utility Closet Doors with Airflow
Many pieces of equipment require a certain amount of airflow to make sure that they do not overheat. This Minimum Airflow will usually be listed in square inches (in²) on the equipment itself or in the owner’s manual. To provide airflow you have three options. The first option is to use one of our fixed louvered doors. As a rule the smaller the louver the more airflow. The next is to go with operable louvered doors. With operable louvered doors the larger the louver the greater the maximum airflow. These allow you to open the louvers fully for maximum airflow or to close them up to provide some sound insulation. The third option is to go with one of our closet door designs with removable trim but instead of using glass or mirror use a decorative wire mesh.

Utility Closet Doors with Sound Reduction
In some cases you are looking to minimize the sound as much as possible. This is easily achieved by going with panel doors, tongue & groove doors or some other type of solid design. You can also use faux louvered doors to match any other louvered doors and shutters in your home. Depending on the equipment you have in the utility closet you may want a combination of sound proofing and airflow. For situations like this we offer a line of doors that have 12″ of louvers at the top for ventilation while the rest of the door is tongue & groove to provide sound reduction.

If you are not sure which designs of closet doors will work best for you please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

It is not uncommon to have a window somewhere on your home where there is physically not enough room for exterior shutters. It could be that 2 windows are too close like in the picture shown to the left. It could also be that the window is too close to a chimney, the corner of the house or even a porch post. Whatever the reason there are usually a few ways to work around this.

Functional Exterior Shutters or Decorative Only
The first thing you need to decide is how you will use your exterior shutters. Do you plan to install your exterior shutters on hinges, so that you can open and close them for storm protection or even for routine house maintenance? Or maybe you will bolt them to your house as decorative shutters only. If your exterior shutters will be for decoration only then not having enough room is not a major issue. With decorative shutters you can always go with narrower shutters to fit the wall space that you have.

If your exterior shutters will be functional you really will need to make sure that they can open and close without hitting anything. A good way to test this is to cut out a piece of cardboard to the size of your shutters? Next, go to any widows that you think might be tight for room and just pretend it is on hinges while you “open” and “close” the cardboard a few times to check for clearance.

Bifold Shutters
If there is not enough room for shutters on both sides of your window one way to work around this is to hinge your exterior shutters together as bifolds. So instead of having 1 shutter on either side of the window you will have 2 shutters on one side only. You can see an example of this in the picture at the top. A Bifold application is also a great way to mount exterior shutters to cover a bay window.

Leaning Shutters
Some times the exterior shutters are so close to a chimney or where a wall takes a 90° turn to lay flat. It is traditionally accepted to hinge the shutters like normal and have the shutter on one side just lean against the obstruction. If you look carefully at the picture at top you will see the base support for chimney on the left hand side. To give you a better overall view the picture to the right is of the entire side of the house.

Exterior Shutters on Gable Windows
With gable windows there is often not enough wall space for the full shutter to lay flat. There are 2 straight forwards ways to handle this layout. Like the picture to the left you can hinge your shutters like normal and just accept the fact that they will hang out a little bit. The alternate way is to mount the shutters at the top with hardware designed for Bahama shutters.

If you are still unsure how best to size or mount your shutters so that they can open and close, please ask us. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Closet & Door Openings Not Square
It is not uncommon to have the openings for interior doors or closet doors be out of square. The reasons could be anything from the house settling to an uneven floor to stud walls and header being twisted. The good news is that in most cases it is easy to work around these issues.

Rough Openings vs Finished Openings
If the opening for your doors is still rough (not framed out) then it really does not matter if your opening is square or not. When you frame out the opening you will have a chance to square everything up. This is also the case if you are installing pocket doors. If you are not sure if your door openings are rough or not here is an earlier post that explains the difference. Interior Doors: A Rough Opening vs. A Finished Opening

Measuring for your Doors
The first thing you will want to do is measure the framed opening where you want your doors. It is a good idea to measure the width and height in a few different places. This will help to show you where, if at all, your framed opening is out of square. Another check is to measure diagonally across the opening. If the measurement from the top left corner to the bottom right corner is the same as the measurement from the bottom left corner to the top right corner then your framed opening is square. Here is a link to our site on How to Measure for Doors which will help. If you do find that your framed opening is not square there are ways to work around this.

Uneven Header
If you the header dips to one side or another, or if it has a “bump” in the middle there are a few things you can do. You can try and correct it be removing and re-installing the header. Most likely this will be more difficult and time consuming than the alternative. If you are installing sliding closet doors or bifold doors you can simply shim out the track to make it level. Any resulting gap can be easily covered with a valence or corner moulding. If you are installing hinged doors you have a choice. If the header only dips an 1/8″ or so you may just want to leave it be. However, if the gap is more noticeable you should consider removing the door casing and straightening the door jamb.

Uneven Floor
If your floor is uneven there is not too much that you can do other than rip up and lay down a new floor. Thankfully an uneven floor will not affect the way your doors work. It will just mean that you have more of a gap at one end of the bottom than at the other.

Side Jambs not Plumb
If your house has settled you will mostly likely find that the side jambs will not be plumb. You will treat this similar to how it was explained with the uneven header above; let it be if the gap is small or remove the casing and re-plumb the jamb. If you installing sliding closet doors or bifold doors the simplest thing to do is to let the gap stay and then apply a simple quarter round or corner moulding right in front of the doors along the side jambs. This will hide the gap and not interfere with the way the doors open and close.

Hopefully this post has been helpful. If you still have questions on how to work with your non-square openings for your doors just ask. Give us a call, send us an email or start an online chat. We are happy to help.

Aluminum Hurricane Shutters

Hurricane Shutters
When it comes to Hurricane Shutters you need to know that they will indeed stand up to, well, a hurricane. Your Hurricane Shutters will be that first line of defense that keeps your windows, and the inside of your home, intact. To make sure that Hurricane Shutters will indeed stand up to their name the State of Florida requires independent testing and review by a Florida licensed professional engineer. Once they have verified that the shutters will indeed withstand a hurricane the product is approved.

What is the HVHZ?
While hurricanes strike all over the country, those with the highest winds hit Florida in the Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. These make up the High Velocity Hurricane Zone also known as HVHZ. Some hurricane shutters are strong enough to be approved for use within the HVHZ while others are not as durable and can only be used for hurricane protection outside the HVHZ.

I know that I need Hurricane Shutters. Now what?
When you are ready to add hurricane shutters to your home or business a good first step is to check with your insurance company. They will be able to give you any requirements for you location. When you are talking with a retailer of hurricane shutters here is some information that you will want to check.

FL# – This is the application number. It will start with “FL” and then the application numbers. When there are revisions there will be an “.R” afterwards with the revision number. Revisions can be a change in the design of the hurricane shutters or even a change in the way they are installed. It is important to note the revisions as while one might have passed another might not have.

Application Status – Just because there is an application does not mean the the shutters were approved. The Application Status will let you know whether these exterior shutters have been approved or not.

Limits of Use – This is the part to which you will need to pay special attention. This section will tell you if the shutters have been approved in the HVHZ or only approved in the rest of Florida but NOT the HVHZ. It will also give you the design pressure and let you know if they are impact resistant. You can sometimes also find size restrictions here.

Description – Here you can also find size restrictions for the hurricane shutters.

Installation Instructions – On the application report there will be a link to a PDF that gives the approved installation instructions. This is a very important section to read through. Even if your exterior shutters are approved for hurricane protection they will only perform properly if you install them as shown in the instructions.

When you are looking at a retailer for hurricane shutters make sure that they can provide you with all of this information, for the safety of your home and family.

You can follow this link for more information on our HVHZ approved Hurricane Shutters.