know who you are

There are really two sides to Wilson Lumber.  There’s the side that most people know, that is, that we sell building materials to pro’s who are building and remodeling homes (although as frustrating as it is, most people don’t know that we sell a whole lot more than just lumber).

But then there’s the significant side of our business where we sell to homeowners.  Now most of our interactions with homeowners (at least in dollar volume) is with what you might call larger ticket items.  Replacement doors, decks, cabinets, etc.  Hence, our tag line “way more than lumber”.

    

Anyway, recently we have discontinued all electrical, plumbing and paint products (well, almost all).  It’s not that we didn’t enjoy selling this stuff, or even that we didn’t make money at it.  The problem was that we were not excellent at it.  And we believe that if you cant be excellent at something, you just shouldn’t do it.  Also, we realized that people don’t need us for that kind of stuff.  And we are perfectly OK with that.  It gives us more resources, energy and space for the stuff we are excellent at.

As if that is not enough, I attended a conference recently where I saw this particular study by the Farnsworth Group that I’ve previously written about.

Basically, professionals depend on us for Lumber, Millwork and Building Materials.  (I must admit, I thought lumber and millwork were building materials.  I guess they meant stuff like siding, brick, gypsum, etc.)  So, as we are excellent at those things, that is where we focus our resources.

You might notice on the study that only 3% of pro’s made their last paint purchase at a place like Wilson’s.  And only 15% for electrical and 4% for paint.  I guess I’m now wondering why we kept that stuff around as long as we did.  O well, hindsight is 20/20.

If you need any lumber, millwork or building materials, give us a call (256-852-7411) or visit our website.  And if you need electrical, plumbing or paint, we can refer you to someone excellent:)

a new kind of old siding…

If you’re like me and have been around the building materials industry a while (I’m getting old), you are familiar with wood siding, fiber-cement siding, vinyl siding, and this really old stuff they used to use made out of sawdust and glue.  Some called it pressboard, some MDF, some called it much worse because of a class-action lawsuit surrounding it.

Wilson Lumber has stocked it all at some point or another in our 64 years (we’re old to).  Well, actually that old MDF siding never really went away.  Turns out that whereas some of it was made poorly, it actually caused some R&D folks to go back to the drawing board and come up with something really great.

Oh, and perhaps this blog is poorly titled because it’s not really new.  It’s just not well known.  LP has had this great product called SmartSide since the 90’s.

SmartSide is a treated engineered wood siding.  We had a lunch and learn about it last week.  Now I could try to go into all that the guy said about it’s chemical makeup and resins and flux capacitors and all that.  But to be honest, he wasn’t into that very long before he started to sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher.  What can I say? I’m not a details guy.

Here are the important details.  It looks great and comes in a boatload of styles.  It has a 50 year limited transferable warranty.  The warranty even covers labor for 5 years.  SmartSide paints easy and is affordable.  One thing I liked is that the lap siding comes in 16′ lengths.  This should translate into a little less waste and fewer seams on the house where the siding ends butt together.

Well, I have to say, it’s a bit hard to make siding sound exciting when writing a blog.  How much detail to include?  Do I write about installation instructions?  Ive lost half of you who started reading already, I’m afraid.

Look, the bottom line is this.  There are a lot of siding choices out there.  And like anything else, it comes down to what you like to use, how it looks, and most importantly, doing business with a trustworthy company.  I believe LP and Wilson Lumber both fit that description… even though we’re old.