Since I sell both ornamental wood moldings and polyurethane moldings on one of my e commerce sites, I thought I should write a comparison review of them. If you are considering purchasing one or the other perhaps this will help you in making a decision.
Wood has been the material of choice for moldings and other building products for centuries and really millennium. Wood has been plentiful, durable and easily shaped. In agrarian societies it has been the material of choice for these reasons. With the advent of industrial societies and technological innovations, however, other materials have presented themselves to capitalist as an alternative to wood. This has been the case in particular for polyurethane moldings used in residential applications.
The distinct advantages and disadvantages of wood and polyurethane becomes clearer by understanding the respective manufacturing processes for each.
The process for making wood moldings begins with a “blank” length of wood typically square on all sides. This blank is fed into a molder (apply named) which is simply a series of cutting “heads” that cut the blank into the final shape. The cutting heads have the final shape of the molding ground into them cutting head knives.
Polyurethane moldings, however, begin with a liquid composite being poured INTO a mold. And so the manufacturing process dictates the basic differences of both types of molding.
architecture interior design home improvement
These balusters went to a home in Aspen. I wanted to go to help with the installation but the contractor said I wasn’t needed. Oh well – maybe next time. These are large 2 1/2″ balusters that I think came out very well. I posted an image of the newels that went with this project but will post again.
Architecture Interior Design
Tags: architectural design, architecture, interior design, newels, stair parts, wood balusters
Some time back I had a request form a customer to add an ivory “button” to a newel cap I was making for his stairway newel. Of course I couldn’t use ivory and was unsure of what to use. I had read about “vegetable” ivory or tagua nuts from South America that had a similar look and feel to ivory. These proved to be not so easy to find. Most of the tagua nuts were already carved into someting or other before they arrived in the US. The larger nuts (which is what I needed) were even harder to find. So in the end I decided to use Corian. Corian is what the DuPont Corp. developed for solid surface kitchen counters years ago. I found a small piece locally at a solid surface counter company. I think the final product turned out nicely.
By the way, apparently it was traditional in some area of the country to add an ivory piece to your newel cap when the mortgage on the house was paid off. If you have heard of this from your neck of the woods I’d love to hear from you.
corian topped newel cap
Interior Design
Tags: architecture, interior decorator, interior design, newels, stair parts
