Episode 1535
Building a New Deck with Steel to last a lifetime
We sit down with Fortress Building products and Jeff Schultz Senior VP of Sales and Tim Sandlund Director of Marketing. This is a great episode if you are thinking about building a deck. Still might be the right product for you so you can build it once and never have to worry about wood rot on your frame again. We then dive into the other new products at the show for 2023! For more info about Fortress Building Products: https://fortressbp.com/
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Mentioned in this episode:
Baldwin Hardware
A new kind of decking and siding from Millboard
For more information about the latest in decking and cladding head to https://www.millboard.com/
Transcript
Jeff Schulz: It's around the house, but it is something exciting for us. We've always been able to build, and we've had contractors from day one taking our framing components and making custom pergolas. Yep. While we've launched now over the past couple months, pergola kits, so a single sku, everything you need for a 12 by 12 Pergo ups.
[:[00:00:30] Eric Goranson: so two, that is amazing. And there's no thought to it. You're just gonna follow the directions, put it together. It's made to go that way.
[:[00:00:37] Tim Sandlund: percent. Yeah. So as Jeff mentioned, like we've got contractors using, uh, steel framing to build ize for years, right? So we call that kind of that limitless design options
[:[00:00:59] Eric Goranson: Welcome. [00:01:00] On the House Show, this is where we talk everything about your home every single week. Thanks for joining us today. We are having fun here at Design and Construction Week, international Building Show Kitchen, a Bath industry show, as well as the National Hardware Show. Let's see how much stuff we could pack into the Las Vegas Convention Center.
[:[00:01:28] Jeff Schulz: it out, brother. All right. So thanks for having us. We're excited to be here. Uh, my, my name's uh, Jeff Schultz. I'm the vice president or Senior Vice President of Sales and marketing at Forres Building Products.
[:[00:01:52] Jeff Schulz: I mean, amen. It has been packed, which is great for us. You think about, um, some of the people talking about, Ooh, the economy this year, this and that. Well, it [00:02:00] is packed cuz people are looking for opportunities, are looking for innovative products. And so it's, uh, it's been awesome to see the crowds that are here.
[:[00:02:09] Eric Goranson: Is like the Super Bowl of construction. A hundred
[:[00:02:21] Eric Goranson: So yeah, it's absolutely incredible. Right? And uh, yeah, it's yesterday trying to get outta here was its own mess.
[:[00:02:29] Jeff Schulz: and we took, uh, we, we went to Caesars from here and it took us, uh, I think 42 minutes to go, two and a half miles. It was great. . Yeah. That's wild.
[:[00:02:45] Eric Goranson: Thank you. Las Vegas. Yeah. Okay. Next introduction.
[:[00:03:01] Eric Goranson: Cool.
[:[00:03:11] Tim Sandlund: Yeah. So we, we talk about, Solution, we look in your backyard. Um, we're the to of solution there. So we do steel deck framing.
[:[00:03:35] Eric Goranson: See, it's like, guys, if you don't know who these guys are and you're thinking about building a project, doing a project, whether you're a homeowner or contractor, these guys have a lot of solutions that we're gonna talk about today.
[:[00:03:45] Jeff Schulz: and you know what's great about it too, is it's not only residential, so commercial. So we've put a big emphasis on. So many of our products, being able to touch different segments of the industry. So whether it be, you know, backyard home renovation, but that total outdoor solution for your [00:04:00] backyard, oh, I want to put in a deck.
[:[00:04:15] Jeff Schulz: Yep. For security. I mean, you guys in the Pacific Northwest, there's a couple big people up there that need lots of data centers. So think about that. Yeah, I got this, I got this
[:[00:04:28] Eric Goranson: Right. They got those things. Springs a bell. Right? I think I've heard of them. Yeah. It's same kind of thing though. Yeah, and that's what's cool. Let's dive into steel decking as far as the framings part of that, cuz this to me makes so much sense. So many people get hurt by. Deck framing, failing just because it wasn't either put together.
[:[00:04:58] Tim Sandlund: Yeah. Yeah. That definitely was a [00:05:00] benefit, especially during Covid, right? Where people are seeing the, the cost difference between a steel frame and a wood frame be very close.
[:[00:05:23] Tim Sandlund: Totally right. You talk about old wood, old wood versus new wood, and just the change in that and what people are seeing is like, Why put all the investment on the top of the deck and ignore the underside of that deck, right? So with our steel framing, you're gonna get a 25 year warranty. With that, it's perfectly straight, right?
[:[00:05:45] Eric Goranson: that comes with that. That's crazy. And here's why. And I've had this conversation on this show before many a times, you know, oh great, my deckings got a 50 year warranty. Cool. And you're putting pressure treated down it that might last 10 years.
[:[00:06:15] Eric Goranson: This one's kind of
[:[00:06:30] Eric Goranson: And it's so dimensionally stable.
[:[00:06:41] Jeff Schulz: forget. Well, and what's also great for us, so, you know, when you think about the framing market, so you know our podcast here pre predominantly for North America, correct?
[:[00:07:14] Jeff Schulz: And you know, we could talk about the rotting, the warping, the twisting, all that. But truly what's really driving it home for contractors is saying, I installed this so much quicker. I've got 20 foot spins. So now I don't have, I don't have the footers, I don't have all the labor that comes. Says, let me put this deck in now, with labor shortages we've experienced over the past couple of years, right?
[:[00:07:54] Jeff Schulz: It's the way we go and we've got contractors that won't even if, if someone wants wood, we'll walk from the job. Now, [00:08:00] why would
[:[00:08:11] Tim Sandlund: Right, right. What else? From the contract? I mean, they're looking at us, they're not gonna have those callbacks. Right? Right. So there, there's a peace of mind from that. I'm gonna install this and I'm not gonna have to come back for this job. We've got, you know, we've got contractors that Jeff just mentioned that they're changing the way they do business.
[:[00:08:46] Tim Sandlund: Right. That's awesome. So now they're setting themselves apart. And so it's definitely on that sense, like the contractors are really buying into that. And I'll tell a quick story. One of our, uh, core contractors, Phillip Purdy's out in Colorado, he own the bills with steel framing. Nice. The [00:09:00] one thing I love too is, How he communicates to the homeowner.
[:[00:09:20] Tim Sandlund: See the rod here. See this? Mm-hmm. . And by the way, you have steel on your deck. Like what are you talking about? You see all the brackets, see all the new, the comfort they are. Look how good they look. Yeah. That is what your entire frame is gonna look like, except obviously our look looks. It's patri or black.
[:[00:09:52] Tim Sandlund: I'm lasting peace of mind that this deck is gonna be standing for 25, 50 years and not have worry about all the
[:[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: Are you still using wood for? You idiots. But it's, it's, it's seriously, I mean, why would you want to do that for that cost savings? Really it's, it's not 2% more because of the value you get. I mean, think about having to replace that debt 10 years later because it's rotten and you got these, oh, I love the deck boards.
[:[00:10:37] Jeff Schulz: it really, so couple things to look at. Right? So we won, we talk about that total forts solution with all categories. Yeah. But it's important to remember, we recognize that there's contractors that have preferences around, around the globe.
[:[00:11:05] Jeff Schulz: Um, but it is something that we, we are just, we're beyond excited about. We think of the opportunity in this category. It's just immense. And, and it's great. We look at, um, we're selling this product in Europe. We're getting ready to launch this product. Um, you said New Zealand? Yeah. So we'll be, we'll just say in the markets now, in, in Australasia we'll be launching here.
[:[00:11:40] Eric Goranson: I
[:[00:11:50] Tim Sandlund: Yeah. You know, uh, woo. We, it's class A fire rating, um, rooftop California. Yeah. Oh my
[:[00:11:56] Jeff Schulz: All our California people on all this, if you look behind you, I [00:12:00] dunno if you can see, you'll see. State Fire marshal
[:[00:12:10] Eric Goranson: And then they get into the debate of how am I gonna do this? It's crazy. So let's talk about that. I mean, you guys, of course, like we're talking about, you've got the total solution if you're a, you know, 40% of our audience is, is remodelers and builders out there and designers. So for these people, they can actually come in and grab something and have a total solution for that whole project.
[:[00:12:42] Jeff Schulz: system, right. They said, well, we've got that solution. We understand there's preferences, we respect that.
[:[00:13:02] Jeff Schulz: We don't spend enough time really talking about is, you know, Tim talked about how do we help contractors, right? Yeah. How do we help them, um, really differentiate themselves? And so it is that framing. You know, think about it. Am I doing a disservice to my customer because I'm only gonna talk about a composite or a PVC board, but I don't wanna talk about.
[:[00:13:37] Jeff Schulz: That's, that's it. Now you're basically saying, I am recommending this to you as a homeowner. Like, and they're looking at you as a trusted source to say, you know, Hey, I, if you want wood, I could do it, but let me tell you why you want steel for a couple percent. Here
[:[00:13:52] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And, and here's the thing too, for me, if I'm building a wood deck, and I've learned this from friends of mine in the deck industry, the best [00:14:00] practices for me, at least out on the west coast, is they're taping that whole top surface. Right. To try to keep the water off the wood. Right? Well, you got a day of taping in there, getting that done right, rolled out, right.
[:[00:14:19] Jeff Schulz: Right? Well, and it has with our product to that point. I mean, it's a, it's a G 60 galvanization and it has an architectural grade powder coat.
[:[00:14:43] Jeff Schulz: FA on anymore because consumers are looking at this and saying, wow, it's an aesthetic. It's actually a designer aesthetic. I wanna see the frame and look. It matches the railing. So it's a small design aspect for that build
[:[00:14:59] Eric Goranson: You don't have those [00:15:00] weird transitions of how am I gonna wrap my composite around to the face and make this look right? Right, right. Which is also another challenge. You can just. B put the railing on. It matches Right. Everybody's happy. It looks like it was meant to be that way. Right. Cuz it was. Right.
[:[00:15:18] Jeff Schulz: down below. It's true. Yeah. And, and as we've grown this product line, we continue to expand and enhance this product. So we look at, uh, you know, right now we've got here today we've launched our new five and a half inch square post and, uh, eight inch square nominal posts that go with the system.
[:[00:15:47] Eric Goranson: themselves.
[:[00:16:05] Eric Goranson: Right. That's why steel makes so much more sense, because again, and that 20 foot is a huge deal. Right? For sure. That's awesome. Let's talk about lighting. Let's skip ahead a little bit because to me that is the jewelry on a deck, right? You can get everything. Perfect. The most beautiful handrails. The deckings done.
[:[00:16:39] Tim Sandlund: Yeah. A hundred percent. I mean, I think that's the, the access, right?
[:[00:17:00] Tim Sandlund: Like just the lighting. But it is a, a piece and, you know, from a contractor, a dealer, it's an opportunity to add that shared wallet to the job, but not just because of the extra cost. It's just that it's a, it's gonna give the overall experience of that outdoor experience.
[:[00:17:22] Jeff Schulz: It is in, you know, with the different text lighting, whether it be post cab, whether it be down lighting, whether it be, uh, on your stairs, you know, from a code perspective, a safety perspective. It's there. And you know, really when you look at much of the, you know, many of the listeners of this podcast, from a contractor perspective, uh, we would encourage you.
[:[00:18:00] Eric Goranson: That consumer is gonna look at that for years and, and today with technology, this isn't like 10 years ago with lighting where it was kind of new. And there were issues and things like that these days. Oh my gosh. The lighting you can do and the places you can do lighting, right, is stunning.
[:[00:18:22] Jeff Schulz: Am I gonna scare the homeowner? Look at, I want, we encourage people to look at from the opposite perspective. If I'm a homeowner and I've put $30,000 into a deck, and I knew that afterwards for $35,000, I could have had steel framing and I could have had lighting and you didn't pitch that to me, I'm actually gonna be a little disappointed and say, 10, 12% more.
[:[00:18:44] Eric Goranson: a disservice. I already said yes. Let's, why don't we just spend a little more and do it Right. Exactly that way. 10 years. You're not out here going, Hey, uh, yeah, we gotta tear down that work.
[:[00:19:14] Eric Goranson: And, and I like that big, you know? Yeah. When you're building a deck, I like having those big posts personally. Yeah. Because it just gives that mass, it makes it have that foundational view to it. And of course, you know, for code reasons and structural reasons, it's there as well. Right. But I
[:[00:19:32] Tim Sandlund: Yeah. It's also been the number, number one request from our contractors out there is still framing are those larger post. , you know, we're, we're, they're available. They're coming out and it's, that's one thing that we, we strive to work on is, is to continue listening to our builders and our contractors.
[:[00:20:04] Tim Sandlund: And so we wanna stay ahead of that. So we've got builders and contractors who are giving. That they're building our super decks every day. Yeah. Right. And they're saying, you know, these are the type of jobs I'm doing and these, this is what I need. If, if I'm transitioning from wood to steel, I have to have this, this, and this.
[:[00:20:38] Tim Sandlund: Right. A whole other, uh, innovation aspect to that to make sure you're hitting that and above and beyond what we want to hit. Yeah. And that takes some time. But you see that relationship with these contractors, especially the ones that are forward thinking. Yeah. Right. And moving into these alternative framing, it's really changing the way the industry builds depth.
[:[00:21:05] Jeff Schulz: It's literally same components you take in steel framing now instead of. Is underneath, now you're looking at it overhead. So, um, it, we've got, we've got great opportunities with the, with gli, as we've seen that market continue to grow.
[:[00:21:35] Jeff Schulz: And say, I talked earlier, I said, well, you've got framing in black. Now you've got the railing to match it. Well, guess what? Now you can integrate a perla. Is it an arbor over a kitchen, an next outdoor kitchen, right? Or is it a standalone Perla elsewhere? Um, and we're really driving with some new innovations, some new, uh, new pieces to really make them stand out as well.
[:[00:22:12] Jeff Schulz: Precut pre one sku, you open it up, it's a, let's call it a three by three bundle. Everything you need to build that per door right now.
[:[00:22:26] Tim Sandlund: So as Jeff mentioned, like we've got contractors using, uh, steel framing to build pergolas for years.
[:[00:22:51] Tim Sandlund: Great. We've got three sizes of kits that we offer the. And now we can offer those to homeowners, to contractors who wanna put up a quick ola. [00:23:00] But you still get the quality of the evolution system
[:[00:23:15] Eric Goranson: Right. You just. It. You're not getting the saw out. You're not getting the stuff out. Exactly, exactly.
[:[00:23:24] Eric Goranson: See, there you go.
[:[00:23:31] Tim Sandlund: I can put together.
[:[00:23:44] Jeff Schulz: And you, and you look at, really, when you start looking at uas, you start getting into an eight by eight, 10 by 10 cedar post.
[:[00:24:08] Jeff Schulz: I've gotta stain it again. And we're saying, guess what? You don't. Yeah.
[:[00:24:24] Eric Goranson: I can't finish this now. Exactly. Yeah. And then you got a hot mass, right? A
[:[00:24:29] Eric Goranson: percent. So, and so that's where that really pays off cuz you can just, again, like we've talked about, set it, forget it, and you've got multiple styles there too. You can kind of lean this into traditional, it's not just people go, oh, steal contemporary.
[:[00:24:43] Tim Sandlund: Multi-material. Different types. And Gerald we're showing off, uh, some cedar kind of cloudy and we got these, these new clouding clips that are low profile that allow you to attach different type of boards and give you that more modern mix, almost Japanese feel to it.
[:[00:25:13] Eric Goranson: perspective.
[:[00:25:28] Eric Goranson: Yeah.
[:[00:25:34] Tim Sandlund: there. We have no shades right now, so like our neighbors are texting me all the time being like, Hey, what are you, what are you doing over there? I'm like, yeah, yeah, we need to get those
[:[00:25:46] Eric Goranson: We don't have shades on it either cause I'm out in the woods. But I feel bad for my neighbors have to drive down the flag lot behind me sometimes. I'm like, oh . Sorry guys. . Yeah. That's awesome. So what else do you have here at the show that you guys are premiering as far as new [00:26:00] stuff? Let's talk new stuff here for a minute and uh, talk about that.
[:[00:26:07] Tim Sandlund: stuff, you know, I mean, we touched on quite a few on the evolution. Yeah. Framing burgles. I would say, um, FB 26, which is our. Railing line. We've got a new infill option called access. It's a horizontal steel railing.
[:[00:26:44] Tim Sandlund: A lot of the times. This horizontal steel right length. It's a more custom look. Right. So you're looking, yeah. A lot of labor, a lot of cost. Right. Well, now we've simplified that process, but still giving you the fantastic modern look.
[:[00:27:00] Eric Goranson: Or you had something that was kind of a more traditional look, and that was kind of the three boxes you checked. Right? But that look is so contemporary, so just custom built, like you said. Right? It's
[:[00:27:24] Jeff Schulz: So talking about when we talk about, Hey, here's the benefits too. It may be different for a homeowner that is from a contractor, but from an install standpoint, how do we take, and we appreciate custom fabricators, beautiful work, right? Yeah. But what we can do is we can. Produce something with a automotive quality finish.
[:[00:27:53] Eric Goranson: pre-attached.
[:[00:28:08] Tim Sandlund: turned about a month ago and and majority of their work is custom fabrication.
[:[00:28:30] Tim Sandlund: But yet the labor savings, we what Jeff just saw pre-attached brackets, the penalized system, your cost is gonna drop to. And it's the only railing that they'll sell, and it's why they're so committed to tres, but it's, they compare it on par to a custom fabrication and you're just saving on all the labor costs and homeowners are, are, are jumping at it
[:[00:28:50] Eric Goranson: Well, that's where it makes sense for the homeowner, right? Right. You're saving labor, so now you're bringing something more into budget for whether you're a DIY or homeowner, whatever you're doing. Now it's [00:29:00] sliding more into their budget because quite frankly, if somebody's out there building for you and you're saving time, that's money.
[:[00:29:24] Jeff Schulz: Put your, put your signature on it, make it beautiful. But when you're running a straight line, when you're doing the backyard, you're doing the perimeter. Use that preassembled piano to cut down on the labor, cut down on the install time. Um, from that perspective, and you know, you look at from a coding perspective, we talked about that earlier as well.
[:[00:29:56] Jeff Schulz: If anybody's lives in the north, think about the salt on the roadways, the [00:30:00] cars, car guy, car guy, car guy rusting out, rusting out from that perspective. Oh man. So that's when ECO was developed and really taking that and applying it to our steel railings gives people and our fence peace of mind and saying, well, it is different than again, no.
[:[00:30:26] Eric Goranson: Yeah, I mean, and you're right, there's no comp. Even the custom guys, and again, nothing against those guys that finish just isn't what.
[:[00:30:36] Jeff Schulz: Right. And we've had, and so like depending, you know, regionally, right? People have have material preferences. Sure. In products where oftentimes people say, oh, you know, the northeast for example, steal, oh, I don't like steel it rust. Well, guess what? 30 years ago when somebody welds on site and uses a can of spray paint, guess what?
[:[00:31:01] Eric Goranson: yeah. And, and that's, and even worse, the guy. You can. Right. I've seen that a hundred times. Yeah. You know, they're, I get a beautiful steel staircase that's being built in place.
[:[00:31:36] Eric Goranson: No. Custom means, Hey, I've got a, I gotta come up with a solution that no one's making and I'm forced to go custom. Or I want it built my way. But that doesn't mean it's better than everything else that's manufactured. It means you're
[:[00:31:54] Jeff Schulz: We look at some of the products that are out there, projects like, my goodness, I mean, that is beautiful. A craftsman, an artisan. It [00:32:00] truly is craftsmanship and artisan. But to your point, it's a way of building. It's not the material itself.
[:[00:32:12] Eric Goranson: Right. We've talked about all this beautiful metal. Right, right. Let's talk about. The piece that most homeowners look at and go, I want my deck to look like this. Right. And that's that hyper-focus. They hold the sample up and go build this. Right? It's the part that we see, but it's the part that's really important as well.
[:[00:32:48] Eric Goranson: Yes. . Yeah, absolutely. And the problem was this was first gen and we probably should have just fought it back then, but it looks like in the sun that [00:33:00] that fence was made outta silly putty. Every, it's worse than wood, right? But it was that first generation material. So is the fencing product. It's that old fencing product that went out for a little bit and they went, wow, this is a bad idea.
[:[00:33:23] Jeff Schulz: plastic board it looks like. So that's funny. That's actually how, um, two, that, that's basically what led me to Fortress is prior to Fortress, Worked, uh, in the composites industry for a composite fence manufacturer.
[:[00:33:53] Jeff Schulz: Look
[:[00:33:56] Jeff Schulz: two years. More technology than going to the moon, right. Is what they say in the space show. So [00:34:00] the, just, you know, from that perspective, One goes through, you know, can go through different learning curves as they, as they, uh, grow their products. Every product does that.
[:[00:34:25] Jeff Schulz: Everything you're doing, you install our product. Um, from that perspective, we also have our evolver, which is a horizontal product, um, as well. That is sexy to me. It is. I I'm sorry, I saw that you
[:[00:34:42] Jeff Schulz: yeah, no, that Evolver has been great for us.
[:[00:35:03] Jeff Schulz: Mm-hmm. to give a high-end privacy look. Many people will use that even for screening. So whether it be residential or commercial, it says, Hey, I've got ornamental around my perimeter fence, but I want to screen or hide my acs, my cool pumps, something along those lines. My hot tub, right? My hot tub, right. So now it's just an accent piece or some accent panels that match with the overall ornamental look.
[:[00:35:41] Jeff Schulz: You need to build that. And that's important for us to really get that, get that out there because there's so many times contractors a. Builders, like, what is the solution I have? I guess I can do masonry as I this. Other than that, I don't know what to do. So here's a solution. Served on a platter.
[:[00:35:57] Eric Goranson: We'll have to, that might be a DIY project for [00:36:00] me because my house, I mean, I, I look at the street is a. Fairly busy street, but I got my two yard bins. Yeah, I got the trash bin, the recycle bin and the glass bin. Yeah, and the glass bin's. The one I'm trying to hide because I don't wanna see how many bottles are in that glass bin every week.
[:[00:36:22] Jeff Schulz: Sense there's some good breweries up in your neck of Absolutely,
[:[00:36:34] Eric Goranson: Let's take out the, the light commercial or whatever, but even from the homeowner's perspective, to be able to put that stuff away. You can hide it. And so you're not one of the TVs. I think it's a commercial out there where they're making fun of the new homeowner, washing his trash cans, , no, put 'em in enclosure.
[:[00:36:52] Jeff Schulz: not met there. And it is so, you know, the residential, but the commercial, you know, again, talking about that commercial, but people looking for solutions. So instead of an [00:37:00] architect saying, I need to find, or, or a general contractor or a property owner, I need to now go find a manufacturer for decking.
[:[00:37:26] Jeff Schulz: Here are your, uh, here's the railing here. You know, from that perspective, we're trying to make it simple. All encompassing for the homeowner and the commercial project.
[:[00:37:44] Eric Goranson: Right? And I, it's, I go by the multi-family apartments that have the outside decks. And every 10 years they've got scaffolding up, they're ripping out all that wood that's coming out of the side. And I'm like, what are you guys doing? Right? You know, that should be steel. And they're gonna [00:38:00] get decades out of that compared to, you know, cuz no offense, apartment people, it's not always taken care of.
[:[00:38:21] Jeff Schulz: it is. So, and Tim, sorry, I feel like I'm talking a lot here.
[:[00:38:42] Jeff Schulz: So why would I put in. Thing when I've got composite, why would I put in, um, you know, why am I going to have a fabricator? Because, right, right now, today, maybe it's a couple percent less to have a fabricator come out and weld my fence or my railing outside and then paint it. Well, guess what's gonna happen in three years?
[:[00:39:08] Eric Goranson: Just set it and forget it. Yeah, and you know, it's, it's, it's the conversation. We have, I'll, I'll do a lot of shows. We do one or two a year for people that are, you know, wanting multi-family stuff.
[:[00:39:34] Eric Goranson: Where that, where it comes back at
[:[00:39:50] Jeff Schulz: By year two, that homeowner, that potential homeowner is driving up there and saying, Ooh, do they even take care of things? This, it's, it's gray. It's not. Yeah, so, so I mean it's that [00:40:00] perception as well. And it's great for contractors to know about the commercial aspect of Fortress, even if they're residential because it's that peace of mind to a homeowner that says, look, we're putting this in residential, but we're even doing so much commercial.
[:[00:40:15] Eric Goranson: Absolutely. And I think, like for instance, you know, you've got those, uh, composite panels, those can be great fencing as well, especially if you've got road noise and things like that. Yeah. There is some, there's some properties.
[:[00:40:41] Jeff Schulz: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you, you asked about decking. Tim, I don't know if you want to talk a little bit about our decking solution, our clouding solution? Yeah. From, yeah, let's get into that.
[:[00:40:57] Tim Sandlund: That's actually begging my parents put on it. I love it. [00:41:00] Yeah. It's, it's one of the more natural looking deckings out there. Um, the feel of it is incredible. So it's, it's capped twice Right. And they actually tear off. Oh, cool. As they hand scrape at the top layer of that cap, it gives a, a much deeper texture than most of the other pvc.
[:[00:41:18] Eric Goranson: of just light embossed and you look at it and go, well, there's no depth to it, but okay. I see what you're trying to do.
[:[00:41:35] Tim Sandlund: Our apex decking very similar to putting like the, uh, sorry. Hey, thanks. IQ tools,
[:[00:41:45] Tim Sandlund: Very similar black, uh, material down on stairs that mm-hmm. for slipper resistance, and it just comes natural with the way that that decking is manufactured. So with our decking, you can also use it for cla.
[:[00:41:59] Eric Goranson: and that is [00:42:00] so huge right now with cladding. Yeah. You know, put in that accent stuff, you know, you've got the, the, the black or charcoal house and you put the light clatting with the horizontal texture or something on it. It's huge in the contemporary. And of course commercial has been doing it for years.
[:[00:42:34] Eric Goranson: Mossy haze to it and without that texture on a deck, when it's those ones that have that really light texture, you walk out on it after it being out there before you've had a chance to clean it. It's like an ice skating rink. It is. And that texture makes a huge difference on slipper resistance coming from into that springtime or when you're going outside, Hey, I'm just gonna go out to the hot tub cuz it's snowing out here.
[:[00:43:03] Tim Sandlund: You know, say you talk about safe area with life, right? Yeah. It's an opportunity on the side.
[:[00:43:23] Jeff Schulz: Absolutely. So we've got this aging gener, these generations that, you know, it's an opportunity for them. You know, Hey, I want something that I'm not gonna slip on like Canada. I don't know. Others or not. But I slipped the first time in my life today. I slipped in the bathtub and I caught myself. Oh. And it's like, but I think about, you know, from a deck perspective, exterior, where you've got moisture, you've got rain, you've got all do all these different things.
[:[00:44:00] Jeff Schulz: Right? Well, and
[:[00:44:18] Eric Goranson: But they're gonna be hanging out with us for a few years, you know? And so you're trying to find that happy medium and you get that, you get something that's beautiful, right? And safe, which is kind of the win for everybody,
[:[00:44:48] Jeff Schulz: I mean, it, it truly is made that apex decking is, is, is great.
[:[00:45:05] Jeff Schulz: We talked about Tim wanting to shower for his neighbors. We've got that.
[:[00:45:17] Jeff Schulz: I think you, I don't if you wanna expand on maybe some of the other railing, Tim. I mean, so it's not just steel railing, uh, you know, whether it be cable, whether it be aluminum, whether it be glass.
[:[00:45:45] Jeff Schulz: And it's important, you know, so much goes into code compliance and code testing. Mm-hmm. , it's, that's something else for contractors and for homeowners to be concerned about that says, Hey, these products. Code. What if I put in this product, oh, maybe it costs a [00:46:00] little bit less, and then two weeks later it's like, oh, it's red tagged.
[:[00:46:11] Tim Sandlund: Yeah. And to that, right? A picture was just sent to me yesterday with our aluminum mail, 13 plus. Okay. Which is our residential and commercial. Mm-hmm. . So it, it is, it rated for commercial applications.
[:[00:46:41] Tim Sandlund: And that, that builder went out and looked at it. They have the, they have to obviously swap out a few panels, but the posts are so straight, the post are straight and the deck itself and the homeowner's like, this is the only thing that saved us from redoing this massive deck. And so, well, yeah,
[:[00:46:57] Eric Goranson: Chopsticks, right? Yeah. I mean, it would've just, it would've just not even [00:47:00] known it was there. That would've gone right through it.
[:[00:47:08] Tim Sandlund: It may look very similar, right? Because from the design aesthetics. But are you, you taking a shortcut that things happen that you're not really aware of or you can't plan for it, be protected, right. Go with the brand, the company that is gonna stand behind their product. Yep. Right. We innovate and we build and we want it to last.
[:[00:47:46] Eric Goranson: I think in five years, if I'm gonna make a prediction and it's not, cuz I'm sitting in your booth, I think wood framing is gonna become the alternative. Right. Just because this makes so much. That, I mean, right. ?
[:[00:48:08] Jeff Schulz: I don't, I talk about international, so traveling to international markets, traveling throughout North America, and really getting feedback on how we make that. System, um, you know, mass appeal for that system. And so we've really put that work into it. And we do believe, like yourself, glad to have you in the, uh, the Steel Nation camp there, that we, we truly believe it is a, it's a game changer for the industry and will become the norm, uh, in the not too distant future.
[:[00:48:35] Tim Sandlund: That's important about that is, and Jeff alluded to it, like our team did a lot of work to build a system that allows contractors to build, like they were with wood. Yeah. Not only that, but every part and piece is fortress down to the screws, the brackets, um, nice. Every panel, right? Everything goes to Joyce, everything goes together.
[:[00:49:11] Tim Sandlund: Jeff? Talk about how easy it is to buy. Right? Well, now you just, you go and you buy everyth. Portrait from that framing and it builds like wood. And actually we talk about it, it builds quicker. Once you install the questions. People are actually installing it quicker than they would, it would frame, so any
[:[00:49:33] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Right. Matched, right. I mean you, how many people do you watch now on, on Instagram? The challenge, the, the level challenge of my buddy started, you know? Yeah. How many of 'em
[:[00:49:44] Eric Goranson: Framing? Because it's gonna be perfectly straight. It's gonna be, that's the easy button was still framing, otherwise they're spending, you know, hours of time in which is either you're doing it as a homeowner, you're spending hours to do it or paying somebody to do it.
[:[00:50:18] Eric Goranson: Kind of
[:[00:50:34] Jeff Schulz: Let us help you on that journey, uh, because it is, don't be intimidated by it truly is a, you know, people think. New products, I'm not sure. Cause the first time you do something new, usually it's like, this is what I see that this is, I only notice what's different. Like, yeah. But, but that second and third install, it's like, wow, this is great.
[:[00:50:59] Eric Goranson: [00:51:00] Amen. All right guys. Thanks for coming in and, uh, can't wait till next year to see what you guys have coming out as well.
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