Garage Door Materials

Douglas Fir

Formal Name: Pseudotsuga menziesii
Artisan Use:
Recommended Finish: PAINT or STAIN

Douglas Fir is Canada’s largest conifer and the strongest of British Columbia’s family of fine softwoods. It is characterized by its distinctive natural attributes of strength, stiffness, durability and beauty. It also accepts a variety of stains and finishes well with a clear, tight, straight grain.

Golden-orange in color, the narrow sapwood is light in color, while the wider and more durable heartwood ranges from yellowish to reddish brown. Spring and summerwood have a pronounced difference in color, with the summerwood having darker and more sharply defined bands. This difference in color results in a distinctive grain pattern when the log is flat-sawn.

Douglas fir can be counted on to be a strong, stiff, stable wood and is used in our high end mortise & tenon core frames.

Western Red Cedar

Formal Name: Thuja plicata
Other Names: Pacific Redcedar, Giant Arborvitae
Artisan Use:
Recommended Finish: PAINT or STAIN
Artisan Requirement: Edge Profile: SQUARE EDGE only

Western Red cedar is native to the Pacific Northwest US and Canada. The soft red-brown timber has a tight, straight grain and few knots. It is valued for its flexibility, strength in proportion to its weight, distinct appearance, aroma, and its high natural resistance to decay, being extensively used for outdoor construction.

Its rich coloring ranges from a light milky straw color, pale yellowish white in the sapwood to reddish to pinkish brown, often with random streaks and bands of darker red/brown areas in the heartwood. It is a stable wood but soft so it dents and scratches easily. It seasons quickly, has a low shrinkage factor, is free of pitch and has excellent finishing qualities. Iron-based fasteners can stain and discolor the wood, especially in the presence of moisture.

Spanish Cedar

Formal Name: Cedrela odorata
Other Names: South American Cedar, Brazilian Cedar, Cuban cedar
Artisan Use: Recommended Finish: PAINT or STAIN

The heartwood of Spanish Cedar ranges in color from pinkish- to reddish-brown, when first cut. The color darkens as it ages to a dark reddish-brown, and sometimes displays a purplish tinge. The sapwood ranges in tones from white to pinkish-white. The grain is prominent and usually straight, but sometimes appears interlocked. The wood texture ranges from fine and uniform to coarse and uneven, with a medium luster. Spanish Cedar produces a distinctive odor and is often oily on the surface. It is a strong hardwood with soft to medium density, however, very strong in relation to weight, fine to medium texture, straight to wavy.

Spanish Cedar is highly resistant to decay, fungi and termites making it a good exterior as well as interior hardwood. This imported cedar grows in Central and South America from Mexico to Argentina.

Sapele Mahogany

Formal Name: Entandrophragma Cylindricum
Artisan Use:
Recommended Finish: PAINT or STAIN
Sapele is an imported hardwood and is found in lower tropical rain forests and tropical semi-evergreen rain forests throughout Africa.

Sapele heartwood is medium to dark-reddish brown with a medium texture, high-luster, pale yellow sapwood. Sapele is very similar to African mahogany, with a fine, interlocked grain. It may also yield a wavy grain that produces a distinctive roe figure on quartered surfaces. Sapele heartwood stains well and is suited to a variety of finishes retaining its color over time.

Red Grandis

Formal Name: Eucalyptus Grandis
Artisan Use:
Recommended Finish: PAINT or STAIN

Red Grandis is a versatile, fast-growing hardwood from a Eucalyptus tree that is native to coastal Australia. This tree is now grown in Uruguay, South America, on plantations that are FSC certified for their sustainable practices.

This premium quality, renewable hardwood is relatively uniform in color with slight variations from pale to medium pink. The attractive, moderately coarse grain pattern is predominantly straight but in some cases may be slightly interlocked. It is similar in hardness, density and grain texture to mahogany and cherry. The heartwood is durable and resistant to insects, with durability and dimensional stability similar to Sapele, cherry or hard maple. Red Grandis is a premium quality hardwood is consistently stable, is an excellent exterior hardwood, holds paint well and is an affordable alternative to Spanish Cedar and African Mahogany.

Tricoya® Panels

Tricoya® products are manufactured using a revolutionary new process that is widely recognized as the gold standard for creating high performance wood composite products which can be used in extreme weather conditions without the typical wood product issues of cracks, delamination and degradation. Tricoya panels combine the stability and durability of non-wood materials with all the advantages of wood-composite panels: sustainability, versatility, light weight and ease of use for installation, coating and forming. Tricoya:

• Is resistant to fungal decay
• Is FSC certified and sourced from sustainable sources
• has an extended service life of 50 years for above ground and 25 years for in-ground exterior use that is significantly longer than Extira and MDF.
• has the manufacturing flexibility of MDF
• has lower maintenance costs because of extended periods between exterior coating maintenance
• has improved stability and durability enhances service life of the coating. Damaged coating or core will not impact durability.
• Is non-toxic at its end of life

Extira® Boards and Panels

Extira Boards and Panels:

Extira is a product for exterior applications that performs better than wood or MDF. These panels may look like MDF, but they don’t perform like it. Different ingredients and a patented and proprietary manufacturing process lead to a superior performance. Extira is easy to work with; can be carved, routed and machined. Resists moisture, rot, and termites. Twice as strong as MDF, Extira is made to be used outdoors. Extira has a 10-year warranty.

Vinyl (Cellular PVC)

Cellular PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) is a popular wood-replacement product. Cellular PVC is less dense than solid rigid PVC and as a result is more economical. Cellular PVC has most of the good qualities of real wood but none of wood’s maintenance requirements. While it does cost more than wood, this product will not splinter, twist or warp. It is resistant to insects, salt and impervious to moisture. Highly durable, PVC comes with a semi-matt surface and white in color and does not require priming or painting.

There’s no need to paint PVC for performance because it is impervious to moisture and the semi-matt finish is durable and resists scratches and dents. If the semi-matt finish or white color is not your choice, a 100% acrylic paint can be used on a properly prepared surface. We recommend using only paint colors with a Light Reflective Value (LRV) of 60 or higher, generally lighter colors, and the paint finish will typically last for years.

We do not recommend painting a vinyl door in dark colors because it will absorb excessive heat from the sun and void the Artisan warranty.

Urethane Composite

Our urethane composite is manufactured to the highest quality standards.

• It far exceeds the performance of wood without any aesthetic compromise.
• Edges are sharp, clean, and offer the true authentic look of wood.
• It will not rot, will hold paint better than wood, and provides lower maintenance over the life of the product.
• It comes factory primed with a high emulsion exterior latex paint that is chemically bonded during manufacture and will not peel or crack.
• It is made from water-based, environmentally friendly products.
• Can withstand the high temperatures from sun exposures on surfaces facing south and/or west as well as from dark paint finishes.
• Can be finish coated with any high quality, 100% acrylic latex exterior paint.