News

Antique Nickel Finish – Truly Unique

Our antique nickel has a smooth black base coat with a warm nickel hand rubbed over the baluster. The way this is faux finished gives an aged & high end look and feel.

No other competitor will have such a high quality and truly unique finish.

Let’s Compare – Oil Rubbed Bronze

Oil Rubbed Bronze is easily the best selling finish on the market and not just for stair parts, but for door knobs, cabinet hardware, light fixtures… everything.  The biggest issue with the Oil Rubbed Bronze finish is that so many companies make a really bad ORB.

I made this chart this morning showing the difference in some of the ORB finishes you will find in the stair market. Ours is on the left and 3 different competitors are on the right.

I will let the photo speak for itself on why we have the best looking ORB finish in the stair market. (These photos have not been altered in anyway)

Iron Baluster Shoes – What are they used for?

On the tops and bottoms of iron balusters you can sometimes find what we call shoes. These shoes are decorative pieces that are used to hide the gaps and imperfections left over after drilling holes for your install. They are purely decorative and do not support the baluster structurally in any way.

You install them by sliding them on your baluster, use glue to secure your baluster, then slide the shoe down to hide any leftover gaps.

Here is the tricky part. Do you want to use the set screw or do you just want to epoxy the shoe down?

If you choose to use the set screw, you may have a larger gap on one side of the baluster shoe because the screw does push the shoe to one side.  The screw could also come lose over time if your baluster shoes are knocked around.  You can choose to ignore the screw and simply use epoxy to hold it into place. This allows you to evenly space the shoe around the baluster to avoid any gap issues, but its much harder to use this method if you are using shoes under the top of the handrail.

When looking at shoes, purchase the shoe that is made for your baluster.  1/2″ Shoes are for 1/2 Balusters. 9/16″ shoes for 9/16″ Balusters.  9/16″ Tuscan shoes are for the tuscan hand hammered balusters. 5/8″ shoes are for 5/8″ balusters.

Keep in mind that just because the shoe says 1/2″ that doesn’t mean the opening is exactly 1/2″. The opening will be larger than 1/2″ because the baluster has to fit inside the hole. A 1/2″ shoe might have a 9/16″ opening. This is to account for any variance in the baluster size and powder coating thickness.  Also you can’t squeeze a 1/2″ baluster into an exact 1/2″ hole or you would scrape up the baluster.

Another thing to look out for are using shoes for the hammered balusters. Hammered balusters have some spots that may be 1/2″ and some spots that may be 9/16″ or even larger. They are hand hammered and there could be some variance. For this reason the opening on the shoes for Tuscan balusters is slightly larger and depending on where your baluster is cut and where the shoe ends up sitting the amount of gap left over could be less or more. This will not be an issue and in fact because the hand hammered look is desired for more rustic and Italian style homes it will even give off a more hand crafted look that is preferred by most designers.

Types of Hammered Balusters

This weeks topic is regarding the different types of hammered iron balusters. Some hammering is done by hand and some is machine made.

Tuscan Square Hammered

Tuscan square hammered is a hand hammered product. It is a 9/16″ Square bar but due to the hand hammering it could be 5/8″ at its widest down to 1/2″. Every bar is completely different. Oil Rubbed Bronze looks great on this style.

Tuscan Round Hammered

Tuscan round hammered is also a hand hammered product. The size measures 9/16″ round. These are also hammered by hand giving them a textured round shape. Oil Rubbed Bronze is also the most popular finish for this style.

Gothic Hammered

Gothic hammered is a machine made finished with evenly spaced stamps on the face of the bar. The hammering is the same on every bar. This bar measures 9/16″ Square. Oil Rubbed Copper is the most popular finish for this style.

Santa Fe Hammered

Santa fe hammered is another machine finish with evenly spaced hammering on the corners of the bar. Santa fe hammered only comes in Satin Black and it also measures 9/16″ Square.

We Beat Competitor Pricing by 5%

You know you are doing well when your competitors copy everything you do. They steal our photos, our promotion ideas, some even copy our layout and design… and they even try to get sales using our name and slogan.

Well the one thing none of those drop-ship non-stocking stores can do.. is beat our pricing.

Show us a quote from a competitor and we will beat it by 5%.

**Applies to a complete quote from a competitor. Does not apply to single items from multiple websites.**