Rough openings are the framed holes that doors and windows sit in, and they decide how well the finished product performs. An opening that is too small forces the installer to shave the framing. One that is too large leaves gaps that drafts and water find. Material supply matters too: builders in growing markets buy […]
The door and window industry rarely makes headlines outside trade publications, but a $3 billion acquisition announced in January 2024 put it in the spotlight. Masonite International, a door manufacturer based in Tampa, Florida, agreed to buy PGT Innovations, a maker of patio doors and windows based in Nokomis, Florida. The deal combined two of
Door shops exist to take the carpentry out of the door order. A builder calls in the sizes, and the shop measures, sources, pre-hangs, and delivers doors ready to set in the opening. The scale of these operations is substantial: a large-market door shop can span more than 80,000 square feet, and a national network
A hardware store that reopened under new ownership in a Maryland suburb marked the occasion with a ribbon cutting, product demonstrations, and door prizes for the first shoppers through the door. Behind the celebration was a serious retail transition: a new owner took over a store with a loyal following, kept the entire staff, and
A 127,000-square-foot door shop in Commerce City, Colorado, a Denver suburb, was scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2023, with production expected to begin shortly after the new year. The facility reflects a broader shift in how doors reach the job site: millwork plants now assemble pre-hung units in a factory and ship
Sliding door hardware turns a standard door panel into a space-saving partition, and wall-mount systems have made the look practical in any room. The panel hangs from an overhead track, glides on wheeled hangers, and needs no floor track or pocket in the wall, which is why the systems show up in bedrooms, offices, pantries,
Window and door manufacturing has been consolidating for years. Regional specialists that spent decades serving storm-prone markets join national companies, yet the familiar brand names stay on the products and the original leadership often remains in place to run integration. For builders, the practical question is not who owns the factory. It is whether the
A hardware store that opens a new 10,000 sq ft location needs working doors and windows throughout the building, from the front entrance to the back warehouse door. Every one of those openings starts as a rough opening, the framed gap that a door or window unit fits into before the trim goes on. Getting
The wood species behind a window frame decides how the unit looks, how long the finish lasts, and how the sash holds up against decades of sun and rain. Manufacturers have steadily expanded their species offerings, and white oak has moved from flooring and cabinetry into window lineups, available with factory finishes that include a
When a door and hardware dealer that has served a region for more than four decades closes its doors, builders lose more than a counter and a phone number. They lose local stock, warranty relationships, and product knowledge that made routine hardware calls fast. That scenario played out in California in November 2022, when a
