The Materials I Use, and Why the Work Lasts

Tom Eubanks Lumber Company

Where I get MiraTec trim.

This is where I get MiraTec treated exterior composite trim. It comes preprimed, and it's treated to resist:

• Moisture
• Rot
• Termites

It carries a 50-year warranty — about as good as trim warranties get.

84 Lumber

Where I buy LP SmartSide and SmartTrim.

LP makes it, 84 Lumber is the yard that stocks it for me. Engineered siding and trim, treated to resist:

• Moisture
• Fungal decay
• Termites

Those are the three things that kill standard pine trim in this climate. The SmartTrim carries a 50-year limited warranty.

NEVEROT

A cellular PVC window from Central Woodwork.

Everything on it that sees weather is PVC instead of wood, so the frame can't rot, warp, or blister — and the sill is where a wood window goes first, because that's where the water sits.

• The sashes tilt in so they can be cleaned from inside
• The glass comes clear or low-e
• You can paint the outside whatever color the house needs

Central Woodwork warrants the PVC for 20 years and the glass seal for 10.

ProSource Wholesale Floorcoverings

Where I source flooring when a job calls for it.

ProSource is wholesale and trade-only, and has been since 1991. It isn't a home center you can walk into off the street; you reach it through a member's account, and they only hand one out after an application. The material comes in on mine, at wholesale.

• Carpet, hardwood, tile, laminate, and vinyl
• Cabinets and countertops, if the job grows past the floor

The showroom is on Appling Road in Bartlett, which is the area I work out of anyway, so you can go stand on a carpet before you choose it instead of picking off a two-inch sample.

Sherwin-Williams Duration and Emerald

Two lines, two different jobs.

• Duration goes on walls and siding, inside and out. It carries a lifetime limited warranty, and a paint company only does that on a product it expects to still be on the wall in ten years.
• Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel goes on the trim, doors and cabinets. It's water-based but it dries to a hard enamel, which is what you want on the surfaces that actually get touched: door edges, cabinet faces, baseboard that meets a vacuum cleaner.

I use it instead of an oil enamel because oil ambers as it ages and white trim goes cream on you in a few years. This stays white, and it covers in fewer coats besides.