Month: May 2021

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Best Practices for Selecting Replacement Shutters

Black Vantage shutters on white brick Colonial

Replacement shutters are one of the easiest ways to give the home exterior an instant facelift. Simple changes in shutter color or style can transform the façade with minimal work—it’s a small investment that can net a big payoff.

“For the cost and labor, shutters should come to mind more often for home improvement projects,” says Matt Bjorkstrom, Associate Merchant for Lowe’s, which exclusively distributes Vantage shutters. “When you change out the shutters, it really makes a difference to the façade.”

Here are a few things to keep in mind as you choose new replacement shutters for the home:

• Consider size: When choosing new shutters, sizing is just as important as color and style. Even though most shutters today are solely decorative, they’re meant to mimic real, operable units. So when choosing a size, ensure the new shutters “appear” that they would close properly over the window. Otherwise, they’ll look inauthentic.

In addition, make sure the replacement shutters are the same size as or larger than your current shutters.

• Choose replacement shutter styles that complement your home exterior: Certain shutter styles go better with some materials versus others. For example, panel-style shutters are ideal for brick or fiber cement facades, while louvered shutters go well with vinyl siding, traditional homes, or coastal homes. Board-and-batten is well-suited to Craftsman exteriors or more contemporary looks.

Also keep your neighborhood in mind: Are there HOA requirements or restrictions? What styles will be complementary to (though not necessarily match) neighboring homes?

And be sure to use the same style shutter throughout the exterior; mixing styles on the same home will look off. The same goes for shutter colors.

Vantage open louver shutters
Vantage open louver shutters are the perfect complement to this traditional-style home.

• Seize the color opportunity: Because shutters are an easy, relatively affordable way to refresh your exterior, it gives you more freedom to experiment and be bold. Black shutters will always look great, but why not try out new, eye-catching color combinations, Bjorkstrom suggests, such as teal shutters on gray siding?

The front door is another place to experiment with bolder colors, so consider matching the entry door and the shutters to create pops of color and really set the home apart from others.

Blue Vantage shutters on brick Colonial home
Blue Vantage shutters with matching entry door differentiate this brick Colonial-style home while still feeling authentic.

• Seek out inspiration: Shutters are a component that make a façade feel complete yet don’t stick out. Look to sites like Pinterest and Houzz for shutter inspiration—what adds to a home versus distracts? What color combinations pop without looking garish? Also, be check out Vantage’s idea gallery for more ideas.

To find Vantage shutters at your neighborhood Lowe’s, visit our Where to Buy page.

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Boral Celebrates 75-Year Anniversary

Boral helps its customers Build something great™ by supplying them with high-quality, innovative, sustainable building products and construction materials. It is a purpose that mirrors the company’s 75-year history.

Founded in 1946 as Bitumen and Oil Refineries (Australia) Limited, Boral has become Australia’s largest construction materials and building products company with a global reach, a reach that includes Boral North America’s portfolio of category leaders across stone veneer, roofing, siding, heavy materials, windows, shutters, and trim. The company officially rebranded in 1963 to the BORAL acronym that had been commonly used since its beginning.

Boral employees leaving for the United States in 1947.
The first employees, just before they embarked on their training trip to the United States, in 1947.

While Boral officially entered North America in 1979, many of the companies and brands that have since become part of Boral have longer histories here. For example, Cultured Stone began in 1962 when two brothers, Garrett and Floyd Brown, saw the need for a new kind of building material, one that resembled natural stone but was much lighter and would adhere to most surfaces.

This commitment to answering customers’ unmet needs and helping builders and other specifiers grow their business with new product and technology solutions remains an integral part of Boral. Customers and partners can see that innovation come to life at the Boral Discovery Center in San Antonio, Texas. Opened in 2016, the state-of-the-art Discovery Center is home to scientists and engineers keenly focused on developing the future of building materials.

Sydney Opera House under construction
The forecourt of the Sydney Opera House during construction. Boral supplied and laid the asphalt.

Boral has been involved in many iconic building projects over the past 75 years, from the Sydney Opera House and Olympic stadium to the Fisherman’s Wharf Pier in San Francisco and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida, not to mention some of the most important projects of all — the places people call home.

Boral North America’s Brands

Boral North America comprises numerous product brands you sell every day:

Boral Building Products

AtlanticPremium Shutters • Builders Edge • Foundry Specialty Siding • Kleer Lumber • Mid-America Siding Components • SturdiMount • Tapco Tools • TruExterior Siding & Trim • Vantage • Versetta Stone • Wellcraft Egress Systems

Boral Roofing

Boral Roof Tile and Components • Boral Steel – Stone Coated Steel • Inspire by Boral • Roof System Components • US Tile by Boral

Boral Stone

Cultured Stone • Drain-N-Dry Lath • Dutch Quality Stone • Eldorado Stone • Kindred Outdoors + Surrounds • ProStone • StoneCraft Industries • Versetta Stone

Boral Windows

Fly Ash + Synthetic Gypsum

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Cost vs. Value Report: Exterior Products, Manufactured Stone Veneer Deliver Leading ROI

Versetta Stone in Ledgestone Mission Point

Manufactured stone once again has shown its ability to recoup homeowners’ remodeling investment. According to the Remodeling 2021 Cost vs. Value Report, an annual study by Remodeling magazine, manufactured stone veneer offers a 92.1% return on investment. That ROI is second only to garage door replacement.

The Remodeling Cost vs. Value Report compares the average costs of 22 remodeling projects with the value those investments will retain at resale. The study looked at the cost recouped from replacing a 300-square-foot band of vinyl siding from the bottom third of a home’s front façade with manufactured stone veneer (such as Boral Building Products’ Versetta Stone), sills, corners, and address block.

Manufactured stone veneer’s place in the study is slightly down from 2020, where it reached No. 1 with an ROI of 95.6%. Still, manufactured stone was 20 percentage points higher than the third project on the list, minor kitchen remodel.

Along with manufactured stone and garage doors, exterior products dominated the top of the Remodeling 2021 Cost vs. Value Report list, claiming 11 of the top 12 spots: fiber cement siding replacement (69.4% cost recouped); vinyl window replacement (68.6%); vinyl siding replacement (68.3%); wood window replacement (67.4%); wood deck addition (67.4%); steel entry door replacement (65.0%); composite deck addition (63.2%); fiberglass grand entrance (60.9%); and asphalt shingle roof replacement (60.7%).

“The trend of exterior replacements outperforming larger discretionary remodeling projects has been accelerated, no doubt, by a year in which COVID has made people reluctant to have contractors inside their homes, but yearning to improve outdoor spaces,” the Remodeling editors said. “It’s been a year when we’d expect decks to reign supreme, but the data doesn’t track what’s most popular. The Cost vs. Value report tracks the ratio of value over cost for 22 common remodeling projects, and in that ratio lies the rub: Material costs, especially for decking and pressure-treated framing lumber, went through the roof in 2020, bringing down the return despite the project’s value.”

Manufactured Stone Delivers Most ROI in Two Regions

Manufactured stone maintains a similar level of ROI when broken down geographically, with 90% or more of cost recouped across all regions. In two regions, however, manufactured stone came out on top: West North Central (North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri), with 94.1% ROI, and South Atlantic (Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida), with 94.1% ROI.

See the full study and evaluation of trends at www.costvsvalue.com.

(Remodeling 2021 Cost vs. Value Report: © 2021 Zonda. Complete data from the Remodeling 2021 Cost vs. Value Report can be downloaded free at www.costvsvalue.com.)