We’re upgrading our technology to serve you better!

We will be switching to a new point of sale computer system to serve you better. With technology changing at such a rapid rate, our old computer system wasn’t keeping up. We will be switching to Spruce computer systems over the August long-weekend.

There shouldn’t be much disruption in service for you, but there will be a couple of changes;

  • you will get invoices emailed to you daily or weekly from us directly, not from Dokmail as we do now.
  • you will have a login to view and pay your invoices directly in our system if you wish.
  • In the future, you will be able to log in to our system and see your prices if you are doing quotes after hours, or order materials to be delivered to your jobsite.

Please be patient if we have a few glitches along the way, in the long run, it will be better for everyone!

Basement renovations for comfort

Basement renovations are a great way to extend living space and add extra coziness to your client’s homes in the winter months.

  • Armstrong ceiling tiles by Goodfellow come in a variety of patterns and designs to make the ceiling something worth looking at.
  • Armstrong engineered flooring offers an easy-to-install, durable alternative to wood in sub-foundation spaces where minimizing sub-floor height is a consideration.
  • WallDesign Panels are affordable, easy to install and made of high quality materials combined with 100 per cent recycled wood. They come in a variety of colours and textures to offer style to any space.

Insulate for warmth and efficiency

Renovations are an optimal time to check insulation, especially in winter. Johns Manville has an insulation solution for every space in your client’s home to meet their budget and energy requirements.

  • Climate Pro® blow-in fiberglass insulation custom fits hard-to-reach cavities and corners, making installation easier and faster.
  • CI Max® offers a great solution to basements left partially unfinished. CI Max is high-efficiency sheathing that can meet code requirements to leave facing exposed in unfinished areas.
  • FSK-25 batts are lightweight, formaldehyde-free thermal and acoustical fiberglass insulation designed with a foil facer that provides superior fire resistance as well as a vapour barrier

Let the light in

New windows are an excellent way for your clients to improve energy efficiency and enhance the look of their homes. JELD-WEN’s window gallery offers a look at the many choices for home retrofits, including casement, single hung, awning and more.

Check out JELD-WEN’s tips on how to get the best measurement on your unique renovation project.

How colour contributes to accessible design

As the population ages, more Canadians are opting to renovate homes that will accommodate them for a lifetime. That’s where accessible design comes in. This residential case study featured by Sherwin Williamsexplains how wider walkways, well-placed light switches, furniture spacing and even colour contrasting contribute to accessible design success.

  • Colour-contrasting surfaces aid the visually impaired
  • Flat enamel finish interior paints minimize light reflection, which can be disoriented for people with visual impairment.

Sherwin Williams has a broad range of colour selections and tips for contractors to help your clients find the colours most suited to their homes.

Exterior renos? Take the chore out of colour selection

Gentek’s World of Colour offers some great tools to help you and your clients pick the best colour combinations for their exterior home renovations.

Gentek’s colour selection chart helps your homeowner clients choose the right paint selection for vinyl or aluminum siding, soffits and fascia, eaves and vinyl windows.

Plus, Gentek’s photo gallery gives homeowners the visual aid they need when choosing colour combinations for their home exteriors.

Cedar Arbours 60% off.

We have a limited supply of split cedar arbours on for 60% off. They are on sale for $250, the regular price is $650, while quantities last. These things are heavy duty, 8′ tall, 6′ wide, and 3′ deep. They are weathered, but in 2 years the regular priced ones will look the same as these anyway. Check them out here, scroll down to see a picture of the arbour. We also have some weathered split cedar rail fencing posts on sale for half price.

Check out our Simpson Strongtie outdoor accents display

Outdoor Accents is a new line of decorative hardware, featuring ornamental wood connectors and fasteners. Now you can bring both beauty and strength to outdoor living structures such as pergolas, gazebos and patio covers. This corrosion-resistant hardware accommodates 4x and 6x lumber sizes. Find out more!

Grasse Lumber Order Schedule – Calgary Thursdays!

Freight costs are a big part of doing business in a rural area. As a result, we try to schedule our Calgary pickups as much as possible. We have a tandem truck that goes to Calgary on Thursdays to pick up our stock orders. If you get your orders in to us by Wednesday noon we are usually able to include your special orders along with our stock orders with little or no additional freight charges. Thanks!

Durable exteriors

LP® SmartSide® Trim & Siding offers the warmth and beauty of traditional wood with the durability of LP engineered wood. It’s a complete line of high-performance trim and siding products to complement almost any building style. All LP SmartSide products feature an innovative, four component SmartGuard® manufacturing process for strength and to resist fungal decay and termites.

Complement Mother Nature’s Beauty with TimberTech Terrain decking

The Terrain Decking Collection’s earthy, adaptable tones embody the spirit of the outdoors. Whether with Brown Oak’s warm chestnut notes or the subdued stormy gray tones of Stone Ash, a Terrain Collection deck will enrich the natural beauty of your outdoor space.

Enjoy the low-maintenance and lasting benefits of a tough TimberTech® Deck:

  • Tough: Proprietary composite core surrounded with a protective polymer shell on all 4 sides
  • Enduring: Stands up to harsh weather; resists stains, scratches, and fading
  • Durable: Resists mold, mildew, and moisture damage
  • Beautiful: Texturized to retain the integrity of real wood graining
  • Low-maintenance: No annual sealing or staining required for protection
  • Protected: Comes with 30-year fade-and-stain and 25-year limited warranties

We stock Silver Maple with all other colors available on special order. Check out the options at timbertech.com/products/decking/terrain

Get the best Return on Investment

If you’re daydreaming about some renos either now, or this summer, here is a list of the best returns on investment for your reno dollar. On any of these projects we can recommend some good local contractors to install them for you.

Entry Door Replacement – Your Top ROI Project

Steel entry door replacement is the project expected to return the most money, with an estimated 101.8 per cent of costs recouped upon resale, says Realtors’ ‘Cost vs. Value Report.’ The steel entry door replacement is consistently the least expensive project in the report, costing little more than $1,200 on average and was the only project on this year’s list to recoup more than 100 per cent of its cost at resale on a national level. Other projects that make a big financial payoff upon resale include a manufactured stone veneer (92.2 per cent of costs recouped), a garage door replacement (88.5 per cent), a siding replacement with fibre cement (84.3 per cent), a wood deck addition (80.5 per cent), and a minor kitchen remodel (79.3 per cent). Since 2003, replacement projects resulted in a higher financial return than remodeling projects. However, the gap between replacement and remodeling projects became bigger this year as both categories declined in value.

Front entry Doors (102% return) – We sell Kohltech -30 yr warranty on parts AND LABOUR, including seals www.kohltech.com

Manufactured stone (92% return) – We sell Fusion Stone. It’s easy to do yourself, check it out at www.fusionstone.ca

Garage doors (89% return) – We sell Steelcraft garage doors www.steel-craft.ca. We can install them for you!

Fibre cement siding (84% return) – We sell James Hardie, and can recommend some local installers for you. www.jameshardie.ca

Wood Deck (81% return) – We sell treated decking and Timbertech decking. Come in and ask Dwight to do you a quote complete with a 3-D drawing of your deck, it’s awesome. www.timbertech.com

Kitchen remodel (79% return) – We sell Euro-rite kitchen cabinets. Ask Dwight and he can give you a quote on your kitchen with a 3-D drawing so you can picture what it will look like. www.eurorite.com

Have a great February!

Lowell Grasse

Keep the draft out

There’s nothing like winter weather to highlight air leaks in your clients’ homes. Gentek windows are an attractive way to get top performance and keep the drafts out:

Insulated Glass packages features a wide range of EnergyPlus and Solar Shield glass packages that let you customize your windows to meet the specific climate conditions of your home.
Variety of shapes and colours to choose from
Carries Vinyl and Aluminum Windows

Interior flooring – an instant makeover

Whether it’s a pre-Christmas update or a full-on renovation, Goodfellow’s wide selection of engineered flooring can give homes a quick uft.

Armstrong Engineered hardwood

Strong dimensional stabilitypli
Easy installation : glue directly on concrete, staple to a wood subfloor or lay as a floating floor without fasteners
Easy to maintain
Goodfellow Bamboo

Lighter than hardwood, but with the appearance and texture of natural flooring
Reacts very little to ambient humidity
Planks are machined with such precision that they fit each other to perfection, resulting in a smooth, even, totally magnificent finish.

November is a great time to think about 2017 home renovation projects.

Gentek: Visualize exterior finishings

Gentek Building Products has a popular Home Design Studiothat can help you and your clients visualize the next project. Submit your questions and up to three photographs of your home, and we will have one of Gentek’s professionals offer design tips and suggestions.

Are you a fan of the show “Fixer Upper?”

If you are, then I don’t have to explain what shiplap is. It was common before the advent of plywood and is found on old buildings. We have had some custom run and have been selling it for renovating old buildings and for rustic feature walls. It is 5 ½” wide and is .98/linealfootwhichworksoutto.98/linealfootwhichworksoutto2.50 per square foot.

Laminate Flooring

Come check out our pallet specials on laminate flooring.

They are a great DIY project that brings immediate results.

The snow has already started to fall out West – Mother Nature’s cheeky reminder that winter is right around the corner.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you and your customers get your home winter ready – inside and out.

Outdoor checklist

Clean the gutters – The leaves are falling. Those that sit in the gutter will trap and pool water, which have the potential to cause big damage with a big snow or rainfall.
Rake or mulch leaves – Most municipalities offer a pick-up program for garden debris. While raking gives your lawn a cleaner look, mulching as you do the final mow will leave a layer of natural compost on your lawn all winter.
Inspect the roof – Check for loose shingles or areas where there may be water leaks. It’s warmer to do it now than when the temperatures hit subzero.
Shut off outdoor water supply – Exterior hoses and irrigation systems should be drained; outdoor water supply can be blocked or shut off from inside to prevent pipe freezing.

Indoor checklist

Sweep the chimneys – This is a job to have done by a professional. According to Fire Prevention Canada, most chimney fires are caused by wood-burning units.
Caulk around windows and doors – Nothing worse than cold air seeping in through tiny cracks. Weather changes can cause shifting, even in new houses, so it’s worth a quick go-around the house.
Inspect the furnace or heating unit – No one wants to have to replace the heat supply unit when it’s -20 degrees.
Insulate the attic – While you’re up there, be sure you don’t have any rodents looking for a winter home.

Plan winter projects

It’s a great time to start thinking about winter renovations. As you go through the checklist for you or your homeowner, it’s a good time to take stock of what else needs to be done. Popular winter projects include:

Bathroom upgrades
Basement and family room renovations
Flooring
Painting and trim
Contact us for all your supply needs. Our staff are here and ready to help. Contact us for all your supply needs. Our staff are here and ready to help.

Keep the damp out with RESISTO

With the warm weather still lingering, it’s hard to imagine the shift to winter that will take place in a few weeks. September is a great time to think about waterproofing your home.

RESISTO offers a number of coatings, sealers and membranes to help you get started.

RESISTOSEAL FOUNDATION COATING is composed of bitumen and fast-evaporating solvent. It is used for the damproofing for foundation walls, footings, retaining walls, wing walls, abutments and culverts.
RESISTO EXTERIOR PRIMER is a solvent-based primer containing synthetic polymers and adhesion-enhancing resins. It is used to prime and prepare exterior concrete, metal, wood and plywood surfaces to enhance the adherence of RESISTO self-adhesive membranes and waterproofing strips. Resistant to water, alcohol and most saline, alkaline and dilute acid solutions
The BASIC WATERPROOFING MEMBRANE is a self-adhesive membrane made of elastomeric bitumen and a trilaminate woven polyethylene facer. It is the ideal waterproofing solution for roofs as a base sheet in two-ply roofing systems. It can also be used for decks, balconies, patios, foundations and foundation cracks, shower bases and wash-up rooms.

Taking stock of your tools

As projects shift from summer to autumn, it’s a great time to look at your inventory. IRWIN TOOLS has released a new line of ergonomic cutting tools to help you get the job done.

The new IRWIN VICE-GRIP cutting pliers are made in Germany and backed by IRWIN’s lifetime guarantee.

Made of high-quality steel
Specially coated for superior rust resistance
Induction hardened cutting edges can cut through ACSR, screws and piano wire without damaging the cutting edge
Three-zone comfort grips offer optimal cushion and control for the user

Nails – $20 per box!

A wholesaler closed down and needs to liquidate their inventory. This is what we have (12 pallets worth)
Brand new 50 lb boxes of nails. $20 per box plus GST.
1″ EG roofing
1 1/2″ fence staple EG
1 3/4″ bright fence staples
2 1/2″ ardox
3 1/4″ ardox
4″ ardox
6″ pole barn nails
6″ ardox
8″ bright ardox – good for survey hubs
10″ bright ardox
12″ bright ardox
12″ x3/8″ HG common -good for survey