Shutter Adjustment
Old-fashioned styles and new construction techniques combine to make low-maintenance, historically appropriate window dressings.
Scraping, sanding, priming, and painting old, wooden shutters are among the most thankless of home maintenance chores. The stark reality is that once the tasks are completed, what remains is still an old shutter. Thus another costly and time-consuming facelift is but a couple of years down the road.
Atlantic Shutters of Massachusetts has a solution that eliminates the tedious upkeep. Constructed like traditional vintage wooden shutters using keyed joints for maximum strength but fabricated from modern composite materials that won't shrink, peel, check, or rot, Atlantic shutters are long-term investments as much as functional accents for the home. Multiple coats of factory-applied Sherwin-Williams automotive paint allow the company to guarantee the finish for 10 years, and the shutter itself for life. "Actually, the finish is likely to last even longer than that -- 10 years is very conservative," says David Pritchard, primary distributor of Atlantic shutters in eastern New England. "We use a two-part, bonded urethane which allows us to really sock the ultraviolet light inhibitors to the paint, giving incredible longevity, which house paints just don't have."
Traditional wood shutters are made with the endgrain of the lumber exposed, causing moisture to wick into the wood and create rot. At the same time, moisture lifts paint as the wood expands and contracts with weather changes. New off-the-shelf shutters are typically glued only at the joints, a weak bond at best. The materials and construction of Atlantic shutters eliminate all three of these problems.
Ideal for new construction and renovations, the shutters are also suited for historical restorations. "One of the things you see happening in places like Beacon Hill is that property owners simply give up on shutters altogether because of the intense maintenance," says architect Joseph Eldredge, who for 13 years was the chairman of the Beacon Hill Architectural Commission. "This kind of shutter provides a practical and affordable solution."
Atlantic shutters are made to order, so any home is a candidate, regardless of age. "We've even fabricated them deliberately out-of-square to match 250-year-old houses which have serious sag," says Pritchard. The shutters typically cost about $450 a pair (for a 2 1/2-by-5-foot opening), which is about the same price as a pair of top-quality unpainted cedar shutters.
Approved for Heritage Preservation and National Historic Landmark buildings, Atlantic shutters conform to historical restoration standards. A recent installation at Dartmouth College's Old Row perfectly conforms to the 19th-century historical colors.
The shutters are available in louvered, raised-panel, Bahamas, and board-and-batten styles. "We custom-make every order," says Pritchard, "so any design or regional nuance is within our reach."
To learn more about Atlantic shutters, call 800-604-6264.
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