Getting Trim Custom Milled

[Willa]

Has anyone here gotten trim milled to match what is in their house ?

My kitchen trim was hacked up when the awful 70's MDF cabinets were installed. I have been searching for antique salvaged trim to match what is missing, but it seems to be an uncommon profile. There is nothing locally available that comes close to matching, even in width (it's 4.75" wide x 3/4" thick).

I have been going back and forth with a local place that claims to be able to get this made to match. The price I have been quoted so far is about $ 500.00 to get the knives made, then about $ 3.00 per linear foot. BUT - this place has been pretty slow with direct answers so I am guessing they are communicating with a mill who actually does this for them ?

Does anyone else here have experience with this process, costs, etc. ?

[1918ColonialRevival]

Since they are slow to answer, it sounds like they are contracting it out to someone else who may not necessarily want the job. We're fortunate to have two millwork shops in this area that are used to reproducing missing or damaged millwork on houses and buildings in this area. I've had to get some made in the past, but mine was a standard style that they reproduced as it was used a lot in this area from the mid 19-oughts to the mid 1920s. In other words, they didn't have any setup costs associated with it.

I'd try to find another source. Depending on what's available locally, you might have to expand your search area some and call some other millwork or cabinet shops.

[Willa]

So far this place has been very weird in the communication end of things. Initially I sent them clear pics, with notes on measurements - which should be enough for some ballpark info, you'd think ? Then the guy I dealt with was gone or on holidays or something so I had to start over with someone new. I sent them a chunk of stripped moulding but the just getting straight answers part has been so slow !

I do notice on their inventory of stock mouldings that they do not have any mouldings of the same width as what I need. I have no clue how places like this are managed or operate - but I am guessing that anything that falls outside their dimensions of what is typically offered becomes a BIG HASSLE.

I have been very clear that I need a pretty small quantity, paint grade, am willing to pay for set up costs, etc. but there has been so much wiggling around with regards to ballpark info for set-up costs, etc. I find this odd v.s. a place that has info like basic pricing for widths of profile, basic cost of knives for a custom set up with a caveat that there can be other variables. This is the only local mill I am aware of that can do this.

I've spotted some antique moulding and corner blocks for sale locally, but both those sellers have also been pretty slow on the response end of things, providing measurements, etc. The antique moulding isn't the same, but would probably blend in fine once painted to match. But I'm waiting for those measurements, and to schedule a time to have a look...

[Gothichome]

Willa, our local Habitat has a couple dozen Victorian corner blocks and plinth blocks. Came out of a Victorian. If you send me a pic with dimensions. I'll have a look.

[Mick_VT]

The mill I use charges $75 for a knife grind but have 4000+ profiles on hand IIRC. The cost of the millwork largely comes down to the cost of the lumber it is milled from plus a bit extra for labor so varies greatly. I use http://mainstreetmillwork.com/ in MA. I am not sure of they can deliver to you, but you could ask them for their rates / a quote to give you a comparison. When I did the dining room I only had to have one knife custom made, all the other profiles I was able to match closely to what they had on hand. YMMV of course

[Willa]

Willa, our local Habitat has a couple dozen Victorian corner blocks and plinth blocks. Came out of a Victorian. If you send me a pic with dimensions. I'll have a look.

Hey Gothichome - that would be amazing and a BIG HELP.

I am posting pics v.s. PM'ing as maybe someone out else there has a stash of what I need ? Let me know if your ReStore has anything close. I am not hung up on it being 100% identical as long as it approximates what I am missing and is the same width.

My trim is close to 4.75" wide, with the corner blocks being this size and the plinths being 4.75" wide x 9.75" tall.

I need 6 corner blocks, 3 plinths. If there were more for sale I would probably take them, too so I could replace the replacement narrow trim around a couple of closets, too.

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[Willa]

The mill I use charges $75 for a knife grind but have 4000+ profiles on hand IIRC. The cost of the millwork largely comes down to the cost of the lumber it is milled from plus a bit extra for labor so varies greatly.

I asked this place if they had knives for other profiles of this width on file - and the answer was crickets. That seems odd to me, but again it's the curse of this address plus being a small potatoes order I guess ?

I was hoping to deal with local but then next step would be Hoffmyer's - who certainly are competent to make what I need, but with a much longer lead time and extra delivery charges:

http://www.hoffmeyersmill.on.ca/web/hoffmeyers.htm

For all I know this place may be communicating with Hoffmyer's !

[Gothichome]

Ok Willa, let me work on it. Getting there mid week is a bit of a challenge because they close about the time I get home work. But most definitely next Sat.

[Lily left the valley]

I asked this place if they had knives for other profiles of this width on file - and the answer was crickets. That seems odd to me, but again it's the curse of this address plus being a small potatoes order I guess ?

I was hoping to deal with local but then next step would be Hoffmyer's - who certainly are competent to make what I need, but with a much longer lead time and extra delivery charges:

http://www.hoffmeyersmill.on.ca/web/hoffmeyers.htm

For all I know this place may be communicating with Hoffmyer's !

If crickets were your answer, that does lead me to believe (however correct or not) that they don't have any knives on site to check against.

Is it the wait time that's holding you back, or do the extra delivery charges outweigh any possible price markup that first place may be charging?

[Willa]

Is it the wait time that's holding you back, or do the extra delivery charges outweigh any possible price markup that first place may be charging?

I think my hangup has been that since my first conversation with this place months ago, it sounded like they would be able to do it, told me it would take about 7 days from getting the knives made, etc. First dude said it could be about $ 6.00/linear foot but couldn't/didn't answer question about costs of having knives made. So dealing with this place seemed possible. It would be far better for them to have straight up said "A minimum custom order is $ 1500.00" or "We can't make trim that width" rather than this geriatric snail's pace of answer evasion.

Getting trim milled has been at the back of my mind, so I also haven't been particularly aggressive about pursuing answers. I spoke with Hoffmyer's months ago - and again, they couldn't give me a clear answer without examining a piece of trim to replicate (fair enough). I do recall that there was a much longer turnaround time, which is not surprising as they seem to be the only place for miles around that does this quality of work and can replicate complicated historical sash windows, etc.

My preference would be to use salvaged mouldings, etc. as it will be a little dinged up so as to better blend in with what is here. I can take one piece of moulding from the powder room side to replace the hacked up piece visible from the dining room, then would use replacement to fill in the other mouldings which are not visible from a distance. I have checked the ReStore a few times, went to the one salvage place which kind of sucked, and looked online locally. There's not much to be had, at least right now ? And I haven't seen anything identical to what I have, which is in every room of the house.

When people renovate here, they tend to leave the trim alone but replace the doors. There's lots of old doors here for sale !