our expertise                    
specialty projects
You know for us, the term "Specialty Project" used to mean taking a stick of caulk over to
some guy's house and patching a leak. Or maybe ripping a new length of screen material to
re-spline the cedar sunroom on the back of some guy's house where his painter's dripped.
Who-hoo, did we think we were "Big Stuff"!

Then people started to ask us things like,
"Hey, can you mirror the wall of my basement for an Exercise Room"?
Or "Can you put a motorized screen on the gymnasium windows?"
And then, "Can you back-light the Art Glass window in my basement window well so that when I
entertain guests it looks really cool?"

And then Architects would call and ask things like,
"Can you install a split-jamb door that is Walnut on one side and Cherry on the other?"
& "I got a client who wants a 20' wide "Lift and Slide" door where the whole wall
opens-up to the pool patio area."
Or, "...the military base needs to have their old windows retrofitted with bomb blast glass".
And then, "we need Casement windows installed that'll withstand a Category 4 Hurricane".

And by either reputation or desperation, "Specialty Projects" has evolved into a big component of
our core service offerings.

There's a possibility that yours may be a "Specialty Project" if it is:
-Excessively Curved                     -Absurdly blueprint specified            -Oversized
-Made of something unusual         -Shaped in a geometric manner         -Undersized
-Really, really Old                        -Needed excessively fast                  -Not available anymore  
-Requires excessive scaffolding      -Requires Historical Committee approval
-Is very, very expensive                -Located in an area where the tradespeople are unskilled
-Very delicate                              -Not easily Accessible
-Never been done before              -In a gated community or private access area
-On an ocean                              -Funded by an inheritance or Trust
-Needs to perform to an extremely high level of performance: energy efficient or otherwise

For these considerations, you'll want to work with us!
The Curved Windows on this
distinctive Lincoln Park residence
were cracked, sagging, and
letting-in all kinds of water...

So we took them out &
worked on them...

And then replaced them
so that they were tight...

...and the Guy couldn't have been
happier! (Or nicer!)
Check this out:

Some Developer clients of ours owned
a George Maher Architect property in
an historical District up on the North
Shore whereby there existed this
hideous, nasty "chickenwire" skylight
at the top of this very grand staircase.

Getting it replaced, due to the complex
height and accessibility of it (and the
fact that it had a slate roof), would have
cost around $40,000+.  

And so the Guy asks us,

"Can you do something else with it
that won't kill my budget?"

And we asked, "Does it leak?"

And he said "No, no it doesn't..."

And so I said,
"Yeah, I'll think of something for ya..."

And so what we did is custom design,
fabricate, and install an exquisite art
glass panel that fit neatly inside the
existing drywall (plaster) skylight jamb
returns.

It looked awesome!

And the Developer got well over a
combined $5 million for the
property!

New Glass for a
Port Cochere (below)

Restoration of a
Curved Glass window

Restoration of a Curved Glass  
& Curved Sash Window

#1. We removed the sashes from the frame

#6. Before we could re-install we
had to field re-construct the frame
in place...

#7. And Humpty-Dumpty was put
back together! Wow! Now that's
craftsmanship at its finest!

#5. What a Pain in the _ss!!

I mean, what a Pane of Glass!!

#3. And the sashes that came out were
totally trashed!

#4. So, stiles and rails that were missing
had to be re-created with
mortise-and-tenon joinery

#2. The existing frame was rotting hard...

Total Re-Creation of an Operating
Oval Sash Window

#1. This exquisite antique panel was near
grotesquely destroyed by being painted-over,
caulked-in, and left for dead!
(sounds like the making of a Mob movie!)

#2. So we took the thing out. Then we strapped-on
a harness, hung outside, and "tightened the thing
up" with lots of scraping, sanding, re-priming,
painting, caulking, etc.... the works, you know.

#3. And since it was dead middle of Winter... we
used 3/4" polystyrene to keep a lid on the joint.

#4. And here's where it gets really, really nuts:
When the property had previously been used as a
Public Education Administration office: that
particular room was a closet. Now it was gonna be
used as a bedroom, which meant that it had to
conform to a more stringent Building Code
"ventilation" requirement (thankyou Mr. Inspector).

When my Client called and told me, "Hey, the
thing's gotta vent!" we about went bonkers nuts in
disbelief!

So we used a CNC router to custom make an
exactly perfect sash and retrofitted-in old,
traditional hardware.

That was probably one of the most challenging
things we've ever had to do!  
But, it is cool, isn't it?!!