[MassHistPres] exterior window shutters

[Dennis De Witt]

There is a difference between the three things you have mentioned

pultruded fiberglass, is a linear material which can be created in a  
variety of forms.  The best analogy is to aluminum extrusions because  
it is pulled through a mold.  It is true fiberglass and therefore  
very strong.  We have encouraged its use as a replacement for the  
interwar steel windows that are very difficult to maintain and  
exorbitantly expensive.  A shutter made entirely of pultrusions would  
extraordinarily strong and durable but heavy and still subject to  
fading eventually and not easy to paint.  That is one reason  
fiberglass boat hulls are usually white.

high density PVC is still PVC and presumably will still have issues  
with UV degradation and brittleness over time -- and well as painting  
issues presumably

"proprietary composite  materials" -- could mean anything: any mix of  
types of plastics, or plastic and wood, or plastic and glass or  
foamed and solid PVC.

Shutters are a problem.  The wood ones are expensive.  Plastic ones  
usually look inappropriate because they are too thin and/or the wrong  
size and/or faded.

Note that the paint on the Atlantic Shutters, which do look nice, is  
guaranteed not to flake or peel for 15 years -- but it says nothing  
about fading.  Timberline guarantees their paint for 10 years and  
says that it can be painted over with ordinary house paint.  As they  
say they process their material on woodworking machines, it is  
probably not fiberglass but something softer and solid core.

(There are nice looking functional fabricated aluminum ones used in  
Bermuda.  They fade too.)

Dennis De Witt




On Dec 10, 2007, at 1:18 PM, SCeccacci at aol.com wrote:

> Does anyone have experience with exterior window shutters custom  
> made of
> "pultruded fiberglass, high density PVC and proprietary composite   
> materials"?
>
> I have read about shutters of this material (perhaps there are other
> synthetic materials as well?) that are assembled in the same manner  
> as  normal wood
> shutters and made to order. They can be made in the  traditional  
> patterns used
> for wood shutters and can be painted.   They are said to be
> "maintenance-free".
>
> How does the price for shutters of this synthetic material compare  
> with
> custom made wood shutters of cedar or mahagony?
>
> I have found references to these shutters made by Atlantic Premium   
> Shutters
> and by Timberlane Shutters.  Does anyone know of their  products?
>
> Susan McDaniel Ceccacci
> Historic Preservation Consultant
> Jefferson, Massachusetts
>
>
>
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