A TAPCO GROUP CASE STUDY

‘Siding’ with Homeowners Creates the Ultimate

Success for One Remodeler

“Homeowners rely on a contractor walking in their front door to give them tips, to give them advice on how to make their house look the very best.”

Bob Orow, President of Orow Home Improvement LCC

A TAPCO GROUP CASE STUDY

“I’m not geared for a one-stop sale,” says the veteran remodeler. “I can spend a lot of time with homeowners. In that time, they fall in love with the ideas I present them.” One of the products that his custom-ers are routinely falling in love with is one that Orow initially had miscon-ceptions about. Now, he tries to use vinyl cedar siding from The Foundry® on every job. “Ninety-nine percent of The Foundry siding I use is their Weathered Collection™ Split Shake, because the genuine weathered look gives you two tones,” Orow explains. “It’s dynamic. Whether the sun is out or it’s going down, the house is always changing. It always has new character. I explain that to homeowners and they love that concept. “The Foundry is a universal product whether it’s for a house built in 1850 or one built in 2000. What matters is how you present it to the homeowner. Every house is a candidate for Foundry Shake – every single house.” Orow admits he had misconcep-tions with The Foundry because it was lightweight and not as thick compet-ing vinyl cedar products. “Nobody had educated me. And that’s a great misfortune in the homebuilding in-dustry. Not every supply center is up to date on the trade. A local Foundry sales representative walked me through the education, explaining to me how it is a high-quality panel. He said ‘don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s a lighter weight.’” Foundry siding, manufactured by The Tapco Group®, uses a proprietary finish for the Weathered Collection aes-thetics favored by Orow and his cus-tomers. These colors showcase var-iegated tones in the wood grain, with a darker shade of a color in the deep grooves of the graining and a lighter shade on peaks and higher points. The

Michigan remodeler Bob Orow says he’s as much a design consultant and educator as he is a contractor. Orow, President of Orow Home Improve-ment LCC, has been in the building industry more than 40 years, experi-encing some of his greatest success in the last five. “Homeowners,” he says, “rely on a contractor walking in their front door to give them tips, to give them advice on how to make their house look the very best.” Orow, who’s an exterior spe-cialist, brings them functional, beauti-ful ideas including various cladding combinations, different siding acces-sories and high-efficiecy, enhanced building techniques. “I’ll use hidden vent soffits rather than vertical soffits. I’ll use beaded

vertical to add flavor. I bring in dentil blocks a lot over the garage door or cer-tain parts of the home,” Orow explains, adding that he also installs high-grade doors and windows, whether they’re fiberglass, vinyl or wood. “It’s all about creating the best look. It’s like a pair of earrings for a woman, or a tie for a guy - you’ve got to make them aware of what their choices are,” Orow says. “My goal is also to provide them with the best-performing prod-ucts. With windows, we go beyond talking about low-E glass, to discuss-ing air infiltration ratings. I talk to homeowners about four or five key questions that help them determine performance.” Orow’s philosophy is ‘credibility through provability’ and using certified products.

A TAPCO GROUP CASE STUDY

authentic texture of the Split Shake profile is achieved using molds cast from real hand-split cedar. After learning about the unique aesthetic qualities and performance of Foundry siding, including Class A fire resistance, Class 4 impact resistance and 170 mph windload rating, Orow began to leverage that education with homeowners. He’s turned it to his prof-itable advantage ever since. “When I come in to see the homeowner, I take them on a journey so that once they’re introduced to The Foundry, they abso-lutely love it,” Orow says. “Homeown-ers always tell me, ‘I didn’t know this was out there. Nobody else has men-tioned it.’ If people have 10 contractors come in and give them an estimate, they all seem to go after the most basic siding and trim, just quick cut-and-run jobs.” Beyond showing them his “before and after” project portfolio and leav-ing mockups for them to think about, Orow says customers are prone to having an epiphany once they see The Foundry and his improved exteriors up close. “I had one lady who was vehe-mently telling me ‘I don’t like it, I just really don’t like it.’ So, I sent her to look at one of my jobs. She ended up lov-ing it. Not only did she end up loving The Foundry, she ended up talking two other neighbors into go with it, too.” In addition to his unique sales ap-proach and standout aesthetics, Orow believes in constructing a high-quality building envelope. He always installs protective drain channel house wrap and insulated vinyl, whether it’s The Foundry or traditional double 6" or single 7" siding. high-quality building envelope. “I use insulated siding on all of my jobs,” Orow says, “because you could have loads of insulation between the 2x4’s, but the thermal conductivity could bridge right through the ends of the studs. Using insulated siding helps

A TAPCO GROUP CASE STUDY

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stop the bridging.” The remodeler has a select group of products that he uses over and over again successfully, including other products from the Tapco Group such as dentil blocks and shutters. When it comes to The Foundry - the only vinyl cedar shake he uses - Orow says “it’s great to install because you can hang it twice as fast as other shake. You can cut it easily with snips and you don’t have to put it on a saw.” Orow’s jobs are typically higher-end and most often for homes that are

for the customer by sprinkling in some Foundry?” Orow explains that he sells siding by texture and not by nomenclature. “I sell The Foundry as a wall texture, like somebody else would sell stucco paint-ing or an interior treatment. This way, a home doesn’t have to be completely focused on an older, weathered-shake look, even though the product is a supe-rior execution of that look. Some home-owners actually say ‘I don’t want to date my house’ or ‘I have an ultra-mod-ern house.’ There is no automatic time-date with Foundry Shake. You could have a house built for the future. With the versatility and the beauty of Weath-ered Shake and other Foundry pro-files, there’s always a place where you can add style with the textured look.”

“The Foundry is a universal product whether it’s for a house built in 1850 or one built in 2000. What matters is how you present it to the homeowner.”

Bob Orow, President of Orow Home Improvement LCC

roughly 20 years old. He uses Found-ry siding on whole exteriors and he also has great success meeting more price-conscious budgets with the pre-mium siding. “For example,” he says, “I had a 14-square job where two and a half squares were The Foundry. I worked it in on the façade, on the upper exterior and over the garage. In cases like this you have to think, ‘where can I put it on the part of the house that most peo-ple don’t think about? If I can’t do a big wall, where can I make a big impact

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