Showroom

BY ROBERT C. RAGER

>>> Sun Mountain Door, Berthoud, Colorado

Double doors lend a sense of rustic grandeur to this intricately beamed residential entry.

There is probably no single component of a building that performs as many different functions as a door does. It marks the entry into a building, provides separation and protection from the elements, and is the first point of direct contact a visitor has when entering the building itself. Often, however, doors are overlooked as critical design elements and are buried within project specifications. Sun Mountain Door promotes a different view of the door: as a beautiful, finely crafted and unique element of each project.

Based in Berthoud, just outside Denver, Colorado, Sun Mountain began as a distributor to the modular-home market, and it found its niche in response to a lack of consistently good service and quality from its vendors. According to general manager Jared Meier, after a certain point, the company decided to simply "do it right, all by ourselves." Most door brands get their products from other distributors, but Sun Mountain sets itself apart by keeping the entire manufacturing process in-house, from start to finish. This gives the company great flexibility with its main market segment: high-end, custom wood doors. It retains control of its product, avoids having to depend on the limitations of a third party, and is able to cut its typical lead times to roughly half those of its competitors.

Interior doors echo the elegant, cabin-style architecture of the setting.

Meier believes that Sun Mountain's growing success is due simply to knowing and understanding the end user better than its competition, because it can appreciate exactly what's needed. Most Sun Mountain field representatives have worked previously for builders or in design fields. That experience helps them handle customer needs as efficiently as possible.

Sun Mountain's focus on wood doors gives it expertise in the material, and its employees have a real excitement about the possibilities wood offers for beautiful doors. They will work with any species of wood a designer specifies, and can offer expert guidance in selection as well. They offer 20 species of wood as standard options, and choose those from kiln-dried woods that are long-lasting and durable. Meier says they are able to handle 99 percent of the projects that come through the door from those 20 woods, but are always open to working with architects and designers on more exotic projects as well.

Arched glass doors are an entry option from Sun Mountain Door.

Alder is the most popular wood choice at present. With small knots and a rustic appearance, it works well in the many mountain-residence commissions Sun Mountain receives. Cherry is commonly chosen by those wanting a cleaner look with fewer knots, and Meier says they're seeing more requests for hickory as well. "It has a strong grain, a contrast between the colors of sapwood and heartwood, and a strong "real wood" appearance," he says. Craftsman-style doors are very popular, but he stresses that Sun Mountain doesn't focus on a particular style, but rather on figuring out how to realize a designer's ideas as accurately, quickly and beautifully as possible.

The majority of Sun Mountain's business is through the trade, though it works with retail customers on occasion. Its pricing structure is based on volume, and approximately 90 percent of its doors are built to order. However, it has recently launched a new line of doors, the Teton Series. It's a more budget-oriented line, and Meier says it's designed to compete directly with the growing number of doors being imported from China at low cost — and often lower quality. "The Teton Series will offer the same fast lead times, but in an American-made product with much higher quality and service than those from overseas," he says.

Interior doors are crafted to complement the millwork.

Sun Mountain's 3,000-square-foot modern showroom is attached to its 103,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, so that visitors to the showroom can see firsthand how the products they're buying are made. Upon entering through a large custom door and transom, visitors find rows of door slabs arranged into wide aisles over the acid-etched concrete floor. There are a variety of displays of finish colors, glass options and examples of hardware lines, including Emtek, Rocky Mountain and Ashley Norton, all of which have extensive and varied options.

Its manufacturing is state of the art, and is fully integrated with the order-entry system, which further reduces time lost once an order is placed. It also offers complete pre-finishing capability and can match any cabinetry or flooring color. Meier says Sun Mountain is "very, very proud of the facility," and is happy to give tours of the plant and its process to its customers.

Sun Mountain has recently opened a showroom in Asheville, North Carolina to service the East Coast, which gives it the flexibility to handle orders from anywhere in the United States.

Sun Mountain Door, 140 Commerce Rd., Berthoud, CO 80513; (970) 532-2105 or www.sunmountaindoor.com.