The Mayor of Hardware | Richie DeMarco
Helping you be more successful one tip at a time
In the following E-Book you will find answers to questions that I am constantly being asked. Included are links to installation videos, pics and best practices that I have picked up along the way.
If you find value in these tips please forward them to a friend, if not deposit in your circular file.
Thank you!
Well you should be and here’s why.
You have the chance to become an “Award Winning Designer” – Talk about differentiating yourself from the competition. It’s something that you can add to your business card, promote on your website and include in your advertising.
Business owners with design teams you should encourage all your designers to take the time and enter… How great would it be if a couple of them won? You could repurpose each entry as a “project” on your Houzz profile… Still don’t have one?? Click here to receive quick tips that will help you get started.
You will be recognized by your industry and you can leverage that with your potential clients too! Check out some of the interviews from last year’s winners.
The cocktail party at the expo is always a lot of fun – it’s great catching up with friends and making new ones.
Start planning your entry now – The deadline is March 13th.
Need some inspiration? Here are a few of last year’s winners.
Affordable Closets Plus - DeVoe Martin
Closets By Design VA - Debbie Cantell
More Space Place DC - Rob Meyers
We Do Closets - Dave Skinner
Were you too busy to attend IWF? Did you attend but spend all of your time researching machinery?
This was the best show in years, many new exhibitors, new products and attendance was up over 40%.
Here are 3 items that I thought you would find interesting…
Floating cabinetry is a hot look that is spreading.
Coming soon to the market is a hardware kit that easily installs on your cabinets and has up to 5/8” of adjustment.
It overcomes the challenges that traditional hangers present like interfering with your drawer slides or not sitting flush against the wall. This will be available in the coming months.
It’s not always about the product, sometimes it’s about packaging…
Most of you are familiar with the leg levelor pictured above… Most of you also know the problems –
You or an employee spend hours screwing the legs into the t-nuts. You also have to inventory two separate items…
How many times have you had legs without any t-nuts?? I know sounds painful…
Finally you can buy a leg levelor set, which is a leg and t-nut pre-assembled. Tap the assembly into the vertical and you are done…
Last but not least is a new soft close hinge that has a piston built into the hinge arm. The concealed piston eliminates the problem of changing your current drilling and the need for stocking an additional soft close dampener.
The best part of this hinge is not the soft close, it’s the cam adjustable plate. There are many import hinges on the market, but most of them don’t have a cam adjustable plate. This adjustment will save you time and aggravation on the job site.
Your turn, what new items did you find at the show?
I help individuals and organizations to be successful… If you have any questions please contact me at 347-723-7433 or you can email me at richdemarco@optonline.net.
This post is all about – the down and dirty of push open hardware….
If you take anything away from this post it’s to make sure that you don’t install these slides on drawers over 24” wide, you could have a problem.
Another important tip coming at you in 3, 2, 1 – For the push mechanism to work properly there needs to be an 1/8” – ¼” gap between the faces and the cabinetry. This could be a problem if not going wall to wall… To avoid a customer pointing this out you might want to add an extra vertical to hide that gap…
Ok so you are ready to screw on the slides…
A standard ½” side clearance works just fine… The main difference is that the drawer and cabinet members need to be set back 5mm from the front edge…
The next difference will only affect some of you, ideally the slide should be mounted a 1-1/4” from the bottom of the drawer… If you follow these instructions when you push the drawer it will open almost completely by itself.
What about the doors you ask?
This is easy… Salice sells a push – open European hinge, it mounts and installs exactly the same way your “regular” hinges work… You need to install a touch latch, otherwise the door has no way of staying open… Simple right?
This is another way for you to look a little different than everybody else…
Have you had any experiences selling push open hardware? Do you have clients requesting drawers and doors without decorative hardware? Or do you feel that decorative hardware is the jewelry that finishes off the dress?
If you have any questions about push open hardware or my fashion sense please feel free to contact me at richdemarco@optonline.net.
I know what you’re thinking… Bi-folding doors really? The best improvement was getting rid of them 30 years ago… and I agree those louvered doors never worked properly, needed constant adjustment, and always fell off the track… BUT…
Yes that’s a big but – (insert joke here)
Imagine if bi-folding doors did function properly… You would have access to the entire closet!
Dreams can come true… See the new bi-folding doors in action.
What do you do when a client asks for closet doors? Are you walking away from that business?
If you would like more information about bi-folding or sliding doors please feel free to contact me at richdemarco@optonline.net.
