Orlando, Fla. — Loi McLoughlin ushered visitors to a series of Azek Building Products window trims on display at the International Builders' Show with a sincere "welcome to my garden."
Seating was arranged in a wide circle around six styles of high-performance cellular PVC trims designed to add curb appeal in the form of crisp architectural details to a variety of Victorian, Craftsman, Georgian, coastal and contemporary homes.
"I love to take a million-dollar look that you'd see on a mansion and put it on a $250,000 home," McLoughlin, Azek's general manager of trim and siding, said. "To me, trim is an accessory like a tie to make a house pop."
And trim made of cellular PVC is catching on because it can be easily milled, shaped and painted but won't rot, peel, split or crack.
"Cellular PVC costs about three times more than wood, but guess what?" McLoughlin asked. "People are willing to pay because it's the last trim they will put on their houses. This new generation of homeowners doesn't want upkeep or their trim to start rotting out. People are getting smarter."
Owned by Azek Co., which was formerly CPG International LLC, Azek Building Products is out with new trim adhesives and sealants "engineered specifically to bond" PVC products to steel, aluminum, masonry, wood and other PVC.
Based in Skokie, Ill., Azek generated estimated sales of $360 million last year and is the 10th largest pipe, profile and tubing extruder in North America, according to Plastics News' latest ranking. The company has about 1,000 employees also developing and producing decking, railing and pavers.
Azek staff talked to contractors about how its premium trim and mouldings could be installed faster and their feedback was taken into account, McLoughlin said.
"We wanted to come out with a product line that would help contractors complete projects quicker and get them to their next project at a faster rate," he said. "We feel confident that this new line of trim adhesives will truly improve the speed of installation."