These early homes were built in the "Old Tahoe Style" with wide open, high-beamed ceilings and wooden trusses, large stone fireplaces, visible joinery, and stone and wooden interiors and exteriors. Another prominent feature of the classic Tahoe style is the solid wood entry door.

For G.C. Construction and Woodworks Inc., located just north of Lake Tahoe in the historic mountain town of Truckee, CA, solid wood doors are a specialty.

According to Gary Collignon, president, G.C. Construction and Woodworks' doors are made of solid wood with no artificial products.

"We don't compete with the door manufacturers because we can't," he says. "They offer a broad range of nice manufactured doors to choose from for less then we can make them, but those [doors] are laminate products."

Because G.C. Construction and Woodworks' doors are all custom designed and built, there is no "typical" door, Collignon says. "Our designs are all different."

Above, G.C. Construction and Woodworks Inc. fabricated the doors and windows on this new boathouse to match an "Old Tahoe Estate." It features v.g. douglas fir doors and sugar pine casement windows.

Collignon says he does most of the designs himself. Then he sits down with his shop manager, Kevin Sisto and shop foreman, Simon Thornton to determine how long it will take to fabricate the door. Most doors take a week to manufacture, but Collignon says the time frame can vary based on the difficulty of the door's design.

Preserving the Past

G.C. Construction started in 1984 as a general building contractor. Collignon says he built his own homes - several were specs that he designed. Soon the company began getting client work, which eventually led to remodeling and add-ons for older lakefront homes. His clients wanted the remodeling and additions to blend with the original construction.

"They wanted to add on and make their homes bigger, but they didn't want to change the look and charm of the place," he says. "So we started matching what was done in the past, and it was very hard to tell the new from the old."

"[We couldn't] find people who would do it," he says. As a result, G.C. Construction's woodworking shop was developed to deal with that need.

A G.C. Construction and Woodworks- designed knotty alder door with red birch square peg accents.

However, Collignon adds that he has had to convince other general contractors to use his company for subcontract work.

"Some of the contractors are a little bit afraid to use us because I'm [also] a building contractor," he says. "They don't want to lose their client. But I convince them that, 'We're here to be a part of what you're doing. We're not going to take any of your work or clients away. We just want to help you through the process.'"

It's All Material

To achieve the ambience for which many mountain homes are renowned, a variety of materials can be used, Collignon says. For older lakefront homes, pine and fir are the most requested woods.

"For some of the newer homes that are trying to look special or look like an older home, we use alder and cherry," he adds. "But we use a wide range of wood - pretty much anything the client wants and what might go with their house and design and the look they're after."

Shown above is a new addition to match an existing "Old Tahoe Estate" in 1930s style, featuring stonework, sugar pine casement windows and shutters, v.g. douglas fir beam wraps to conceal steel beam and v.g. douglas fir garage doors with shop milled siding.

G.C. Construction and Woodworks does not do any finishing on site, so "after [the doors] leave the shop, we make it clear to the contractor or finisher that we immediately have to get something on [them] to protect [them]," Collignon says.

Not only must the material be properly sealed to keep moisture from warping products such as doors, but proper consideration also must be given to ensure that material for use in the trusses and ceilings meet earthquake and snow-load requirements.

Collignon says that he tries to make his remodeling of doors, cabinets and casework as authentic as possible, but it can be a tough task in the overall project because of the major engineering required to meet the seismic and snow standards.

Having the Right 'Fit'

Collignon plans to grow G.C. Construction and Woodworks by increasing the volume of work in the shop. "We've been successful in moving that way," he says. "The word is getting out [about our subcontract capabilities]."

Sales for the woodworking shop last year were approximately $450,000, and construction sales were around $1 million, Collignon says. The past five years were good for the shop, and Collignon believes that sales for next year will be even stronger. "When the economy is up, we get a lot of work [for our custom doors]," he says. "When the economy is down, [people typically] go with door manufacturers."

Running a shop can be expensive and one of the challenges Collignon foresees deals with tooling.

"We can't have everything," he says. Over time he has determined what equipment is needed for the shop to maintain its "flow." "Before we make the move to the next tool, we have to decide if it's going to pay for itself."

For the construction of its doors, Collignon says, "We use mortise and tenon on shop jigs for stable joints."

The router is used to cut "nice, clean holes," says Thornton, shop foreman, as he describes the manufacturing process. "From there, we undo the clamps and slide the stile in after everything is sized down. Once the hole is established, we [use] the tenoner to cut tenons to match the hole. The mortise is cut first and then the tenon is cut to the appropriate width."

Because the doors the company fabricates are one-off products and are usually based on replications from the 1930s, the shop has to develop its own jigs to match as closely as possible "what was done in the past," Collignon says.

"Sometimes what we've done is to take the pattern of what was built or design around what was built and make it look like that type of door.

"We will figure out the shape [of the jig], and we will design it here in the shop to fit our equipment. We sometimes have to design cutters for our shapers," he says.

The designs are drawn up and then sent out so tooling can be made to match what is needed. It can cost as much as $1,500 for a set of cutters just to make one door, Collignon notes.

It is that painstaking attention to detail and the ability to preserve the original look of a home while adding modern updates that have helped G.C. Construction and Woodworks continue to grow over the past 22 years.

"We build the way it was, the way it is...the way you want," Collignon says.