Millwork is historically any wood-mill produced decorative material used in

building construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...

. Stock profiled and patterned millwork building components fabricated by

milling Milling may refer to: * Milling (minting), forming narrow ridges around the edge of a coin * Milling (grinding), breaking solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting in a mill * Milling (machining), a process of using ro ...

at a planing mill can usually be installed with minimal alteration. Today, millwork may encompass items that are made using alternatives to wood, including synthetics, plastics, and wood-adhesive composites. Often specified by architects and designers, millwork products are considered a design element within a room or on a building to create a mood or design theme. Millwork products are used in both interior and exterior applications and can serve as either decorative or functional features of a building.

Historical context

Woodworking skills originally formed around wood carving, carpentry, parquetry, and cabinet making in ancient China. Historically, the term millwork applied to building elements made specifically from wood.''History of Millwork''
; article; Creative Millwork Llc. website; retrieved June 2013 During the "Golden Age" of mill working (1880–1910), virtually everything in the house was made from wood.
Hull, Brent; excerpts online;

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; p. xi During this time, the millwork produced in the United States became standardized nationwide.''Did you Know?''
article at Wise Geek online; retrieved 22 March 2013. Today, the increase in the use of synthetic materials has led many professionals to consider any item that is composed of a combination of wood and synthetic elements to also be properly defined as millwork. This includes products that make use of pressed-wood chips in the design, such as

melamine Melamine is an organic compound with the formula C3H6N6. This white solid is a trimer (chemistry), trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-Triazine, 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% nitrogen by mass, and its derivatives ha ...

coated shelving.

Specifics

Millwork

building material Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings and other structures, like bridges. Apart from natur ...

s include the ready-made carpentry elements usually installed in any building. Many of the specific features in a space are created using different types of architectural millwork: doors, windows, transoms, sidelights, molding, trim, stair parts, and cabinetry to name just a few. The primary material used in millwork items today are most often produced from soft or

hardwood Hardwood is wood from Flowering plant, angiosperm trees. These are usually found in broad-leaved temperate and tropical forests. In temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostl ...

lumber. Other materials used in millwork products include MDF (medium density fiberboard), finger-jointed wood, composite materials, particle board and fiberglass. Some millwork products like doors, windows and stair parts now incorporate the use of steel, stainless steel, aluminum, and

glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

components. Most wood products used for millwork require decorative finish coatings. These finishes include stain and semi-transparent finishes or paint. The finishes protect the wood from decay, warping, splitting, and fading. Millwork building materials can usually be installed with little or no modification as part of the construction process.

Fabrication

There are two types of manufacturers of millwork goods. In one, referred to as "stock millwork",

commodity In economics, a commodity is an economic goods, good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the Market (economics), market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to w ...

fabricators mass-produce trims and building components—with the end product being low cost, interchangeable items for commercial or home builders. In another, the product is custom produced for individuals or individual building projects—usually a costlier option which is referred to as "architectural millwork.

Uses

Millwork building materials are used for both decoration and function in buildings. Exterior doors and windows are typically tested by independent agencies and rated for energy efficiency. They can also be impact-rated, fire-rated, and can be specified to reduce sound transference. Interior millwork products are not rated for energy efficiency. These products are used primarily as a decorative feature, but will often serve functions for privacy, storage, and sound-deadening. Elizabethan hanging shelves 1977.png, "Built-in" room elements (bookcases, entertainment centers, etc.) Bénévent-églsie-stalles.jpg, Cabinetry and casework Ceiling trim in Golden Hall.JPG, Ceiling trims, embellishments, beams, and extensions Little Hermitage 0116.jpg, Chair rails Raised panel wainscot (5037341211).jpg,

Wainscoting Panelling (or paneling in the United States) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity t ...

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cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

s Mazingarbe - Château Mercier (18).JPG,

Corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s, bracketing 57 Rue du Faubourg de Pierre (27353042388).jpg, Doors Window trim (5097885045).jpg, Window, moldings, sashes, and trims Fireplace mantel ideas (5473768833).jpg, Mantels P Hall bannisters.JPG, Stairway, stair parts, and

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

s Built up crown molding (24174185303).jpg, Wall crowns, coves, casing, panel mold, caps and

baseboard In architecture, a baseboard (also called skirting board, skirting, wainscoting, mopboard, trim, floor molding, or base molding) is usually wooden, MDF or vinyl board covering the lowest part of an interior wall. Its purpose is to cover the ...

moldings RoyLindmanSantaMarialaBlancaSynagogue 004.jpg, Wall covers or cladding, paneling, and corner bead Dyrekcja Kolei w Gdańsku.JPG, Ceiling canopy Brass outlet cover.jpg, Switch-plates and interior wall access points

Historical context

Specifics

Fabrication

Uses

See also

References

Further reading