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Providing Quality Wood for Generations: An Interview with Prime Lumber & Home Center Whether it’s for your floors, cabinetry or furniture, when you buy hardwood for your construction needs, you want to know that it will last. Prime Lumber & Home Center, a family-owned business that’s been around for three generations, is all about enduring quality. Quality wood. Quality service. Quality customer experience. We spoke with Shaya Gross of Prime Lumber to hear more about their business and what makes them unique. What services do you provide? We provide hardwood lumber for all of your construction needs, whether you’re a company building a major citywide development or a private homeowner. We particularly specialize in wood painting - we have an exclusive contract with Benjamin Moore paints - and door hanging, which means that you can order your doors from us already hung on their frames. In other words, you can get all of your hardwood needs supplied by us, from A to Z. In addition, we have a hardware store on our premises, where we sell all the hardware supplies you need to finish up your project. What types of clients do you service? All types! Our warehouse is in East New York, and we service all five boroughs and the wider tristate area. Our customers range from major developers, large framing companies, general contractors building large, multi-unit buildings, to private clients doing renovations. What makes you unique in your field? Our customers know that we’re honest and reliable. Our turnaround time is unbelievably fast. For example, this past week, on a rainy, snowy, we started our deliveries at 8am, finished at 5pm, and delivered 3,500 boards during that time! (And this included crane service, which we provide for wood deliveries to upper stories.) Most companies will deliver, on average, 1,500 in a day. Our prices are very competitive, and our service is always provided with a smile. No matter how large or small your job is, we treat every single one with the personal attention it deserves. When you come to us, you know you’re dealing with experts you can trust. It’s in our blood; my brother, Avrumie, and I are already the third generation in this business. My grandfather started the business about 30 years ago. Since then, my father joined the company and now my brother and I are here. It’s a true family business, which is appropriate when providing hardwood to our clients that will last for generations as well. From where do you source your wood? We import premium wood from overseas, much of it from Brazil. We make sure to carry wood of good, moderate quality that is strong and enduring but also reasonably priced. Tell us about your experience as an exhibitor at the OJBA This was our first time exhibiting and it was a fantastic experience. While we’ve always relied on word-of-mouth and satisfied customers to bring in new business, this was a unique opportunity to network. Everyone at the Expo was there to meet new clients and grow their businesses – it was a very comfortable and easy way to get through to potential customers. In fact, we had one past client that we’d been trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of for a while. He was at the Expo, and when he saw our exhibit, he was so impressed that he told us he’s ready to hire us for a new job! This is definitely something we plan on doing again!
