Craftsman's business that combines tradition and forward-thinking Tobias and Christian Pfeifer are the seventh generation of the carpentry business in Odenwald. The craftsman's business has preserved its traditions for generations and has developed into a specialist business. The strong demand underscores this unique market positioning. “We serve almost four business sectors,” says master carpenter Tobias Pfeifer, “these are traditional cabinet making, wood shingles, listed windows and doors, and funerals.” The latter has remained a traditional field of work and is still at the rural site. Furniture carpentry is handled somewhat more defensively, as their energy is channelled in the two fields of listed windows and doors, and wood shingles. “Our goal and our philosophy is,” emphasises Tobias Pfeifer, “to build modern windows according to the property-specific specifications of listed buildings, even in the most difficult configuration.” They take care of everything with both windows and doors as well as shingles, from construction to on-site installation. Today, the owner-managed business employs 12 people and relies on modern production methods, such as CNC technology, and quality products for surface treatment, such as Sikkens Wood Coatings and Zweihorn from AkzoNobel. 

CNC-supported production At Pfeifer Carpentry, the range of individual solutions is not merely a catchword; it is a natural result of specialising in the production of windows and doors for listed and historic buildings. Almost every window is one of a kind and is made to measure in accordance with the property-specific specifications. "We are not guided by automatic machines with their parameters. We often go beyond the limits of automatic machines. To meet the requirements of heritage protection, the individual parts are so small, short or thin that automatic machines can actually no longer produce them," reports Christian Pfeifer. “This means that we are building modern windows in the tight historical dimensions, i.e. a listed window with the latest fittings, triple glazing, double seal systems, security and fingerprint technology, among other things,” emphasises Tobias Pfeifer. The sizes and cross-sections of the wooden windows sometimes look like fine works of art. 

Surface – quality without compromise The twin brothers rely on native wood for the construction of the windows and doors. For quality reasons, Tobias and Christian Pfeifer prefer larch. “Even if a customer insists on spruce, we convince them to use larch at least on the drip sill and lower frame,” explains Christian Pfeifer. In terms of durability, no compromises are made when it comes to the surfaces either. For many years, the carpentry business has relied on paints and varnishes from the Sikkens Wood Coatings brand by AkzoNobel. “It is just right for us in terms of workability, cost-effectiveness and surface finish,” says Tobias Pfeifer, "and the support we get from our contact Marco Wolter from Prosol is outstanding. He is a carpenter himself and always offers us practical solutions. For example, we always enjoy getting his support to choose specific colour tones." The two twin brothers have now switched to AkzoNobel products for the interior as well, namely the Zweihorn brand. “This was a logical step, not only because it allowed us to get everything for the surface treatment of windows, doors and interior fittings from a single source,” reports Christian Pfeifer, "I have worked with and got to know the paints, stains and oils from Zweihorn from previous work, and found that switching to Zweihorn paints saved us one or more work steps while achieving better surface results. The bottom line for me is that it's a better price-performance ratio with very high reliability." In practise, this means that Pfeifer Carpentry paints the listed windows with Rubbol paints from Sikkens Wood Coatings and the interior windowsills with, for example, 2K paints from Zweihorn, both AkzoNobel brands. This means that all surfaces are optimally treated in this example – externally in terms of weather and UV resistance and internally in terms of the required scratch and chemical resistance. 

Conclusion The twin brothers Tobias and Christian Pfeifer consistently apply the expertise of their traditional craftsmanship while using modern production and surface technologies. In doing so, they produce windows and doors that not only meet the requirements of heritage protection, but also address all of the aspects of modern windows. “We consider wooden windows as high quality as ours to be pieces of furniture, so the functionalities and surfaces are very important to us,” summarises Tobias Pfeifer.