Contact Info
Gossling Woodworking
Gary Gossling
315 West Water Street
Decorah, IA 52101
Phone: 563-382-9663
Fax: 563-776-4052
Contact via Email
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Our Website
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Services
- Custom Kitchen Design
- Millwork and Moulding
- Bathroom Custom Cabinetry
- Laundry Custom Cabinetry
- Bars, Fireplaces, and Library
- Johanningmeier Stone
- Silver Creek Hardwood Floors
Fundraisers We Support
- Trees Forever
- Fayette County 4H
- Turkey Valley Music Boosters
- Turkey Valley Athletic Boosters
- KNWS-Life 101.9
- Faith Evangelical Youth
Going Green Commitments
- At Gossling's we collect all sawdust and wood waste and pack and store it in mis-printed paper feed bags. During winter months we heat our shop space and home with these sawdust briquettes. Our plywood is formaldehyde-free and have a low VOC finish on all prouducts. All cabinets are delivered in reclaimed blankets, and we recycle all our cardboard and metal waste.
Hours of Operation
Monday through Friday 10 am to 5 pm.Saturday by appointment.
News
Gossling Woodworking’s new Decorah showroom a homeowner’s ‘o (12/31/69)
By Julie Berg-Raymond
Christopher Schwarz, a writer for Popular Woodworking Magazine, says he’d put this quotation on the cover of every issue, if he could:
“The things I make may be for others, but how I make them is for me.”
The man who said this, woodworker Tony Konovaloff, is a devotee of using handtools. And while Gary Gossling of Gossling Woodworking has embraced sophisticated computer technology and machinery in his own work, no utterance better describes his philosophy of fine woodworking.
Gossling, who recently opened a showroom at 115 West Water St. in downtown Decorah, has loved working with wood nearly all his life. And, other than high school shop class, he is self-taught.
“From the time I was 8 years old, I read everything (on the topic) I could get hold of, to read,” he says. “And I kept it up through high school in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.”
“I started out with a pocket-knife and the most basic of equipment, and just whittled away,” he says.
Gossling is one of eight kids who grew up on a farm near Waucoma -- where he still runs his shop and maintains an additional showroom -- and got involved in construction for awhile after high school and, like his dad, worked as a milk hauler.
“Even when I was hauling milk, though, I wanted to get into (woodworking),” he recalls.
Having relied on word of mouth from family, friends and neighbors to promote the carpentry work that was initially a hobby, he eventually outgrew the shop he’d been using in his parents’ basement -- and then two other locations, as well -- and opened Gossling Woodworking at its present site in Waucoma.
That was more than 20 years ago. Today his shop occupies 4,500 square feet, where he offers a wide range of services and products -- from custom cabinet-making, kiln drying, lumber processing, trim and molding to reproduction work and finishing.
Decorah showroom
Andy Shull, of Waukon, works as both a sales representative and kitchen designer in the new showroom Gossling opened in Decorah in late September.
“I encourage people to come in and talk with me, even if they don’t have a project right now,” Shull says -- noting that no appointment is necessary – because he says he loves nothing better than taking people on tours of the space and answering any questions they might have about the business.
Or, more accurately, businesses.
Two other businesses share space and display their goods in the showroom – one specializing in hardwood floors and one in stonework fabrication, particularly granite and quartz.
Silver Creek Hardwood Floors, owned and operated by Shawn Leppert, is based in Northeast Iowa and serves the tri-state area.
For custom projects, the company offers everything from wide-plank flooring, hand-scraped, rustic hardwoods and reclaimed materials, to custom-made medallions, borders and inlays. They also refinish existing, old, worn and battered hardwood floors.
Johanningmeier Stone is a fully custom fabrication shop owned by Scott and Kerri Johanningmeier of Decorah.
The company specializes in natural stone such as granite, marble, limestone, travertine, soapstone and onyx along with quartz products offered by Dupont Zodiac, LG Viatera, Sileston and Staron Quartz.
With all three businesses displaying their work in one showroom, Shull says it’s easy to take care of their clients’ needs from start to finish on a project.
“We want to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for anything related to cabinetry or woodwork,” he says – from hardwood floors to cabinets, millwork, stair parts, interior doors and counter tops; even custom solid-wood furniture.”
Custom work, factory price
Everything Gossling Woodworking does is custom-made; but while people might think the work comes at a custom price, their prices are actually competitive with factory cabinet-work in the area.
According to Gossling, they can offer this competitive pricing because of “years of honing our building techniques, and years of becoming more efficient.”
And, he adds, because of his investment in technology -- particularly software programs.
“The software enables us to use CNC (computer numerically controlled) equipment,” Gossling says -- which, in their case, cuts all the plywood parts.
“Most people don’t think a small shop like mine would have the modern equipment we have” -- or, he adds, the quality craftspeople.
“A huge part of the competitive pricing is the talented help who can do the job in a timely manner,” he says.
Gossling Woodworking employs eight full-time employees at present.
“I like that we’re creating employment for local cabinetmakers,” he says.
“It’s all local people employing other local workers to make local products,” Shull adds. “All of the value is added, by people right here at home.”
Aside from keeping money circulating in the local and area economy, there are other advantages to being a “locally grown” company.
Factory-made cabinetry can involve a lengthy process, if someone wants to make a change, Shull says.
“We have a high degree of adaptability ... If we want to implement a new piece of hardware or a new feature, it is extremely easy. We simply order it and put it in.”
Designing a kitchen
Gossling Woodworking employs two kitchen designers -- Fred Mittan in the Waucoma showroom and Shull in Decorah -- whose job is sitting down with the customer and finding out their needs and what they want.
“The biggest thing is to listen to what the homeowner wants -- and turn that into an efficient, convenient cabinet layout,” Shull says.
“Sometimes it’s hard to visualize (what you want),” Gossling adds. “But our investment in technology makes that really easy.”
Shull explains how that works, using 3-D modeling software: “We can draw the project with the customer and make changes as we go.”
Gossling says he has been pleased with the response to his new Decorah showroom, saying people have been “genuinely warm … They’re glad to see us here, and to see this building occupied. It makes me feel like we’ve chosen the right spot.”
Gossling Woodworking is holding an open house in its new Decorah showroom this Saturday, Oct. 30, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The event is open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Gossling Woodworking is open 10-6, Monday through Friday and other times by appointment. For more information go to www.gosslingwoodworking.com;
call the Decorah showroom at 382-9663 or the Waucoma showroom at (563) 776-9938 or e-mail info@gosslingwoodworking.com.
About Us
We are extremely excited to share our cabinetry with Decorah and the Driftless Region.
For more than 25 years our customers, have brought their visions for furniture and cabinetry to us, now we are bringing it to you. GOSSLING WOODWORKING has taken those ideas, along with pieces of lumber, and an ample supply of knowledge, skill, and pride and have constructed timeless, heirloom quality pieces of furniture and truly one of a kind, custom cabinets. With this new location, we hope to make our craft more accessible to Northeast Iowa.
We are diversified and able to provide our customers with custom kiln drying, lumber processing, trim and molding, reproduction work, and finishing.
We've also partnered with Johanningmeier Stone and Silver Creek Hardwood Flooring. You can find a sample of their work in our showroom.
You are enthusiastically invited to browse our showroom and browse our pages. We are proud of what we do and want to share it with you. And if we are fortunate enough, you will share your ideas with us.
Gary Gossling, Owner
We'll Impress You
Making it possible for you to have truly custom cabinetry, doors, and millwork in your home. Because I haven't seen a kitchen we've done that I haven't loved.Mission Statement
Our mission at Gossling Woodworking is about building.We want to build your trust with our ability to listen. We will listen to what your heart desires.
We want to build your confidence with our know-how. We have the expertise to design the cabinetry to your fullest expectations.
We want to build your custom cabinetry for your home. We have craftsmen who love their work. We have the technology and equipment to construct “custom cabinetry without the custom price.”
We want to build a relationship with you for many, many years. We want to you to share with us all the compliments your home possesses because of the quality and warmth of truly custom cabinetry.
Gary Gossling, Owner
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