by Amanda Knox
Reclaimed wood refers to wood that has been salvaged from a previous use. Oftentimes, reclaimed wood and lumber come from old barns and warehouses. According to The Old Barn Wood Co. (Baraboo, Wis.), they are the source for massive wood beams, from old growth Pine, Douglas Fir, White Oak, and other wood varieties that are prized for their color, size, strength and grain.
Reclaimed wood is said to be unrivaled in terms of its beauty, density and clarity. This old lumber is also valued for its historical significance, often from turn-of-the-last-century buildings. SmartWood offers a Rediscovered Wood certification program designed to acknowledge good practices for the recovery, recycling and reuse of wood products through credible independent certification and tracking. Wood recovery is a new and growing industry that is developing due to rising timber prices, diminishing space in landfills, and specialty markets for antique woods. With the world’s current demand for forest products, deforestation and forest degradation pressures are ever increasing. Here are a few stories of passionate people committed to conserving the world’s forests one tree at a time.
Solid Wood Products
“It has been quite a journey beginning with the demolition and recycling of the Pine Street Bridge.”- Mitch Upton
While dismantling a 60-year-old bridge in British Columbia, Mitch Upton’s passion for reclaimed wood was kindled. He and his wife designed and built a house with the massive timbers with the help of two local log crafters, Doug and Norm McCulloch. The bridge also provided much of the finishing products for the home including wainscoting and exterior siding. Surrounded by pine trees, the Upton’s have lived in their home for 13 years now.
Upton claims, “In an effort to reduce my personal impact on the environment, I continue to work the spring season helping to replenish our forests and actively promote the use of salvaged and reclaimed timber.” Upton’s company, Solid Wood Products (Lac Le Jeune, BC, Canada), now offers a line of products using reclaimed wood including custom tables, wide plank flooring, timberframe components, and interior trim. www.solidwoodpro.com
Stranger Furniture
“The decisions we make now about what we make and what we buy will determine the nature of the world our children will live in” – William Stranger
William Stranger, founder of Stranger Furniture (Pasadena Calif.), has been building fine wood furniture in his studio since 1987. Stranger states, “By looking deeply into the nature of my work and choosing a sustainable way, I create furniture that has a minimal impact on the environment.” Stranger uses wood from certified forests, reclaimed lumber, and wood salvaged from the rural and urban landscape.
Stranger strives for balance in life, as well as in his furniture. His work integrates strong structural elements with traditional and innovative joinery to produce sustainable, organic furniture. Stranger’s products include tables and cabinets made from reclaimed Douglas Fir, furniture from river-recovered Heart Pine, a bed made of twigs and branches salvaged from Stranger’s own backyard, and cabinets made from bamboo and formaldehyde-free panels. www.strangerfurniture.com
Restoration Timber
“When a home incorporates reclaimed woods into the design, you can tell the difference.” -Jim Stafford
Jim Stafford, founder of Restoration Timber (San Anselmo, Calif.) left a successful high-tech career to build his own house in September 2001, determined to use reclaimed timber as much as possible. He trekked across the Midwest and the South to find the exquisite old growth wood that he knew languished across America in abandoned factories, barns and warehouses. Friends and colleagues were delighted with the materials he found, and they asked him to find reclaimed wood for them. Stafford, recognizing the potential and importance of reclaimed wood, founded Restoration Timber that offers reclaimed wood floors, cabinetry, furniture, beams and siding. www.RestorationTimber.com
Red Ridge Furniture
“In this time of global deforestation and depletion of natural resources, Red Ridge uses only vendors who harvest either dead standing trees, use recycled barn wood, or replenish cut plantation wood.”
Red Ridge Furniture Michael Brill formed Red Ridge Furniture (Lake Zurich, Ill.) in 2002 due to his devotion to handmade wooden furniture. Brill continues to seek out unique, handmade furniture to add to his portfolio of product offerings. Red Ridge offers more than 30 different product lines, including award-winning teak and log furniture, traditional American and European lines, and the Western Heritage line made from reclaimed wood from some of America?s oldest structures, dating as far back as the early 1800s. www.redridgefurniture.com
Goodwin Heart Pine Co.
“We work hard to instill confidence in consumers’ ability to get the grade of reclaimed wood that they want.”
– Carol Goodwin
Back in the 1970s, George Goodwin, a master carpenter and homebuilder, was handpicking the finest materials to build his own dream home. He acquired some longleaf pine logs recovered from the Suwannee River. The virgin quality, rich red patina and amazing grains of this ‘underwater’ heart pine, as well as the rarity and historical significance, became his passion. He realized others would value this treasure and opened Goodwin Heart Pine Co. (Micanopy, Fla.), in 1976.
Goodwin Heart Pine Co., specialists in recovering original growth logs from Southern rivers, recently pulled a mammoth size cypress tree from a private creek in west Florida. The tree, approximately 1,700 years old and more than 100 feet tall, is 53 inches in diameter and three times larger than most cypress logs Goodwin recovers. Because the tree was submerged in cool water, the milled lumber will be in pristine condition. The sections will provide enough wood to side or panel an entire house and most likely will be used for historic restoration and preservation projects. www.heartpine.com
Urban Tree Salvage
“Our goal is to provide the consumer with an environmentally friendly option when purchasing quality lumber, which in turn, helps sustain our natural environment.” – Urban Tree Salvage
Urban Tree Salvage (Scarborough, Ontario, Canada) was created to aid in the preservation of our forests and environment through urban tree salvage. Sean Gorham, president of Gorham Enterprises Inc. and founder of Urban Tree Salvage, removes logs from dumpsites and residential properties of the urban forest. The logs are then transported to a site where they are milled, kiln dried and then sold to the trade and public for furniture, flooring and artisan products.
Annually, UTS estimates reducing approximately 420 tons of carbon dioxide emissions from reaching our atmosphere by processing these logs typically doomed for landfill into usable, value-added products. www.urbantreesalvage.com
Auburn Enterprises
“We are dedicated to producing practical solutions for generating more products from both recovered and sustainably managed wood sources, in an environmentally responsible manner.” – Auburn Enterprises
Auburn Enterprises, LLC (Auburn, Maine), founded by Thom Labrie, has been involved in the forest products industry for more than 25 years. Since 1995, Auburn has been developing practical solutions for improving the utilization and value of under-utilized and waste-stream wood from both pre- and post-consumer sources.
Highlights of its work include: developing cutting edge wood recovery technologies that convert odd shaped, random size, nail embedded, painted and dirty recoverable wood into clean, uniformly sized and useable stock; developing equipment to efficiently and safely remove lead based paint from coated wood; and creating the ‘Maine Made & Green’ initiative. Products from Auburn Enterprises include building materials, cabinetry, decking, flooring and paneling, furniture and more. www.auburnenterprises.com
TerraMai
“Our goal is simple – to provide exceptional and unique woods for innovative people and projects.” – TerraMai
Richard McFarland and Erika Carpenter co-founded TerraMai (McCloud, Calif.) in 1991 with the goal of saving some trees, employing some people, and supporting their family in the timber country of Northern California. Since then, they have reclaimed more than a million board feet of old-growth lumber and provided premium wood for projects. As the business has grown, so has their vision to include reclaiming under-utilized wood from Asia and other continents around the world. TerraMai reclaims wood that is destined for landfills, wood chippers and burn piles to offset the demand for new lumber. Products include flooring, decking, timbers and beams, siding and paneling. www.terramai.com
Black’s Farmwood
“Each piece of authentic aged wood is as unique as your vision.” – Michael Black
For nearly a decade, Black’s Farmwood (San Rafael, Calif.) has provided vintage old growth lumber from environmentally responsible sources for unique building projects. Whether it’s wide-plank hardwood flooring re-milled from Civil War Era Tobacco barns, rustic barn siding and original hand-hewn beams from the Midwest, rare old-growth redwood from a historic sawmill in Northern California, or dry, straight structural Douglas Fir timbers from old military warehouses, Black’s Farmwood harvests the finest wood available.
Michael Black started the company in the mid 1990s when he deconstructed a fallen barn on his family farm in Ohio and offered it to builders in Northern California. www.blacksfarmwood.com
CitiLog
“Our company helps protect the environment and keeps usable material out of the waste stream.” – Maria and Stubby Warmbold.
D. Stubby Warmbold, founder of CitiLog (Pittstown, N.J.), uses a combination of salvaging/urban logging, horse logging methods, and Forest Stewardship Council chain-of-custody wood to produce custom millwork. Warmbold was inspired to start his company after witnessing a 100-year-old oak tree, blown over in a storm, being cut into firewood. Along with their approach to protect the environment, CitiLog also supports skilled artisans and small-scale production in local communities. As an urban-based business, CitiLog provides jobs for inner city youths who work in the collection, warehousing, and distribution of logs and wood products. Products and projects provided by CitiLog include historical restoration, cabinets/casework, molding/millwork, and flooring. www.citilogs.com
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FROM Environmental Design + Construction, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner
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