If you hadn’t noticed, reclaimed wood is here to stay! What started as a small design trend has led to one of the most sought-after design and construction materials that contributes to the earth more than it consumes. Many homeowners and businesses alike, want to live more eco-friendly preserving the earth for future generations. Its many green living benefits make using reclaimed wood a top choice. While many know they want reclaimed wood, many don’t know what they’re getting.
Not all reclaimed wood is created equal. Each plank comes with its own unique story, no two pieces are the same. However, the origin story of how it came from a century-old barn to your home or from southern fencing to your business is an important factor. Sourcing reclaimed wood is only the beginning of the story. The process of making each plank high quality reclaimed wood for you to use is where you will find the most discrepancies.
Does it Make the Grade?
Reclaimed wood is salvaged from many places. Woodstock Walls uses authentic wood reclaimed from vintage American barns, Tobacco Mills, Cotton mills, and other decades-old buildings. We also use reclaimed redwood from old thoroughbred horse stables, farm fences, and ranch fencing. The first step after rescuing wood from deconstructed buildings, discarded shipping materials, old-growth stumps, liquor barrels, or even old gyms is to sort the wood.
When we receive the wood, we sort it. It is important to us to take time to remove any metal, rocks, warped boards, decomposing boards, and split boards. When sorted, each plank is given a grade and separated into one of three categories: low grade, mid-grade, and high grade.
Low-grade reclaimed lumber is usually the ends or sides that are trimmed off or parts with decay. These scraps aren’t always thrown out, most often they are turned into firewood, bio-fuel, and even cool art pieces.
Mid-grade reclaimed lumber is consistently recycled as shipping pallets. When handling discarded shipping materials any plastic, nylon, paper, or other recyclables is in turn, recycled. Using pallet wood to cover a wall or other surface in your home can be a less expensive option. However, pallet wood is normally treated with pesticides and can have remnants of bacteria associated with distributing food.
Now we’ve gotten to the good stuff! High-grade reclaimed lumber is the best to use in your home or business. Once, reclaimed wood planks are identified as high grade they are sent to be kiln-dried. Drying wood in a kiln ensures it is free from bugs or bacteria while stabilizing the wood. After it is properly dried, some wood is repurposed to reveal its original luster or it remains a rustic, weathered look like our reclaimed wood panels.
Better Safe Than Sorry
When you thought of adding a wood wall to your home or building, it may have been for many reasons. Whether it’s because you like a country look, want to live green, or simply love wood – you should make sure it looks its best.
At Woodstock Walls, we manufacture precision-milled reclaimed wood planks. Precision milling is when we use state-of-the-art equipment to cut and shape each plank to standard lengths and widths. This state-of-the-art machinery also puts grooves in the back of our panels for our Click&Stick installation! The major advantage is the high-quality control as each piece is crafted by hand. Most DIY wood wall panels are milled.
Un-milled planks may not be cleaned up at all, some will have nails, be splitting, warping, or decomposing. There is significantly less quality control if any. Un-milled planks are normally spot checked for any standout trouble spots and that’s it. If you are familiar with woodworking, planks that are not processed through a mill may not be a problem for you. But if you’re looking for a ready to go DIY reclaimed wood wall, look no further than Woodstock Walls. We give you more control of your home makeover with authentic high quality reclaimed wood.
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