Reclaimed Wood

A number of firms sell wood flooring reclaimed from a huge variety of sources – rosewood railroad ties from Thailand, southern yellow pine from catalog warehouses, Great Salt Lake railroad trestle pilings, Douglas Fir ("distressed picklewood") from pickle vats, maple from factory floors, remilled oak, chestnut, pine and other woods salvaged from old homes and barns – the list goes on and on. In addition to flooring, some companies market millwork and beams made from reclaimed wood. It’s so nice to know the provenance of your floors – to walk around on that kind of history and know that there’s a story behind it. Given the increasingly competetive pricing and availability of this type of wood, the shipping costs that used to rule it out for many projects are less and less an issue.