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The Beauty of Reclaimed Flooring
To begin this article, Id like to tell you about a storm that occurred during 1825. A late season hurricane struck the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Once the storm had past, the owner of several schooners noticed that not only was his home destroyed, but that three of his ships were damaged beyond repair. Being a very frugal man, he stripped the wood from the three schooners to rebuild his home. Today, that house still stands. I think of reclaimed flooring as recycled flooring. It is a wonderful compromise to owning rich warm hardwood floors, without the concerned contributing to the deforestation of our planet. Reclaimed flooring is wood that has been salvaged from old factories, railroad trestles, mills, barns, warehouses, homes, office building, etc., particularly from ones that were constructed in the 1800s. With the majority of reclaimed wood being harvested approximately 100 to 300 years ago. In addition, to being environmentally friendly, reclaimed wood is also more denser, and stable, than newer hardwoods and is a wonderful source for such long-gone woods as heart pine and chestnut as old-growth longleaf pine and the American Chestnut are no longer around in the quantity to supply wood from new flooring. During the mid-1970s, several very resourceful enterprising people began going around and salvaging useable old wood, many times the wood was given to them for free as demolition companies did not want to have to pay to have the wood hulled off. Many of these businesses have grown into huge corporations. When purchasing reclaimed flooring, buyers have to do their homework as the quality of the reclaimed wood depends solely on its source. The reason for this is that many times, reclaimed wood has had more than one life and it is vital that the buyer understands and knows where the wood has been and where it has come from. Case in point, the wood in my in-laws home came from a salvaged tobacco barn. Yes, the wood is beautiful, however, when the heater kicks on in the winter, there is always the faint smell of tobacco throughout the house. When buying reclaimed antique wood you must also know if the wood has been kiln-dried, this is the heating of the wood to a specific temperature for a specific amount of time. The is important for two reasons, first to dry out the wood if it had been in the weather for a period of time and second to kill any insects and their eggs that may be in the wood as well as any mold and fungus. This is very important especially if any of the wood has been reclaimed from flood areas. The Reclaimed Wood Council is working on industry standards, however, until that time it is up to the buyer to do their research and know what they are purchasing. For more information on reclaimed wood please visit the reclaimed wood council website at: http://www.reclaimedwoodcouncil.org/
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