Reclaimed Wood Equals Green

Posted on January 24th, 2009

If you are thinking of using green products in your home and you want a very unique look then think old. Reclaimed wood products can add some old age beauty to any home. With products like siding, flooring, timber beams, doors, trim and about any visual wood product you can think of can come from reclaimed wood. Certification programs usually award points for choosing reclaimed wood or recycled-content products. But there is even more, reclaimed wood will always have a story behind the product.

Reclaimed wood is wood that has already been used for another purpose, and has been salvaged for another use. From old barns to bridges and even 1800’s cabins, you can always find a story about where reclaimed wood came from. Almost all reclaimed wood is higher-grade wood than the newly-harvested wood sold today usually with more character, stability, and density. Older reclaimed wood was originally harvested from old-growth forests. Generally, less energy is used to create reclaimed wood products than to create new wood products or plastic lumber, concrete, or steel. Even reclaimed wood shipped via boat from other continents still contain less energy compared to domestic manufactured products.

One company that fits the niche of reclaimed wood and does not use the green issues to help promote their products is a company founded in Utah called Trestlewood®. Trestlewood®’s primary objective is to provide its customers with unique, high-quality, competitively-priced wood product options. Trestlewood® was founded and gained its name when a contract was formed to remove the railroad trestle from the Lucin Cutoff in the Great Salt Lake. This is an incredible story of US history and just as incredible salvage project. Read more here trestlewood.com/story.jsp. After the salvage of the railroad trestle, Trestlewood® continued to look for more salvage projects to help diversify and grow their product mix. Wood pickling or whiskey vats, grain silos, barns and even wooden boxes built to grow mushrooms have become reclaimed products in Trestlewood®s inventory.

I have personally worked with some of Trestlewood®’s great products and have seen the different application in many homes. Only Trestlewood® can provide some of these very unique products and their website has a very extensive database of photos. Go to their website to learn more or send me an e-mail and I can help answer any questions.