88 – Reclaimed Lumber

Reclaimed Lumber Market is The Wild West

Today I have two guest who are experts in the reclaimed woods market.  Alan Solomon of SawKill Lumber in Brooklyn, NY and Klaas Armster of Armster Reclaimed Lumber Co.  This was a treat to not only talk about the types of woods but how this market is completely different from the one I work in daily.  

The basics categories of reclaimed lumber are:

• old homes and apartment buildings
• barns
• industrial buildings
• wooden tanks
• miscellaneous and unusual (ooh spooky)

Klaas and Alan both share with us the wild west nature of sourcing this material and how the reclaimed lumber folks may not mean the same thing as the lumber folks when they say "clear" or "dry" or any number of things we have come to count on when buying "normal" or new lumber.  Also reclaimed can be newly reclaimed wood and we are starting to see another generation of buildings being retired and providing sources for reclaimed materials of a whole different kind.  It is an interesting market and I can't thank Alan and Klaas enough for their time to educate us on the topic.  Be sure to follow them on instagram and check out their websites.  If you are in the market for reclaimed lumber they are both worth a call.

Check out the Book

Also I highly recommend their book Reclaimed Wood.  Its a great read and well worth it for anyone interested in the history of this great resource: wood.