There is a price associated with using reclaimed wooden flooring over traditional wooden floors, but with that price, you’re getting a lot. This is the BMW of flooring, after all, not the Yugo. Reclaimed wooden flooring just looks nicer and richer, though you wouldn’t think it by the name. The costs to recover and process the lumber is not a cheap one, however, and that means the price is going to be a bit higher in the end.
Reclaimed Wooden Floor Planks Start Out In Other Buildings
When harvested from old buildings such as homes or barns, the buildings must be meticulously deconstructed in a manner that will preserve the reclaimed wood and protect it from damage. Once these old buildings are deconstructed, the reclaimed wood begins a long journey of being prepared, transported, and transformed before it ends up in your home as wooden flooring. You can see where, compared to traditional wooden flooring, reclaimed wooden floors, while great for the environment in comparison, certainly take a lot more work than cutting down the tree and running it through a saw mill.
Flaws Add Character To Reclaimed Wood Floors
Embedded materials such as nails, rocks, and building hardware from the lumber’s previous home have to be very carefully identified and removed in the initial steps so as not to damage the saws and other equipment that will be used in shaping the reclaimed wood. This is a tedious process, and although it addresses some of the character marks that make reclaimed wood so sought after as they embody the timelessness that is so endearing about reclaimed wooden flooring, there is often a limit to just how much character any piece of lumber should have before it’s just plain trash. Sometimes this limit is obvious, but sometimes there is a system of grading where the customer has set a particular limit on how many flaws the lumber should have. When buying reclaimed lumber, suppliers will often focus on grain quality and species, which means that obtaining the highest possible yield from each batch of reclaimed wood is an absolute necessity.
Reclaimed Wood Floors Use Something Previously Left To Waste
It’s not uncommon for over 50% of reclaimed wood to go to waste in the production of high quality, usable reclaimed wood products. Though this may seem like a lot, the number will go down as technology increases, and 50% of something is still a lot more than nothing.
Wood Is Used For Much More Than Just Wooden Flooring
It’s obvious that wood is all over the place. Trees are in the forests and parks, obviously, but wood that’s already been used is all over the home, office, outdoors…everywhere! Wooden bookshelves, computer desks, furniture frames, you name it. We use wood a lot. The world economy, though, is based on mass production to lower costs and fast, fast, fast delivery. Because people put reclaimed wood right along side other flooring options to compare, speed and price dictate everything. Yet, like organic food and other sustainable lifestyle products, reclaimed wooden flooring will cost you a bit more. Mass production is one of the main factors in pricing with regular flooring, but that’s simply not an option with reclaimed wood. It is seen as worth it to many, though, since you’re gaining not only a great wooden floor, but one made of wood that is extremely durable. While it may not be for everyone, reclaimed wooden flooring is definitely for the environmentally conscious.
Want to learn more about wooden flooring? Check out Wooden Flooring Info.
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