Another Source For Wood?

[Jim Koepke]

This may be a new trend or growing trend.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/17/BUQB1B4KVE.DTL

When I lived in the SF area, there were a few places to buy reclaimed wood.

Anyone else know of salvage lumber yards?

jim

[Dave Matson]

Such noble work.
I've been to both Urban ore in berkeley and Building Resources in San Francisco. Urban ore is HUGE! I think we got 6 or 8 sheets of plywood for $15. At building resources the first time I went I saw some really nice 10 foot 1x8 poplar boards with homedepot stickers on them. I still kick myself for not getting them. The second time I went I found some old tools including a nice millers falls 732 brace. They had a dozen or so junker saws and circular saw blades too. There is another place in East Palo Alto called Drift Wood Salvage which is suppose to be pretty good.

Working with salvaged lumber is always fun and challenging.

[Derek Cohen]

This is new?!

My apologies if I appear cynical but I took for granted that is how many .. most acquire wood. I have a couple of salvage yards I frequent. Sometime I find a house renovation where they are tossing out old flooring or roof beams (increasingly hard to find now as the salvos are buying this up). When we added a story over the garage I saved a roof worth of Jarrah trusses. All this stuff is dry .. dry .. dry and very, very hard. ... uh .. seasoned. :)

Been doing it this way for many years.

Is this not a common thing in the USA?

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Pam Niedermayer]

I think we've kind of gone beyond that model, Derek, to our detriment. There are professional salvage restorers who buy the good stuff cheap and then resell, at very high prices, to those who want old wood and doors. So the likelihood of finding quality recycled wood in a salvage yard for cheap is not high. Perhaps the great recession and collapse of the housing market has created a window for us regular people, though.

Pam

[Andrew Homan]

We have it here in Vermont, and it is inexpensive, not like what Pam described.
I have used it for house renovation projects and for building a chicken coop and a children's playhouse. There are always construction boards, 2x4s, 2x10s, plywood, etc in stock. The problem with finding good boards for cabinetmaking is that I don't visit frequently enough to catch the good stuff when it comes in. There is a weekly email list, but last time something amazing came in (several hundred bf of butternut), I go there after work in the afternoon and it was already gone. In the summer my chances are better but the pros are still faster.

[Derek Cohen]

I think we've kind of gone beyond that model, Derek, to our detriment. There are professional salvage restorers who buy the good stuff cheap and then resell, at very high prices, to those who want old wood and doors. So the likelihood of finding quality recycled wood in a salvage yard for cheap is not high. Perhaps the great recession and collapse of the housing market has created a window for us regular people, though.

Pam

Hi Pam

I suspect that we are heading down the same path ... sadly.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jeff Schmidt]

Just like everything else, salvaged building materials have become commoditized. I fully expect to see barges hauling palletized used bricks on the Ohio.

[Tom Vanzant]

Derek, Pam, Jeff...
We're getting there..... My home was bricked from those salvaged from the hospital where I was born, some of my shop cabinets were built from plywood salvaged from Xerox shipping containers, and others from mahogany acquired by dumpster-diving at local door and window shops. I have a small coffin plane with the core made from small pieces of Cocobolo. Very pretty and a joy to use.
Tom

[Harlan Barnhart]

I have an eagle eye for wood in the garbage, and a back hall reduced to a footpath by salvaged lumber. I am in the process of building a workbench entirely from reclaimed lumber. The top is laminated strips of 5/4 white oak from a single massive pallet on which stone sills were delivered.

[James Davis]

I am building a small business with nothing but reclaimed lumber. I frequent Craigs list and friends shops to find stuff that they are throwing away. I mostly make small boxes and pens and such, but the draw of saying that I only use wood that was headed to te landfill or burn pile has helped in several sales.

James