“If you’ve never seen a timber frame made from longleaf southern yellow pine, then you really ought to,” Jonathan remarked, “the resins just glow.” Fascinating how one sentence can lead to numerous conversations, learning, and a search of our photo collection…
We commonly work with Kiln Dried Douglas fir, but big timbers, reclaimed timbers, have been near and dear to us since opening our doors over 30 years ago. The New Energy Works story started with a collapsed building and a new house crafted from timbers salvaged from that wreckage. Today we remain smitten with reclaimed timbers.
Getting team members to pose for a photo is much easier when they’re surrounded by big reclaimed timbers in our Farmington, NY or McMinnville OR yards.
As an additional option to kiln-dried Douglas fir, the antique timbers offer extra stability and can always be cut to size for any design/plans. Douglas fir and Heart Pine are our favored industrial reclaimed timber species–we always have them available thanks to our sister company, Pioneer Millworks.
Just last week our sister company, Pioneer Millworks, reclaimed a few truck loads of longleaf southern yellow pine (aka: Heart Pine) from an old wool mill in Maine. These old timbers are looking for new life.
Round Heart Pine posts from the wool mill reclamation–an unusual find indeed!
Over the years we’ve crafted hundreds of projects with salvaged timbers, including:
Within this timber frame home, a functioning, canted lighthouse constructed with Heart Pine timbers overlooks a large lake.
Fine Homebuilding House of the Year (2011), The Vermont Street Project in Portland, Oregon features Douglas fir timbers salvaged from the old Mersman Table factory.
This LEED H timber frame home in North Carolina welcomes family and visitors through a reclaimed sinker cypress main entry porch.
When we re-sawn the old timbers, a bright face is revealed. Those freshly smoothed surfaces appear to glow, thanks in part to the high resin content. Lots of resin also means the wood is hard and durable making for great plank flooring–Heart Pine is most famously known as part of George Washington’s Mount Vernon residence…and as “fat wood” fire starter kindling.
That resin glow! Reclaimed Heart Pine timbers and flooring are a few of the most visible ecologically conscious pieces of this Balsam Mountain Preserve LEED H home.
Cutting and crafting to plan while maintaining the original as-found surfaces on salvaged timbers yields one-of-a-kind results:
As-found industrial timbers celebrate original surfaces for this Washington family’s outdoor living space.
Agricultural reclaimed timbers often include hand-hewn surfaces and a variety of hardwood species.
Factory to mill to craftsmen’s hands to raising to an inimitable project–crafting with reclaimed timbers brings unmatched history and character. Are salvaged timbers your missing element? Let’s chat about your next project.
