FIRST IMPRESSIONS: RECLAIMED WOOD GETS A SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION

publication date: Apr 28, 2008

By Stephanie Aurora Lewis, RA, LEED

In eras past, a builder didn’t worry about deforestation. Chopping lumber was a price of doing business. Today, however, selecting wood building materials is a sensitive decision-making process, especially if the builder wants to embrace eco-friendly practices or pursue green certification.

In historical and contemporary use, wood is a stunning, solar-power manufactured material. Among the many wood choices available—fresh lumber, pressure-treated and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified to name a few—reclaimed wood is the most environmentally friendly choice.

This repurposed and recycled material saves new growth from logging, protects the ozone from possible incineration pollution, reduces waste, and conserves energy used to manufacture fresh lumber. Furthermore, reclaimed wood is certified by the FSC and can earn LEED points in the following categories: construction waste management, low-emitting materials, FSC-certified wood and regionally harvested materials.

Multi-Purpose Woods for Multi-Purpose Uses
Resources for finding reclaimed wood are plentiful. One such company, CitiLog, is a certified urban forestry company in Brooklyn, NY, that reclaims woods from a variety of sources— urban trees cut down because of disease, nuisance or lightening damage; suburban trees hewn to make way for new construction; wood materials culled from demolished buildings; and “weed trees,” such as the rapidly renewable Black Locust, felled for the sake of aesthetics.

CitiLog founder Stubby Warmbold said, “Our number one mission is to provide wood materials from domestic trees in order to save tropicals.”

The sources for reclaimed wood are plentiful. “We take a log of what you have and fabricate it into whatever you want, such as exterior decking boards, interior floor boards, kitchen cabinetry, doors, fencing, siding and trim,” Warmbold said. “Though, if we find painted or treated wood, we do not touch the coatings at all so that the disposal of the chemicals will not harm the workers or the environment.”

“When building an addition or a completely new home, sometimes the beloved oak tree on the property needs to be removed for construction. I cannot tell you how happy homeowners are when they see their tree again in the form of oak hardwood flooring. These are the types of green-oriented clients who are greatly enthusiastic when they find our services,” Warmbold said.

CitiLog does not provide arborist services, which are required to cut down fully grown trees on private and public properties, but it (and companies like it) will provide lumber and finished carpentry items for a fraction of the cost found at commercial lumberyards.

Making the Best of the Black Locust
“We have invigorated the building industry again with Black Locust lumber,” said Warmbold, who commented that the wood was a popular option for fencing material in the early 1900s because of its resistance to rot. From a landscaping perspective, Black Locust is unsightly because it shoots up new growth above the roots at a very rapid, high maintenance pace.

CitiLog used Black Locust, harvested from Long Island, to replace the boardwalk in Wildwood, NJ. Most notable, however, is CitiLog’s contribution of a brise-soleil and deck boards for a bridge at the LEED platinum-certified project at the Queens Botanical Garden in New York City.

Rainforest Considerations
Woods harvested from rain forests should be avoided, even when manufacturers and installers claim they employ environmentally friendly practices. For example, the popular Ipê tree, more commonly known as the Brazilian walnut tree and used for decks and floors, has experienced massive deforestation in recent years. Despite legislation by various Central and South American governments to limit the lumbering of this tropical tree, bribery is rampant and harvesting continues at a breakneck speed.

The website Rainforestweb.org states, “Logging damages up to half the area to get at just a few trees, eliminating up to 50 percent of the canopy and bulldozing roads and skid trails through pristine old growth forests. Ipê occurs in densities of only one or two trees per acre and only a tiny fraction of the entire tree yields four-side-clear 2x4s (as little as five board feet!).”

Keeping It Natural and Eco-Friendly
Using lumber from rapidly renewable trees and recycled building materials as reclaimed wood are excellent alternatives to consuming fresh new lumber. Even though wood is a natural material, it is often unable to decompose in an eco-friendly manner because of paints, stains and other chemical coatings. Furthermore, wood incineration can cause more damage to the ozone than polyethylene incineration.

Works Cited
1. CitiLog. 13 April 2008. www.citilogs.com
2. Rainforestweb.org. “Asbury Park votes to use uncertified Ipe from Brazilian Amazon.” 02 February 2001. www.rainforestweb.org