Once used for plumbing equipment and supplies, the warehouse at 45-47 Bacon St. in Watertown, Mass., just west of Boston, was demolished and its heart pine beams taken by Longleaf Lumber Inc. (Cambridge, Mass) to recycle into flooring, paneling and other millwork products.
The warehouse was demolished to make way for a residential development. While the development architects said the warehouse was built in 1925, the presence of "tight-grained" heart pine suggests that one part of the warehouse was built decades earlier, the company said in a blog post.
The company had to carefully de-nail the beams, as well as chop back the parts that had extensive rot caused by long-term water leaks in the building. The company was able to manufacture the salvaged wood into six grades of flooring.
“This timber was reclaimed just down the road from our Cambridge office and warehouse, so we are keeping it hyper-local with this project,” said Longleaf owner Marc Poirier in a statement. “It’s a gnarly lot, with a lot of water damage and embedded metal, but we’ll still be able to saw some beautiful quartersawn boards from it.”
Editor's Note: If your company reclaims wood with a story, we want to hear about it. Send the story and a few photos to [email protected].
