Southern Wood Floors (Augusta, Ga.) is celebrating 25 years in business this year.
The company, which buys the structural lumber from older warehouses and factories slated for demolition and mills it into reclaimed flooring, was founded in 1994 by Greg Hunnicutt, who continues to oversee the company as president.
Southern Wood Floors was one of the first companies to begin harvesting and selling reclaimed flooring on a large scale, according to company spokesperson Gordon Lewis. What was once a somewhat niche practice for replacing flooring in historic homes has been steadily growing in popularity as the use of reclaimed products becomes more mainstream, Lewis adds.
The lumber harvested by Southern Wood Floors goes through a rigorous vetting process before it is milled and is x-rayed for any hidden nails (incidentally, there’s also surprisingly vibrant market for hand-made, 200-year-old nails, notes Lewis).
Much of the structural lumber harvested from buildings hasn’t seen the light of day for as many as 100 years, giving it a rich, unique patina, according to Lewis.
Lewis believes the market for reclaimed wood floors will continue to grow in the upcoming years.
“The next thing in the life of reclaimed wood is that more and more people are recognizing it as a product unique unto itself, and they’re putting it in new houses,” Lewis says.
