Reclaimed Wood Ultimate Guide
Forest destruction is increasingly becoming a serious problem that must be faced not only by the government, but also every community on the earth. We as homeowners also apparently have an influence on forest destruction, which is when we use a lot of wood material both for building materials for the construction,interior and furniture for our homes.
The good news is that today, a lot of people are concern of this situation and avoid using virgin wood or at least decrease the usage of virgin wood as much as possible for things in their homes. One alternative is to use other materials such as plastic or metal, but in fact these materials also have a negative impact on our environment.
Another much better alternative is to use reclaimed wood.
What is Reclaimed Wood?
Reclaimed wood is used wood that is reprocessed so that it can be reused. Some examples of wood materials that are often reclaimed to make new wood include: Wood warehouses, demolition of old houses, demolition of buildings, used wine drums, used cages / farms, and many more.
After being dismantled, the timber from the demolition will be sorted by the wood processing company. Where low quality wood will be turned into firewood, then the medium ones is often made pallets or another products for factories or businesses purpose. Lastly, high quality wood will be recycled and resold in the form of reclaimed wood.
This wood reclaimed process is very simple, where the wood that falls into the good category will be dried, than it will be cleaned from any form of fungi and bacteria using a number of different methods, and finally it will be cut / trimmed again to remove the damage parts.
If you often see our interior design ideas here in roomdsign.com, you’ll often see us using reclaimed wood as an interior decoration or as furniture items. Yes, we also encourage people to use reclaimed wood in for their homes to help create a better earth for us and our children in the future.
Reclaimed Wood Benefits – Why Use Reclaimed Wood?
Nowadays, reclaimed wood is a popular options for furniture manufacturers and home owners because it has so many advantages compared to another types of wood. Here is some benefits of using reclaimed wood :
1. Reduce Deforestation
According to the data, every year millions of acres of forest is lost. This caused by many things, such as for the construction of settlements, opening of agricultural land, and also to take the wood for sale.
By using reclaimed wood, you are not only helped reduce demand for virgin wood from logging,but also helped save the forest. Imagine if the majority of the people in the world chose to use reclaimed wood, then loggers would certainly won’t cut down any trees and forests again because there was no demand from buyers for their harvested timber.
With reduced forest damage, many things will be saved. Such as the decreasing the effects of global warming and saving animals and wildlife from losing their habitats. So, by deciding to use reclaimed wood, you have participated to create a better earth.
2. Get Exotic Wood Characters
Currently, many reclaimed wood that sold in the market is a wood that aged up to hundreds of years! If you are lucky, you can get wood like this which certainly has a high historical value in a bargaining prices!
In addition, hundreds of years old wood like this generally has an exotic appearance, which is very rarely to get in form of virgin wood. Even if you can find it, it will cost you a lot of money.
3. Better Wood Quality
Most of the reclaimed wood is an aged wood, which is generally had very dry conditions and has a very low moisture content. This is certainly an advantage when compared to the virgin wood that usually still has a lot of moisture that can make the wood change it’s form.
Wood with high moisture can be a problem when used for doors or doors frame, which when it change its form or bending, can cause the door unable to opened or closed. By using reclaimed wood, you don’t need to worry about this kind of problems.
4. Save Money
With the same quality, you can get reclaimed wood at a much cheaper price compared to virgin ones. Why? Because reclaimed timber producers can get reclaimed wood raw materials at very cheap prices (often free) from building dismantled materials.
And, as explained in the previous section, the quality of reclaimed wood is arguably same or even better than virgin wood.
5. More Natural and Original
The increasingly high price of virgin wood has made many people now begin to abandon the use of wood and use another alternatives materials such as plastic, metal or aluminum. The use of these kind of materials certainly removes the natural ambience on the interior of your home.
Fortunately, today you can use reclaimed wood that is cheaper than original wood compared so you can still bring natural looks for your home interior decoration, especially when natural, rustic, classic or farmhouse design concept is used for your interior design theme.
What Species of Woods can be Reclaimed?
Almost all type of wood can be reclaimed, but in general, some hardwoods species that have long durability is the most often reclaimed, such as pine, oak and redwood.
There is some thing to consider when choosing the wood to be reclaimed. Beside durability, the motifs and patterns of the wood also need to be considered.
For use as furniture, oak wood is one of the most sought after because it has a variety of colors and patterns that can be selected according to the wishes and needs of the furniture to be made. Meanwhile, for making floors, pine wood is the most popular.