WHY RECLAIMED WOOD?

WHY RECLAIMED WOOD?

WHY RECLAIMED WOOD? DISCOVERING THE BEAUTY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF RECLAIMED WOOD


Reclaimed wood. If you’ve browsed the pages of architectural magazines, viewed the recent architecture and design awards, or simply looked at the built environment around you, you’ve seen it. Reclaimed wood flooring, reclaimed wood paneling, reclaimed wood siding, reclaimed lumber — it’s everywhere.

Reclaimed wood makes a statement, turns heads, captures attention, enhances well-being, and improves the environment. It’s more than a design trend. The use of reclaimed wood is an intentional choice for the environment and building inhabitants; it’s an integral aesthetic and meaningful design component.

Here is why reclaimed wood has become the design material of choice.



RECLAIMED WOOD HAS PROVEN PERFORMANCE
Whether it’s the durability of wood flooring or the warmth of wood siding, reclaimed wood is a prime choice for many award winning buildings and designs. It can enhance and complement just about any design style. When designers choose reclaimed wood, they may be seeking a material that can show its history through a rich patina, circle sawn markings and nail holes but reclaimed wood can also have a clean or eclectic aesthetic. Either way, there is a soulful nature and meaningful story to discover.

TerraMai reclaimed wood materials are routinely specified by top architects and designers, including Gensler, HOK, IA, Stantec, CallisonRTKL, Perkins+Will and hundreds more. TerraMai reclaimed wood products can be found in projects for Google, REI, Lululemon, The Coca-Cola Company, HBO, Stanford University, The Ritz-Carlton Company and Amazon – just to name a few.




RECLAIMED WOOD POSSESSES BEAUTY AND STORY
Reclaimed wood adds instant authenticity and personality to a space. Today’s designers are embracing an aesthetic that embodies the organic natural beauty of wood that carries with it a greater impact for the built environment. Occupants instinctively respond to wood flooring, siding, paneling, stairs, beams and furniture with positive emotional and physical reactions. Reclaimed wood has an additive effect. Sometimes the wood’s prior history is visually evident meaning the wood is character-rich but even when it has a clean aesthetic, reclaimed wood brings powerful stories of repurposing wood and utilizing what would have otherwise been discarded and wasted. These stories enrich and enhance the wood's natural beauty and create a deeper experience.




RECLAIMED WOOD PROMOTES SUSTAINABILITY
Reclaimed wood offers a range of sustainability advantages over new wood. Reclaimed wood reduces the devastating impact of deforestation, keeps valuable resources from being landfilled and thoughtfully repurposes wood that has been deemed unworthy. Other advantages include much lower emissions than associated with the logging, transport and processing of new wood.

Through a number of sourcing methods such as older wood structures slated for demolition (factories, barns, bridges, etc), orchard salvage, vasts forests submerged under water in reservoirs, forest floor salvage, and off-cuts from manufacturing, TerraMai ensures large quantities of wood are found and put back to good use. Seeking reclaimed wood through these many avenues ensures plentiful inventory and variety. Types of reclaimed wood include teak, acacia, pine, redwood, oak, walnut, douglas fir, cedar, peroba and many other varieties from around the world.

Old growth wood is incredibly stable and durable. Because of the tightly packed growth rings, old growth wood is denser and thus, more physically durable with better rot resistance. Old growth wood is less likely to splinter, split or warp versus new growth wood. We humans have mostly decimated our old-growth forests worldwide. It is important to protect the remaining old growth forests as they are biodiversity-rich, are necessary for regulating water flows and they influence climate patterns. Fortunately, billions of board feet of this material are still in service and will become available for us to reclaim for generations into the future. Reclaimed
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