Recycled wood is a great option for the flooring in you home. Along with heart pine, oak and cherry are also great choices!
Using recycled wood like heart pine is a wonderful option when you're looking to install wood flooring in any room of your home. The "old growth" of these recycled boards provides incredible durability and strength,
even more so than board manufactured from newly felled trees. Besides being stronger, these boards are gorgeous with tightly woven growth lines and rich color variations, and it's much better for the environment since recycled wood doesn't require the felling of new trees.
Advantages to Recycled Wood Flooring
Recycled wood provides incredible durability. Not only is the grain from older trees tighter, but the wood is extremely dense, creating an incredibly strong surface that wears gracefully. Many of the trees that were felled for these antique floors had been allowed to grow for hundreds of years before they were harvested. These years resulted in harder, denser wood.
If you love the look of distressed vintage floors, then recycled wood is definitely a good choice. Why spend money to distress your current floors when you can purchase wood that's already been naturally altered by walking feet or flowing water?
You may have not thought about this, but when you buy vintage wood from buildings that are being torn down or redone, you're helping the economy! Instead of allowing that wood to be thrown in a landfill, it's being reused in a new home. Recycling wood also prevents new trees from being cut down to produce new flooring.
Finally, the cost of vintage wood flooring is definitely less than brand new wooden planks. So, with recycled wood, you can achieve a popular look for a much lower costs!
Types of Woods Typically Used for Recycled Flooring
Oak is one popular recycled flooring option. While new oak provides a gorgeous flooring option, which charges the room with sophistication and elegance, it's also an incredibly pricey wood. It's also one of the most durable woods available, and you can avoid some of the expense if you opt to use recycled oak.
Heart pine comes from the wood in the very middle of the pine tree trunk. The original heart pine was found in forests that stretched for about 70 acres through the southeastern United States. Its beautiful amber-colored wood and tightly woven texture make refurbished options popular among homeowners today. Heart pine is virtually extinct and is more ready available as recycled wood rather than new.
Cherry is another gorgeous recycled option. Cherry has a beautiful red-hue which provides a calm and quiet elegance to the room. Cherry can also be extremely expensive as a new wood. Choosing recycled wood may help to bring that price down!
Where Can I Find Recycled Wood?
Often when this wood is found at the bottom of rivers, or on a winding trail, a specialist will come to inspect it and then it will be sold to neighboring friends. You can also look on eBay, Craigslist, or at a lumber mill. Home improvement stores may also have antique wood or know of someone you can contact to purchase this gorgeous hardwood floor option.
