In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

Rescuing Valuable Timber From Old Buildings

In Business, July-August, 2005, Vol. 27, No. 4, p. 22

To meet market demand, Virginia company expands - using environmentally friendly systems to make the most from a very limited natural resource.

Dan Stone

WHEN John and Carol Pflug decided to build an addition onto their 18th-century “Headquarters Farm” in Virginia, they called on the Ruckersville, Virginia-based Mountain Lumber Co. to help with a project they knew would challenge their imagination and skill.
Built in 1756, the Pflugs' enormous old farmhouse has a pedigree that reflects the nation's great history prominent through the valleys of Virginia's Old Dominion. During the Civil War, the farm served as a hospital for injured soldiers. Additionally, the land around the farm was used as a campground for some of Stonewall Jackson's troops.
Passionate about the farm's rich heritage, the Pflugs' set out on a search for the perfect elements for their farm's addition. To find these elements, John Pflug took a trip to France to trace his great-grandfather's roots. Pflug was stunned both to find his great-grandfather's homestead and acquire the wooden doors from the home's hearth.
After returning to Virginia, the Pflugs asked Mountain Lumber to help design the addition around the rediscovered doors. Over the next year, Mountain Lumber's mill foreman, Scott Tuttle, cabinet specialist Ed Wood, and Sales Manager Debra Eason planned the entire room around the doors. Mountain Lumber provided 100 percent antique reclaimed wood for the Crown Grade Heart Pine flooring, paneling, stairs and “Scrumpy Jack” European Cooper's Oak wine cabinets. Now finished, the Pflugs say the project will be a centerpiece for entertaining family and friends at the farm for years to come.
An industry leader in antique, reclaimed woods, the Mountain Lumber Co. rescues timbers from buildings being taken down around the world and mills them into flooring, beams and architectural details.
The core of Mountain Lumber's business centers around Historic Heart Pine and Antique American Oak reclaimed from centuries-old mills up and down the east coast of the United States as well as Chestnut that had been previously used in Appalachian barns. Other more exotic Mountain Lumber finds have included ancient Chinese Elm saved when 15th-Century Ming Dynasty buildings were taken down; “Cooper's Oak” reclaimed from hundred-year-old English hard cider vats; Russian Oak that had been set aside at the turn of the last century for railroads and many others.

WOOD WITH A STORY TO TELL
Mountain Lumber has rescued more than two-million board feet of historic Heart Pine and Hard Maple from the Pelzer Mills in South Carolina. Some timbers were 13 inches wide, 15 inches tall and up to 25 feet long. Each home or office that purchases the Pelzer Mill timber also purchases a wood rich in American heritage. The antique wood has a story to tell. The wood's heritage speaks to the history of a people in a small community who built their lives around a great mill. People whom were coming to grips with the technologies of a new century and who crossed paths with one of the world's greatest inventors - Thomas Alva Edison.
Personally bringing electricity to the small town of Pelzer and the mills at its heart, Edison helped the buildings to be among the first in the state to have electric lights. The mills were powered by the Edison-designed hydro-electric facility and Edison was there in 1895 when the plant, which is still in operation today, went on line. Due to the new technology, however, the company's stock dropped because of electricity's perceived risk. One anecdote had townspeople gathering with buckets to collect any of the leftover electricity not used in the mill.
The upper and lower mills, designed by Boston's famous Lockwood, Greene and Company, were built in 1881 and the town was laid out around them. From the 1920s to the 1970s, the Kendall Company ran the mills, making gauze dressings for American soldiers during World War II and the Korean War as well as cloth diapers. Eventually, Gerber Childrenswear moved in but phased out Pelzer's manufacturing in 2003.

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT
In addition to Mountain Lumber's renowned, historic woods, the company is also making ground-breaking, eco-friendly standards with expanded facilities. A pioneer in many environmentally friendly efforts, Mountain Lumber is the first reclaimed flooring company to transform sawdust and wood chips from its manufacturing processes into fuel to power on-site drying kilns and to create electricity for the plant.
“We've never cut down a tree to make flooring,” says Willie Drake, who founded Mountain Lumber more than 30 years ago. “It just seems natural that a leading reclaimed lumber company should also carve a path in developing a manufacturing process that makes the most out of a very limited natural resource. This is just one of the innovative ways we've chosen to do the right thing and keep our long-standing commitment to environmentalism. We hope others will follow our lead.”
According to General Manager John Williams, after Mountain Lumber purchased Madison Wood Flooring in Madison, Virginia, the company had the resources it needed to recycle its sawdust in a way no other reclaimed flooring company has ever attempted. Mountain Lumber, Williams says, will take the waste from its saws and use it as fuel to power the drying kilns that reduce the moisture content in the wood. And while the company has always aimed to make the most of the sawdust - and for years has offered it to farmers as bedding - Williams says powering the kilns will be a big step forward in keeping its operations “green”.
The purchase of Madison Wood Flooring will give Mountain Lumber the manufacturing resources it needs to meet a growing demand for historic wood flooring. “We simply had to grow to meet the market's needs,” Drake said. “Architects, builders and homeowners recognize the quality in our work, and we're growing the business to make sure we can produce it for them.”
Madison Wood Flooring's entire 12-acre manufacturing facility include the land, mill shop, kilns and warehouses. “This [purchase] gives us the space we need to run the most efficient flooring line in the business,” Drake said. “With this new plant we will be able to streamline our entire operation, increase productivity and improve our yield.” According to Drake, Mountain Lumber will split its operations between its existing Greene County facility and the new Madison County site. For more information, visit www.mountainlumber.com.