Our single family rehab and addition in Bucktown has largely wrapped up and our experiments in working with wood salvaged from its demolition have paid off! In its construction every floor joist was salvaged and replaced with engineered trusses to level the floors and provide room for mechanical runs. Due to the historic commercial use of the first floor, the demolition yielded a stack of 4" x 14" old growth timbers. White pine boards with rings as tight as the grooves on an album. In our estimation the timbers were installed 100 hundred years ago from trees upwards of 200 years old...totaling 300 years of history!
After planing down the boards, we re-used them in the form of a central stair, new built-up exposed floor structure, a new fence, tables...and perhaps a future trellis. The newly-crafted century old lumber now has a beautiful finish and a rich history which will hopefully last another 100 years.
