Reclaimed flooring: recycling at its’ roots
Every floor has a story…
One of the things JCWoodworking has become known for is our floors. Our specialty is wide plank flooring and we offer reclaimed, earth-friendly and character grade. We mill each floor to our customer’s specifications and offer unmatched widths and lengths in both reclaimed and character grade. If you have a photo of a floor you are trying to match, please feel free to send it to us. The species, milling (skip planed, dirty top, resawn, etc) and stains available make the possible looks of an antique floor endless.
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- White pine floor (often referred to as pumpkin pine)
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- Wideplank character grade oak floor
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Resawn oak floor
Reclaimed flooring has been milled from either beams, siding or original flooring. It is unique in both its’ age and beauty and no two reclaimed floors are alike. These floors will have knots, nail holes and changes in color and patina throughout a board. While the natural patina is often the most beautiful, a reclaimed floor will take any stain.
While our character grade flooring is not antique, it is unique in its’ widths and lengths. This flooring can be run in widths up to 11.5″ and 85% lengths of 8-14 ft. Character grade, when dealing with material that is not reclaimed, means that you can expect knots and imperfections typical to reclaimed flooring. This character in combination with the sizes creates the look of a wide plank, antique floor.
In addition to a species of flooring, the surface of the board also determines the look of the finished product.
Original flooring (footworn and dirty top):
Original flooring is taken directly from the floors of antique buildings. Footworn flooring or “walked upon” flooring is just that: worn by foot. The wear on the boards is the wear created by more than a century’s wear of people walking back and forth. Footworn flooring most often comes from 1800′s homes. Flooring salvaged from barns (either the siding, interior boards or flooring) that is unaltered is called “dirty top”. This floor literally has a “dirty top” which is not planed to take out the saw marks and inconsistencies created by up to two centuries of weather and wear.
Planed salvaged flooring:
A less primitive, yet beautiful, finish is attained by planing or skip-planing the top of the board. This will take the board to an even thickness and remove some of the inconsistencies in the antique boards, yet leave the rich, vibrant patina of the wood.
Resawn antique flooring:
We also have resawn flooring which is cut from barn beams. This is a reclaimed product and dates to the 1800′s, but does not have the original face of the footworn or dirty top floor. It does, however, have color and character unique to salvaged wood.
