ABOUT USING LOCAL URBAN WOOD

Urban trees are removed for different reasons: disease, storm damage, danger of falling, or to clear the way for a construction project. We regularly accept usable raw logs from local arborists and salvage some of these trees. While some are not suited to becoming more than mulch or fuel due to their size or species, many others make beautiful homes as well as furniture, cabinetry, doors, and other functional items.   A side benefit of using “street trees” in this manner is that it often saves them from being taken to landfill.
Typically, wood from these "street trees" has unique characteristics not found in forest trees. Trees that grow in an urban environment develop their character through interaction with humans.  They are pruned to make way for cars and pedestrians, climbed upon, swung from, and used as message boards to advertise yard sales or lost pets, none of which would happen to trees growing in the forest.  The lumber that these trees yield reflects all of their history and provides them with a unique quality often very different from wood obtained from standard commercial milling operations.

Our modular design structures use as many sustainable materials as possible, in particular, wood salvaged by us from the urban forest.

Lumber below is air drying.

After the rough sawn planks are air dried for one year, they come back to the mill, where we prepared the planks using the joiner, planer and straight line saw.

These posts are ready to go; they have been marked with a number indicating their location in the building.

These are wall and floor panels ready to be shipped to the site.  We try to have all the plumbing, hydronic heating and electrical wiring holes drilled before they leave the shop.

The traditional hip rafter joint is still part of the program. Since the hip rafter is always the same size, we can make a template and jigs to speed up the execution.

Resources:

For more information on the use of urban trees: Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute

We work with several local arborists to salvage logs.  Many of our logs have come from The Professional Tree Care Co.

When we can’t use someone’s logs, we often suggest that they send them to the Green Waste Recycle Yard in Richmond, Ca, to be salvaged.

Interested in planting trees? Contact California ReLeaf.