Home Construction Improvement

Reclaimed Wood by Centennial Woods

By Todd Fratzel on Siding & Trim

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Using Reclaimed Wood

I recently discovered a really cool company that’s created a very unique reclaimed wood company. I asked them to write a short article telling all of us more about the company and the products they offer. I think you’ll find it quite interesting.

Centennial Woods LLC (www.centennialwoods.com) realized 12 years ago that sustainability would become a cornerstone for many people; not merely a trend, but a way of life influencing how they shop, live, play, and even eat. People looking to green their homes and buildings were looking for a chemical free, all natural reclaimed wood, which can be difficult to reliably find in the fragmented barn wood market.

It was once common place for unwanted wood to be thrown into land fills or burned because it had reached the end of its life on a snow fence. Enter Wyomingites with a passion for sustainability! From its inception, Centennial Woods sought to reclaim this rustic lumber and repurpose it for a second life in building applications. By doing this, miles of beautiful reclaimed wood is given a second life where it can be cherished for years to come.

This product is radically different from barn wood or wood reclaimed from other old structures, in that snow fence has never been treated with any chemicals and has never had exposure to lead-based paints. Unlike other reclaimed wood that is treated, snow fence has no off-gassing and no VOC’s, improving indoor air quality (http://www.centennialwoods.com/reclaimed.html). Wyoming’s arid wind naturally dries the snow fence for decades to produce intensely beautiful, perfectly dried reclaimed boards. This dimensional lumber is a mixture of douglas fir, ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, and spruce. Centennial Woods has one of the largest sources of reclaimed lumber and will continue to produce similar products decades from now (in contrast to barn wood with different dimensions, finishes, and species each time a different building is torn down).

The reclaiming work is done in-house by Centennial Woods field crews. They first dismantle the faces of the snow fence by hand to protect and preserve the natural effects of decades of “weathering” which gives the wood its unique character. The wood is then transported to the Company’s warehouse to be hand sorted and inventoried in preparation for shipment to customers.

Customers have been creative in the ways they use reclaimed snow fence in designing their homes but most commonly it is used for siding, soffit, paneling, flooring, ceilings, wainscoting, and trim. Reclaimed Wyoming snow fence has been prominently featured for two years in a row in Mountain Living’s Natural Dream Home in the Vail Valley and is used on the exterior of Southern Living’s Idea House in North Carolina. It is also featured in Blue Sky Grill at the Pepsi Center in Denver, and Bass Pro Shops across the country.