by aleida, on December 22nd, 2009
Our recent trip to the Bay Area, which started off as a simple desire to spend time with some friends, turned out to be one of our most productive visits ever. On a complete fluke, Kevin and I snagged a Saturday afternoon meeting with Michael Black, the founder and president of Black’s Farmwood. This San Rafael, CA-based company is a purveyor of reclaimed and salvaged wood in the form of timbers, flooring, siding, and decking, and they have the capability to custom mill wood for basically anything a client might need.
The raw material for these products comes from both old and new sources. On the old side, wood is sourced from old barns and other buildings slated for demolition. Some of the new wood comes from salvaged sinker logs. A strategic relationship with another Bay Area company allows Black’s Farmwood to also salvage urban logs from surrounding cities and turn them into beautiful, brand new product. (We visited on a rainy day, so we couldn’t see the tree yard, but it’s located just minutes from the offices.)
Some species offered by Black’s Farmwood are pine, oak, beech, hemlock, douglas fir, and ash. Red, white, brown, and gray barn board where everywhere to be seen. On full display was a sample of really cool antique barn threshing floor. Michael’s network of suppliers allows him to source material from throughout the country, but he also does encourage local sourcing and is more than willing to work with clients to make sure whatever product they choose has an origin that is closer to their location. This was of particular interest for us, since we always explore local sourcing wherever possible.
We look forward to being able to incorporate some of these products into future projects. In the meantime, if you want to see Black’s Farmwood products in action, check out their videos (here).
Thank you, Michael, for all your time!
Click the icon below for more tour photos.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by 562citylife, Kevin ODonnell. Kevin ODonnell said: while in SF area, we stumbled on a cool reclaimed wood source, Black's Farmwood – a new post about our visit – http://ow.ly/OCDb – #green [...]