Drive through rural Iowa and you'll see them everywhere — weathered barns standing at odd angles, their rooflines sagging, their siding silver with age. To most people, they're just old buildings. To us, they're treasure troves of exceptional lumber.
Our barn sourcing process starts with a phone call. Landowners reach out when they're ready to remove a structure — maybe it's become a liability, maybe they're clearing land for development, or maybe they simply want the old barn gone. Whatever the reason, we're interested.
Before we commit, we send a team to evaluate the structure. We're looking at species (Iowa barns are predominantly white oak, red oak, and elm), dimensions (the bigger the better — hand-hewn beams can be 12x12 or larger), and condition (we can work with a lot, but some damage is too extensive).
The actual deconstruction is methodical and slow. Unlike demolition, we're not trying to knock the building down — we're trying to take it apart. Every beam, joist, and board is removed individually, labeled, and loaded onto our flatbed. A barn that took a week to build in 1890 takes us three to five days to deconstruct in 2024.
Metal detection is the first step back at our facility. Century-old barns are full of nails, screws, wire, and the occasional horseshoe. Our industrial metal detectors find what the eye can't, and our de-nailing team removes every piece of hardware by hand.
After de-nailing, each piece is graded, measured, and inventoried. The best material goes to our kiln for drying and stabilization. Lesser pieces become flooring stock, paneling, or are set aside for custom projects where character marks are desired.
It's physical, demanding work — but there's something deeply satisfying about knowing that wood which supported a family's livelihood for a century will go on to become the centerpiece of someone's home. That's the beauty of reclaimed lumber: every board has a story, and we're just writing the next chapter.