How Much Does Reclaimed Heart Pine Flooring Cost?
Top-quality materials can turn a great project into a timeless classic, but how much does a premium product like reclaimed heart pine flooring cost? In this article, we take a look at what goes into determining your heart pine price per board foot.
Bring Home History: Reclaimed Heart Pine Flooring Cost
Reclaimed heart pine flooring comes with a history and character all its own, while its strength and durability mean it will only get better with age. While you will pay more for genuine reclaimed heart pine woods, you’re nailing down a product that will add value to a property for decades to come.
Let’s take a look at some of the factors that go into pricing reclaimed heart pine.
Limited Stock, Unlimited Possibilities
Heart pine from the original longleaf pine forests of the eastern seaboard was prized for its strength, stability, and durability. From the 1700s through to the early 1900s it was used to build the mills, factories, schools, and homes that became America. Today those ancient forests are gone, but their wood is increasingly prized for its beauty and historical significance.
Reputable wood reclamation companies like E.T. Moore are always excited to discover a new source of quality reclaimed wood. It’s one more chance to preserve a unique part of our heritage by making it part of our lives today. That said, two factors play a big role in determining how much any collection of raw reclaimable wood is worth:
- Rarity and Size: The highest-quality heart pine is often the oldest, harvested when large trees were still plentiful. Large pieces of undamaged old-growth timber are increasingly rare and fetch a premium price.
- Grade-ability: Raw reclaimed wood comes as large beams, round and square columns, and floor and roof decking. This needs to be turned into lumber that can be easily installed and used in modern construction[a]. Up to 55% of a reclaimed lot can be lost after the wood is sawed, straight-lined, end-trimmed and milled, meaning we buy twice as much wood as we sell.
Wood reclaimers also need to estimate how much any demolition work will cost, as well as the cost of cleaning the recovered wood, removing nails and bolts, and eliminating any rot.
Top Grades for Quality
Once raw reclaimed wood has been sorted, cleaned, and milled, a number of other factors become important in pricing a lot for sale.
Overall Quality
How much of the lot is genuine heartwood from the center of large old-growth pine trees? Heartwood is the hardest wood in a tree and has the tightest grain, making it both durable and stable. The more heartwood, the more a lot is worth.
Grain Density
The more dense the grain of a tree, the harder the wood. Close, dense grain develops in large trees that grow slowly over hundreds of years and gives the wood hardness, weight, stability, and an unmatched texture
Grain Orientation
Grain can also be classified according to whether it is straight or “combed” or whether it is part of long loops that form around knots and have a “cathedral” arch-like look on boards. Combed grain gives the most consistent look across a lot, but cathedral grain adds interest and texture.
Grain Pattern
Grain is also affected by the way boards were cut at the saw mill and this in turn depended on the size of the original timber. Plain cut boards are sliced across the whole width of the log while rift or quarter sawn boards are cut along different axes of sectioned timber.
Saw patterns work with grain to give a unique pattern to the ends of boards and also affect the strength and stability of boards.
Knots
Knots are formed where boughs grew out from the original trunk. Larger trees with more heartwood will be less affected by knots, leaving the grain unblemished and allowing a more consistent appearance in the wood. While more knots mean less heartwood (and in new wood can potentially fall out), knots can bring their own particular beauty to a collection of wood.
At E.T. Moore we price our wood according to the individual knot size and the number of knots in a board. We can sometimes offer a custom option with “negligible knots” but it is impossible to eliminate knots from a lot entirely.
Nail Holes
Nails often leave behind an area of discoloration or iron staining around the original wood. Extensive nail hole marks will reduce the consistency many buyers seek for large areas of flooring or paneling, but other clients seek out the weathered, rustic appearance of this lumber.
Similar to knots, reclaimed heart pine flooring costs are based on the size and frequency of nail holes in a typical board and are sometimes able to offer custom options with fewer holes.
Grading
Reclaimed wood lots need to be graded as a whole, meaning individual pieces may differ or be “out of grade” from the balance of the lot. Hardwood lumber grading defines the number of board faces that meet a particular standard. The more exposed sides wood will have, for instance in a door or a window frame, the higher the lumber grade lumber you will require.
Saw Marks, Milling Quality, and Demo Damage
The quality and consistency that a reclaimer can bring to milling a reclaimed wood lot, and any unavoidable demo damage will also affect the final price. At the same time, our Circle Sawn lumber gives a unique rough-cut look to reclaimed pine and other products.
Made to Measure
Unlike new lumber, which can be ordered to a standard grade and size, reclaimed lumber lots are typically sold as “random" widths and lengths. This is because the process of recovering, cleaning, milling, and grading reclaimed wood makes it very difficult to produce a consistent number of boards of any set size.
Where customers need a particular width or length, E.T. Moore can supply a wide selection of custom-sized boards with widths up to 12 inches and lengths up to 20 feet.
E.T. Moore: Your Partner in Quality
E.T. Moore offers the largest selection of reclaimed heart pine woods in the country. We hold a vast inventory of top-quality precision-milled grades at our facility in Richmond, VA.
While you will always pay more for genuine heart pine it is always “cheap at the price” to add your own chapter to a true piece of American heritage.
Prices for our classic Number 1 Grade start at about $12.50 per square foot, while our premium Select and Select Edge Grain heart pine start at about $16 per square foot and $19 per square foot respectively.
We also currently offer a sale price of $7.25 square foot for our Number 2 Grade Heart Pine.
Learn more about E.T. Moore’s unmatched range of reclaimed heart pine products below.