Reclaimed wood is increasingly being specified and used in lodgings of all types, whether in flooring, doors, mantels, paneling, menu covers or other fixtures or accessories. When The NoMad Hotel opened in New York City in 2012, it did so with reclaimed wood flooring in its guestrooms. When the Grain Tasting Bar opened late that same year at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver in British Columbia, it featured doors made from reclaimed wood. When the Heritage Cabins at Pine Bungalows in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada were completed last year, they made use of the knotty pine tongue-in-groove wood installed in the original Pine Bungalows cabins in the 1960s and 1970s.
The motives for using reclaimed wood are many. Environmentally, wood taken from existing structures or even river bottoms can have many advantages. Virgin or farmed forests are not cut down and wood is diverted from the landfill. The more local the sourcing, the greater the environmental upside.
For the structure’s owner, there are cost savings from not having to dispose of the wood. Aesthetically, reclaimed wood cannot be beat for offering an aged appearance to a setting. Structurally, old reclaimed wood tends to have a much tighter grain structure and is more stable than virgin wood of the same species. From a marketing standpoint, there can be fascinating stories behind the wood worth retelling.
Knowing the source of the reclaimed wood that one purchases can be tricky but most suppliers to the hospitality industry well document the source of their product — on their websites and internally through branding and other processes. The Forest Stewardship Council, according to Brad Kahn, the organization’s communications director for the United States, certifies not only companies selling reclaimed wood but also the individual products themselves.
“There are 29,000 companies FSC certified, the majority of which are chain of custody certified,” Kahn said. FSC has several recycled product labels. Its FSC Recycled label is the label to look for when considering reclaimed wood.
“The FSC label tells the customer it is reclaimed wood and someone has verified it,” Kahn said. Companies earning the FSC label must adhere to FSC standards and hire an auditor to ensure best practices are being followed.
“‘Reclaimed’ is more of a book audit,” Kahn said. “It feeds into LEED. You can earn credits in the LEED system for it. LEED does drive a lot of these decisions.” Kahn said FSC does not set standards for deconstruction, the process by which reclaimed wood is generated.
Global Trends offers 7 leading species of Reclaimed Wood namely:
– Asian Oak
– Camura
– Paddock
– Sapwood
– Walnut
– Bark Wood
– Teak
Visit our Reclaimed Wood section to know more about the pricing and product details.
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