Recycle, Re-purpose

 
Recycling is not necessarily meant for just bottles and cans. Building  materials may also be salvaged and re-purposed to become useful again.  The beauty of wood is its workability - through sanding, staining or simply re-finishing, old wood can be made to look nearly brand new.  

Re-purposing old windows has become a popular trend.  From tables to cabinets, picture frames, and much more with a bit of ingenuity, inefficient single pane windows may continue to serve a useful purpose.    

    

Local restoration, retrofit and rebuilding specialists, Absolute Green Homes of South Salem, NY are professionals in transforming old wood materials into functional pieces.  

Their most recent project, The Beach House, is a great achievement in creative design, energy efficiency and use of materials.  When completed this home will be a shining example of the many ways in which re-purposed building materials can bring unique character into a space.   

See more of The Beach House's reclaimed, recycled and re-used materials.

When starting your next project or spring cleaning consider if the materials you plan to discard may be useful in some way.  By re-purposing old materials we not only protect our environment but also put special meaning into our homes.  

      

A word of caution:  removing lead paint from old wood can be a health hazard; use caution if you are unsure of what finish has been previously applied to the wood.

2011: International Year of Forests

Did you know that the United Nations has declared 2011 the International Year of Forests?! Check out how we practice sustainable management, conservation and development of forests in our part of the world.

Happy Earth Day!

Tony Musso continues to lead the way in green design. Check out Part 3 of his project - water conservation, recycled steel framework and green panel system!

Earth Week!

It's Earth Week! Do your part to keep our planet healthy - buy local produce, recycle everything possible, plant a tree! Check out A Billion Acts of Green and get involved!

NAHB Green Building Standard

When building or renovating a home today it's important to consider "green building practices" in your plan. The National Association of Home Builders Green Building Standard is a great tool to guide you in the right direction.

Ice Dams

With yet ANOTHER winter storm on its way this week, here's a good article from Fine Homebuilding on Ice Dams - what they are and how to prevent them.

DIY Home Energy Assessment

The last thing we want to think about during the holidays is another project around the house.  However, taking the time to do a home energy assessment can potentially save you some serious cash in the New Year.  Check out the Dept. of Energy's DIY tips; many utility companies also offer in-home assessments for a small fee.

Winter heating season has arrived!

To help out with that heating bill, you may consider wood products as a source of heat. Check out The Department of Energy information on wood and pellet stoves to learn more!

How long should firewood 'season' before burning?

Answer: Regardless of the specie, it is best to burn firewood that has been drying for 1 year. Wood that has dried less than a year will produce a lot of smoke & not burn well, whereas wood that has been adequately dried will burn clean and hot!

Take a tour!

Our online virtual tour shows you how your wood materials are made right here in central NY! (remember to turn on your speakers)
http://www.wightmanspecialtywoods.com/milltour.htm

"Home for the New Economy"

Interesting article about what today's new home buyers are looking for - click here to check it out!

Celebrate Earth Day!

In honor of Earth day, we'd like to share with you again the steps that Wightman Specialty Woods takes each and every day to ensure the safety and well being of our planet. By completing all wood manufacturing processes at our facility we keep our carbon footprint on planet Earth as small as possible, while also ensuring our customers the highest quality materials at reasonable costs.

Take a virtual tour of our facility and read our commitment to environmental responsibility at: http://www.wightmanspecialtywoods.com/enviro.htm, and http://www.wightmanspecialtywoods.com/milltour.htm

To learn more about Earth Day, events in your local area, and what you can do to make an impact, visit http://www.earthday.org/

Project Profile

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh, New York

Office space and ReStore

When Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh needed new office space, they could have built from scratch, or just added a bit of paint and spackle to an existing space. The organization decided instead to preserve a 150-year legacy.

The Kimball Building in downtown Newburgh, N.Y., was a 13,000 square foot industrial-grade building. Erected in 1852, the facility originally housed a foundry that made metal castings, steam pipes and manhole covers. In the 1930's the building was converted to an auto mechanic machine shop and recently, it served as an electrical contractor's business and roofing company. The facility was anything but office and retail space, but it was part of downtown Newburgh.

Just as Habitat has restored dozens of homes to help rebuild Newburgh, they decided to restore the Kimball Building. In 2008, Habitat called in Wightman Specialty Woods to create the wood flooring for 5,000 square feet of the historic building.

It was a complex task, but as well worth the effort as any Habitat home restoration.

Wightman Specialty Woods manufactured Custom Joined #1 Soft Maple flooring to accommodate the office spaces, conference facility and ReStore for the building (The ReStore is a building materials recycling and resale facility open to the public). Using the architect's floor plan, we created a specific layout for each space and implemented a color coding system in which all custom-joined flooring packs were marked and designated a specific area for installation.

The color coding system allowed Habitat's volunteers and employees to quickly and easily install the flooring themselves, saving a great deal of time and expense. Habitat has occupied the space since October 2008.

What a great example of good, efficient work! Recycle and re-purpose an old building to function as not only a work space for an organization whose mission is to rebuild communities, but also to serve as a local source for recycled building materials. We hope they continue to serve the greater Newburgh community for many decades to come. For more information, visit Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh.

Catskill Woodnet and New York State Forest Products Industry

Through the Catskill WoodNet, Wightman Specialty Woods and a number of Catskill area businesses recently exhibited at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show. The goal of our display was to raise awareness and educate show attendees about the role of Catskill WoodNet and the importance of the forest products industry in New York State. Here we take the opportunity to pass along our message.

The Catskill WoodNet is a regional network of businesses that harvest and manufacture wood products from New York's Catskill Mountain Region. Comprised of woodworkers, artisans and sawmills, the goal of our diverse group is to encourage and promote a working landscape that connects people with local forest resources.

For centuries there has been an intimate connection between the people and the forests in the Catskill region. Early farmhouses and barns were framed and planked with hemlock lumber, and their floors and millwork made from oak, maple, or white pine. From baseball bats in Cooperstown to rustic garden settees in Woodstock, roughly 1,500 jobs depend on the wise-use of Catskill forests to support the local wood products industry.

Preservation and responsible management of the Catskill forest lands is particularly important as our region is the primary source of water for New York City. The Catskill/Delaware system of the NYC Watershed covers 1,584 square-miles and provides clean drinking water to over 10 million New York City homes and communities. 90% of New York City's water originates in the Catskills where forests provide a natural buffer to protect the superior water quality in the streams and reservoirs. The remaining 10% of water comes from a suburban watershed east of the Hudson River, however, this water must be filtered to be fit for human use.

The wood products industry is not only important to our local Catskill region, but also to the entire State of New York. The land area of New York State is 30.22 million acres. Today, 61% (18.46 million acres) of this land is forested, which is remarkable considering just 80 years ago New York contained only half this area of forest.

The entire state has benefited immensely from this unprecedented and dramatic reforestation, while at the same time maintaining a diversity of landscape amenities such as farms, water, and other open spaces. The annual contribution of forest-based manufacturing and forest-related recreation and tourism to the New York economy is over $8.8 billion. The forest-based manufacturing industry, forestry and logging provides employment for 57,200 people and generates a payroll of over $2.1 billion, while Forest-based recreation and tourism provides employment for over 14,600 and generates payrolls of $300 million.

The forest products industry in New York is comprised of a diverse group of businesses ranging from pulp and paper mills, sawmills, engineered panel plants, biomass energy plants, secondary manufacturing in the furniture and related business as well as the logging and trucking contractors who deliver the raw materials to market.

The majority of timberland, roughly 90%, in New York is privately owned by business concerns or family forest owners. This places a great responsibility on our land owners to manage their forests, a practice which landowners take seriously. In the Catskill region alone, landowners are practicing forestry under the guidance of a long-term forest stewardship plan at over 5 times the national average for regions of similar size. Through careful planning with Watershed Qualified Foresters, Catskill landowners manage their forestland as part of a working landscape providing raw materials to local mills that supply lumber to area carpenters and cabinet shops. It is a strong economic model for a sustainable working landscape: local landowners providing raw materials to local wood products manufacturers that create jobs for local people.

To learn more about the Catskill WoodNet and members of our group, please visit http://www.catskillwoodnet.org/, and next time you find yourself searching for wood products, look for the Pure Catskills trademark of the Catskill WoodNet illustrating a commitment to using watershed friendly practices, buying local and supporting a centuries old tradition of craftsmanship and care for the land in the Catskills.


Sources:
Catskill Woodnet

Watershed Argicultural Council

SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry Report on Forestland Parcelization in the NYC Watershed

NYS Department of Enviromental Conservation

The Economic Importance and Wood Flows from New York's Forest, 2007

Take our Guided Virtual Tour!

Our online virtual tour is now complete with voiceovers that will guide you through our plant.

Please visit http://www.wightmanspecialtywoods.com/milltour.htm to begin your tour.

Winter Project: Radiant heating systems and Hardwood Floors

Radiant floor heating systems are becoming increasingly popular throughout the United States today. Radiant heating systems distribute heat "omni-directionally", or in all directions, offering greater energy efficiency than conventional forced air heating systems in which warm air naturally rises, resulting in warm ceilings but cold floors.

Installing a hardwood floor over radiant heat is not much different from laying a typical hardwood floor, as long as you understand radiant heat, how it can impact wood flooring, what precautions to take, and what type of wood flooring to use.

Understanding radiant heat: Radiant floor heating systems consist of tubing installed under the finished floor that is responsible for delivering heat through the floor and into the home.

Impact on wood flooring and precautions to take: One of the most important factors in a successful wood flooring installation over radiant heat is a dry slab and a dry subfloor. This is important in any wood floor installation, but particularly over radiant heat systems, because once the radiant heat is turned on, any excess moisture in either the concrete slab or subfloor will be directly transferred to the wood flooring. Any moisture entering a wood floor in this manner will cause severe problems to the floor (swelling, buckling). To ensure that all moisture is removed prior to the wood flooring installation, the radiant heating system should be turned on and run for an extended period of time (the National Wood Flooring Association recommends 5-6 days) to remove any residual moisture.

Choosing wood flooring: According to the National Wood Flooring Association, wood floors best suited for installation over radiant heat include engineered wood floors, solid woods that naturally have good dimensional stability, and solid wood floors that are no more than 4" in finished width.

Now that you are ready to install your radiant heating, here are a few ways to set up the system:

Direct Nail to Subfloor over Floor Joists:

A popular set-up in which radiant tubes are strapped onto a plywood subfloor laid over the floor joists. Wood flooring is then nailed to the plywood subfloor.
Note that a moisture barrier should always be placed over the subfloor to which the wood flooring is nailed. A good choice is #15 felt paper.

Direct Nail to Subfloor over Sleepers:

An approach used when you do not have access under the existing subfloor or when the underside of the floor cannot be used. Here the radiant tubes and sleepers are laid on top of the existing subfloor, and a second subfloor is added. Wood flooring is nailed to this second subfloor.

Solid T&G Floor Direct Nail to Sleepers:

This set-up involves laying sleepers over the subfloor and radiant tubes between the sleepers. A vapor barrier is installed over the sleepers and wood flooring is nailed directly to the sleepers. Some individuals also choose to put a gypsum or concrete mix around the radiant tubing, which provides fire resistance and sound dampening.

Single or Double Layer of Plywood on Sleepers:

Similar to the approach above, except a layer of plywood (or even 2 layers) is applied over the sleepers. The wood flooring is then nailed to the plywood.

How is lumber made? Watch this video

Watch this video to see how lumber is made at Wightman Specialty Woods.

Changing Seasons

It's that time of year again in the northeast. The leaves have fallen, the temperature has dropped, and the air has become dry. This time of year, many of us are thinking about "winterizing" our homes.

One thing to consider during this process is how to best control your indoor air moisture levels throughout the winter months. When air becomes too dry a variety of problems start to occur: our skin feels itchy, our eyes become irritated, and static electricity occurs. Dry air also affects wood by causing it to shrink which can result in cracks, squeaks or gaps in floors, cabinets and doors.

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends indoor relative humidity levels at 30-50%. In winter months, it is common for our homes to become dry, in large part due to air leaks. When cold air from outdoors enters a home it is heated to the indoor temperature. Because cold air is not able to hold nearly the amount of moisture that warm air is, when these two mix, relative humidity decreases and the home becomes dry.

There are ways to mitigate this problem and maintain recommended relative humidity levels. It is important to seal and eliminate air leaks to reduce the amount of outdoor air coming into your home. Caulking and sealing around windows, doors, and any other seams, cracks and openings to the outside will make your home more air tight. This will help maintain your air moisture levels, reduce your heating requirements, and ultimately make your home more energy efficient. For more tips on sealing air leaks and to find out where air may be escaping from your home visit the U.S. Department of Energy.

Of course our homes will never be air tight - at the very least, we have to enter and exit our living space. Humidifiers will increase and maintain recommended air moisture levels and protect us from the adverse effects of low relative humidity. There are numerous humidification systems on the market from small, inexpensive humidifiers that can be moved from room to room, to whole house humidification systems that are built into heating systems.

We hope these tips will help you to enjoy a safe and healthy winter!

Our Commitment to Quality and Sustainability

The last time you purchased wood materials, did you know where the raw wood was sourced, or how your materials were manufactured?

At Wightman Specialty Woods we are committed to delivering our customers the highest quality wood materials, while leaving the smallest carbon footprint on our environment.

To reduce the harmful effects of transporting non-native species into our area, we source nearly all of our raw wood materials from our local forests of central New York State. Once raw materials arrive, they remain at our facility throughout the entire milling process.

In our day-to-day operations, we adhere to strict principles of conservation and preservation of resources. From our sawing, to drying to milling facilities, we use state-of-the-art equipment which allows us to generate the maximum amount of useable materials, while leaving little of our wood fibers to waste.

At Wightman Specialty Woods we also reuse or repurpose all materials that would have been waste. Our sawdust is primarily used as fuel for our boilers which heat our drying kilns; remaining sawdust is sold to local farmers. Bark and wood chip materials are sold to landscapers and regional manufacturers of fiberboard, wood pellets and other products.

Visit our website today to learn more about Wightman Specialty Woods' environmental commitment and get ideas for how to use our responsibly manufactured materials in your next project.