Reclaimed Heart Pine Floor
Reclaimed heart pine derives from southern longleaf pine trees of the 18th century. During the Industrial Revolution, heart pine trees were used to build many structures like factories, textile mills, warehouses as well as homes and other edifices. Construction was done at a rapid pace and by the end of the revolution; most of these pine tree forests were depleted.
Reclaimed Heart Pine is pine lumber that is now being recovered from these old buildings. This is done for many reasons; the first of which is that it takes over a century to get the qualities found in them. Characteristics include it unique color, texture, strength, and low moisture content which prevents shrinkage in the wood. It also offers superb resistance to decay and a greater degree of structural stability. People, who consider building environmentally friendly homes, find this concept to be very attractive since existing forests would not be harvested for building material. Today, pine forests are still harvested, however, they are cut as soon as they are large enough to be used for lumber and they demonstrate very few qualities of reclaimed heart pine. |