More Ohioans using barn wood

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

After decades of serving as flooring in expensive West Coast and mountain estates, dismantled Ohio barns are finding a home in the Buckeye State.

More Ohioans are using the old wood in their houses, shops and restaurants, driven by environmental concerns and the greater availability of the material.

“The average home we work on is $5 million,” said Jeremy Bowersock, owner of Old West Woods in Elida, which has processed barn wood for a decade. “They tend to be in ski areas like Aspen or Vail, or in LA or maybe New York, but we have seen an increase in the local market from people who want to use green products.”

Another reason for the product’s appeal: its appearance, which can range from a conventional finish to a striking mottled and rustic look, with irregular planks that can stretch more than a foot wide.

“It fits in with shabby-chic decor,” said David Schlabach, owner of Schlabach Woodworks in Millersburg, which started making barn wood a regular part of its business about two years ago. “It’s definitely more popular now. ... We’re doing at least 50 or 60 percent more than we were a year or so ago.”

Kevin Knight, owner of the custom Columbus homebuilder Kevin Knight & Co., has turned repeatedly to the wood for his houses, including his past two Parade of Homes models.

“The wood we used at our parade homes came from barns built in the 1860s, so the wood may have started growing in the 1600s,” Knight said. “The wood grew when there was no pollution, very slowly, and it is significantly better aesthetically. The old wood has so much rich character. You can’t get that when you go to the lumberyard today and say, ‘I want a piece of 1-by-8-inch oak.’

“But the No. 1 reason anybody would want to use reclaimed wood from barns is because it’s the ultimate green solution. Take a tree cut down 150 years ago instead of cutting one down today.”

Reclaimed barn wood can be found in stores and restaurants, such as the Park Street Cantina in Columbus’ Short North and the soon-to-open Buckeye Hall of Fame Grill in the Grandview Yard development. But its primary audience remains custom high-end homes, largely because of its premium price.

Reclaimed barn wood flooring can be found for as little as $5 or $6 a square foot — comparable to some new maple or cherry floors. But it more commonly sells for $8 to $12 a square foot and can climb to $20, depending on the wood and the width of the planks.

Oak remains by far the most common barn wood, but dealers also typically have hickory, beech and pine on hand, and occasionally walnut or — now largely extinct — American chestnut. Among barn- wood connoisseurs, wormy chestnut is something of a holy grail.

The cost of the wood is driven by the time and labor required to find the right barn and prepare the wood.

Dealers say they often find their lumber by simply keeping an eye out for old, unused barns, but they tend to clam up when they hear too many questions.

“That’s a trade secret, to find the best barns,” said Ryan Lowe, director of marketing with Olde Wood Limited in Malvern, which has been handling barn wood for 13 years. “Anybody can find a barn that’s falling over and approach the owners, and they’ll be open to getting rid of it. But not every barn you see is worth remilling.”

Once purchased, the barns are dismantled piece by piece and trucked to a mill, where nails and other hardware are removed. The planks and timbers are then kiln-dried to remove bugs and moisture and either stored until needed or cut into tongue-and-groove planks for flooring.

Even though there’s a market for almost all the wood (and even the fieldstone and the metal roofs) removed from barns, the siding is the least-desirable lumber.

It is typically soft pine from Pennsylvania or Michigan and has limited use for flooring, although it can be used for paneling or other decorative applications such as ceilings.

The prized barn wood is structural lumber: timber, loft flooring, floor joists and ceiling rafters.

Dealers don’t necessarily clamor after the smooth, clean boards. More often, they want wood that’s going to be noticed.

“We pulled some 18-inch-wide pine flooring from the old Magnolia train station,” Lowe said. “One of those planks had a shotgun blast in it. We didn’t try to hide it. That’s character, and it also leads to a great story.”

As such comments suggest, barn wood is often sold on its weathered qualities. Planks are rarely stained, can contain cracks and often vary in shade, resulting in a striped effect. Some wood also is sold with saw marks on it, producing an even rougher look.

But dealers also note that barn wood can result in a more conventional floor.

“Our product doesn’t have to be rustic,” said Rod Long, owner of Tuscarora Wood Midwest in Covington. “It can have a very finished look.”

Though dealers and users of barn wood celebrate its green appeal, they also recognize that they are dealing with a limited resource.

“They’re not building any 150- or 200-year-old barns anymore,” Lowe quips.

But dealers say that, so far, old barns or old wooden factories are far from obsolete.

“There’s getting to be fewer and fewer barns, of course,” Bowersock said, “but there’s also a lot of barns being used up the last 10 years, so every year there’s a new group that has outlived its usefulness and comes into the supply channels.”