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Reclaimed Joists

Reclaimed wood joists, reused as joists, is surprisingly uncommon. Naily old lumber, dusty and often surface checked, can easily fail the grade on first glance. But these 3 x 10’s are sound enough – at least for sistering a row house renovation. They occupy the rare middle ground between being dumped at the landfill (or chipped) or re-milled into high end flooring or furniture.

In this video, Jim Hartin of Blueline Construction, provides an overview of the reclaimed joist stock that is lined up for reuse at the passive house project, 158 Clifton Pl. in Brooklyn.

The collection includes a range of species – antique Red Spruce, Longleaf Pine, Eastern Hemlock and Douglas Fir – sourced from a variety of 19th to late-20th c. NYC  buildings. The most recent is an 1883 Tribeca warehouse at 443 Greenwich St., once home to the Novelty Toy Co. (they introduced the first teddy bear), the American Steel Wool Co. and a book bindery. The penthouse at the new development, once framed with the antique lumber, hit the market at $51m.

 

 

Get the Nails Out!

At some moment in the late 1800’s, a construction worker hammered an iron nail into a flooring board, joining it to a structural joist below. For over a century, it stayed lodged there, alongside millions of other nails that held a city together.

When an old building is taken down in the 21st century, not a whole lot makes it past the landfill, save the scrap metal and antique lumber (if we’re lucky). Salvaged wood can house generations of embedded nails, and every tiny scrap of it needs to be extracted – or it’s a potential hazard for the sawmill. In the modern re-manufacturing process, de-nailing is like the slow going work of freeing up a log jam. Utilizing hand chisels, hammers, pry bars and metal detectors, the crew develops powerful arms and stamina for the task. Day in and day out, they extract the buried nails from the tight bite of old lumber.

The mark of a nails former presence, other than the tell tale hole, is the “nail bleed”, an ebonized ring of oxidized iron around it’s border. These character marks speak to qualities that do not meet the eye, and can also be a lost buildings smallest and most striking sign of material culture, and a portal to it’s history.

Ideas City Festival – NYC 2015

The Invisible Lunch Discussions
Benches were supplied by Sawkill Lumber in collaboration with Brooklyn Woods, Caliper Architecture and Ratrod Studio. They served the Ideas City installation of artist Marjetica Potrc and her students at the Hochschule für bildende Künste (HFBK) Hamburg, Germany.
Design for the Living World
People gravitated to the wood benches between the rows of folding plastic seats.
Artist Marjetica Potrc
Osha Bench by Brooklyn based Caliper Architecture. Wood seat: Eastern White Pine from a lower Manhattan building. (www.caliperstudio.com).
Ideas City Festival | New Museum NYC
Caliper removable legs on antique Eastern Hemlock from an Edison factory c. 1896. Installation by Ratrod Studio (www.ratrodstudio.com)
Craft and Community
Scott Peltzer and Finn Bruggemann assemble bench designs for the event.
Salvaging Wood and Lives at Brooklyn Woods
Designed by Scott Peltzer of Brooklyn woods, the bench employs reclaimed water tank Ceder, scaffolding plank (951 Pacific St. Passive House and other sites) and factory flooring (Chicago), joined with counter sunk bolts. Brooklyn Woods is a non profit wood shop job training institute. (click photo for info about Brooklyn Woods)
100 ft long table on Rivington St.
Communal table assembled for the Invisible Lunch Discussion with a modest assortment of breads, cheeses, and fruits.

Finishing School

finishingschool_reclaimedwoodIt can take some playing around with sample blocks to get just the right balance of rustic and refined qualities in reclaimed wood. Here, a local toddler (with some parental assistance), applies a hand rubbed beeswax finish to a block of antique wood. The finish is applied after soap and water, followed by a light power sanding – bringing underlying wood figure into relief without removing weathering and texture.

Just scratching the surface

reclaimedbarnwood_brushed

When less is more, one finishing choice for salvaged wood is to just brush the surface – retaining saw marks,  weathered texture and natural brown hues – like an old farmer in his sunday best. Here, reclaimed softwoods absorb the natural light and turn the underlying character up.

Coney Island Boardwalk Rides to World’s Fair

reclaimedboardwalk_worldsfairThe U.S. Pavillion at the 2015 World’s Fair is designed for the experience of pleasure, but it’s also built to provoke dialogue. Focused on food production and the health of the planet, American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet as it’s named, is a 35,000 ft. space designed by Architect James Biber (Biber Architects).

It features a range of innovative elements; a vertical farm, transparent technology that shows the inner workings of the fair – and a deck re-purposed from the Coney Island Boardwalk. Sawkill Lumber salvaged and re-manufactured the woods; specifically, the Tropical hardwood Angelique.

When the structure’s dismantled in the fall, the fabled walkway – a symbol of the urgent need for collaboration and the struggle for environmental liberty – will hope to continue it’s journey from a Brazilian Rainforest to the Brooklyn seaside, to a place on the European continent.

 

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