New Life for Old Trees

If you have to remove trees to build your house, how do you turn them into flooring or furniture? Engaging a tree service to cut them down is easy -- just look online or in the phone book. Your builder may also recommend a service that he has worked with.

The other trades involved are more unusual, and you are more likely to find them via recommendations.

After your trees have been cut down, you will need a sawyer -- a person who saws logs into rough-cut boards -- who has a portable sawmill and can come to your property and mill your logs on the spot. The tree service will probably know a local sawyer.

Next you will need a person who owns a kiln in which you can dry the wood. The sawyer may have one himself. If not, he will know who does, and, for an added charge, he can transport your boards to the kiln.

After the wood is dried, which can take one to two months, depending on the thickness of the boards, the wood will need additional millwork before it's ready to be made into flooring. The kiln owner may have the expertise and equipment to do this. If not, you need to take the dried lumber to the last person in the chain, the craftsman who will make the flooring or furniture for you. The sawyer will know the local craftspeople in your area because they buy wood from him. Local architects and builders may also know local craftsmen, but they are less likely to know the trades that would be dealing with your trees initially. Some sawyers, such as John Haling of Whitmore Lake, Mich., have the equipment, facilities and expertise to take your trees from logs to finished flooring.

How many trees would you need for flooring? More than you might think.

Haling said he would need 12 trees, each one 18 inches in diameter with a trunk at least 10 feet long, to make 1,200 square feet of hardwood flooring, enough for the first floor of an average-size, 2,400-square-foot house. If your trees are smaller, you will need more.

On rare occasion, though, you might need only one. Haling said he has sometimes worked with trees big as 60 inches in diameter. With a tree that large, he could make 1,200 square feet of flooring using a piece of the trunk that is about 10 feet long.

How long does the process take? From felled trees to floorboards, it's usually about four to five months, Haling said. If you have all the tradespeople lined up and have the trees taken down about a month before construction starts, your flooring should be ready to install when you reach that point in the construction sequence.

-- Katherine Salant