environmentally-responsible wood floors, paneling, and custom projects
Pioneer’s reclaimed wood products are fully manufactured — from sourcing to milling to you — in the USA from their NY and OR facilities. You won’t find anything like Pioneer reclaimed wood at big box stores.
Pioneer manufactures in a way that’s healthy for you, their employees, and the communities they work in. They run their business in a socially and environmentally responsible way. And, Pioneer is committed to making you the very best reclaimed wood products on the market.
Through their wood reclamation process, the Pioneer team believes they have kept at least 20,000,000 feet of wood out of landfills!
reclaimed wood perks
We love all trees, but there’s nothing like the character of antique wood. Old growth trees cut over a hundred years ago offer superior stability, rich patinas, intense grain, even intriguing signs of its previous life including ferrous staining, bolt holes and insect tracks. By recycling wood it’s possible to reduce our dependence on fresh sawn wood and prevent the filling of landfills. In some cases, it’s only through salvaging old wood that species like Chestnut and Elm (both wiped out by blights in the early parts of the 20th century) are still available for use in building projects.
Where does the wood come from?
Pioneer’s reclaimed wood is salvaged from a variety of sources, primarily barns and industrial buildings being demolished. These structures were often built with materials harvested from Virgin forests, and the woods show beautiful tight growth rings, rich patina, and character from previous use. They also work on occasion with materials salvaged from other interesting sources; water tanks, wine vats, shipping crates, and rafts used in the logging industry.
eco-friendly engineered flooring
Pioneer’s solid wood flooring should be your first choice, when applicable, but for some instances engineered is ideal. Yet, can an engineered floor be eco-friendly? That’s the question the Pioneer team wondered, so they did something green about it – they studied and researched and developed until they created what they believe to be the World’s Most Eco-Friendly Engineered Floor™.
How do we know that old wood is safe?
Pioneer Millworks uses various testing methods and outside laboratories to test materials for contaminants, and eliminate those which are problematic. Creosoted timber is never used in any Pioneer products. While all reclaimed material containing original paint remnants is tested for lead by the acquisitions team, Pioneer cannot guarantee that any material is 100% free of lead. When a batch of material is tested for lead paint, the team at Pioneer randomly selects sample pieces for testing. If all of the sampled pieces test negative, they feel confident in presenting the material as being non-hazardous in terms of lead paint. For legal reasons, they cannot however proclaim it 100% free of lead paint. The best way to guarantee that material is 100% free of lead paint is to apply a nontoxic faux finish to unpainted reclaimed material.
Visit Pioneer Millworks to see their full line of reclaimed & sustainably-manufactured wood products.