http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20130823/SMALLBIZ/130829952
Buyers unmoved by Sandy's reclaimed wood Busted boardwalks and homes delivered tropical hardwoods and popular pine to the reclamation market. But buyers are picky, and demolition crews know one person's trash is another's gold. BY JONATHAN BLUM AUGUST 23, 2013 6:39 A.M. Superstorm Sandy's swath of destruction shredded houses and boardwalks, depositing a thicket of old timber onto the city's wood recycling market. But making money from the newly available ancient timbers has proven to be a grind. "We worked with the Parks Department initially on the boardwalk wood," said Alan Solomon, partner at Sawkill Lumber, the Brooklyn-based reclaimed lumber firm. "We were able to save quite a bit of the tropical hardwood there. But most of it was trashed. Overall, the market has been slow." Firms that reclaim hardwood from city buildings and what could be saved from Sandy are adapting to a market that has changed rapidly since recycling old beams and boards came into the fore a decade or so ago, when the wood was cheap to acquire and easy to sell to green-conscious designers. The wood salvaged from Sandy has yet to translate into big profits. "There was a time, five or 10 years ago, when trucks would pull up and just ask to give us fabulous material," said Joseph Pepe, sales manager at M. Fine Lumber, the Brooklyn-based lumber recycling and manufacturing firm. The company would not disclose sales or revenues figures but said it's also handling recycled Sandy material. "Now it's much more competitive," he said. Bidding wars for trashed boards The challenges salvage firms like M. Fine and Sawkill face begin with the basics of procuring the material—that is, finding suitable material in old buildings ready for demolition. Inventory in has been stubbornly lean since the financial crash. There have been fewer transactions and construction projects, and when buildings are dismantled, property owners and demolition contractors are well-aware that their trash is another's gold. "We are bidding for every job against many other companies—that never used to happen," said Larry Stopper, partner in Bigwood, the Naples, N.Y.-based recycling firm that generates about a $1 million per year in sales of reclaimed wood from deals done throughout Northeast, including pulling material from the Brooklyn waterfront. "And if you blow your estimates, you are up the creek. You can very easily do a very large job for nothing." Architects, interior designers and furniture makers have also become increasingly selective about the species and quality of the material they are willing to invest in, with each tree serving a niche. Mr. Solomon said reclaimed yellow pine, the once predominant log in the eastern U.S., sells for $5 per board foot. Oak and chestnut run $7. Tropical hardwoods—found in the destroyed Rockaways boardwalk—sell for $10 to $20. European hardwoods imported for the city's original buildings sit atop the market. "I have seen those go for $50 a foot," said Mr. Solomon. Reclaimed hard wood is generally at least twice as expensive as boards milled from timber forests. Companies buy the wood from demolition contractor, then they must remove nails and other fasteners, mill, cut to length, dry, and transport the finished wood to their customers. All of which makes reclaimed lumber owners and managers choosy about which woods they invest in. Bigwood's Mr. Stopper said the tropical hardwoods like those found in the city's old boardwalks must compete with huge demand for oak. Wood from Sandy also suffered damage from the sea. Some flood waters contained fuel and other toxins. "It used to be we would try to turn everybody who came to us into a sale," said Klaas Armster, partner in Sawkill Lumber. "Eventually everything sells, but now I have to be much more creative about which jobs we take." In fact, the pricing pressure for reclaimed lumber has become so intense that some local wood recyclers are giving up on sourcing material from the New York metropolitan area. "The prices New York-sourced wood is asking are astronomical," said Vincent Kaufmann, operations manager at LV Wood, a Manhattan-based reclaimed wood retailer, whose eight employees handle 75,000 feet to 100,000 feet of wood products monthly. "I can get the exact same beams at a much more reasonable price from dealers down south," he said. "And the supply is much more consistent." Selling the story in the beams. Eco-conscious customers value the story behind a boards: where it's from, how old it is, and what the material was used for in its original life. Bigwood handled the wood coming out of one of the first condom factories in the U.S. "I don't know why," said Mr. Stopper, "But it didn't matter what else I was selling, everybody wanted a piece of the condom factory." As compelling as Sandy's "hurricane in one's house" story might appear, its tale has yet to translate into major sales. "When I consider the prospect for a floor having another life," said Mr. Solomon, "For them to come out of a building and go back into a new one, it's become like that one acorn becoming the giant tree." "It can be that rare." A version of this article appears in the August 26, 2013, print issue of Crain's New York Business. _______________________________________________ Sustainablelorgbiofuel mailing list Sustainablelorgbiofuel@lists.sustainablelists.org http://lists.eruditium.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel
