Welcome to the
Round Top Register,
the newspaper from
the biggest little town
in Texas.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

TOWN

EVENT CALENDAR

E-MAIL

SUBSCRIBE!

ROUND TOP ARCHITECTURE

ACCOMMODATIONS

RESTAURANTS

AREA
ATTRACTIONS


DESIGN & BUILD
A COUNTRY
HOME

AREA ANTIQUES
& CRAFTS
SHOW GUIDE

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

NEWS & FEATURES

ARTS

EDITORIAL

HUMOR

LITERARY
& POETRY

HOROSCOPE

AREA MAPS

AREA
ATTRACTIONS

Recycled Architecture

Antique materials and how to use them...

An old weathered shed sits like a lopsided cardboard box in the middle of an overgrown pasture. The tin roof is rusted. The termites are chomping at the wooden sills. A plank door swings in the breeze on rusted hinges.

When the rancher or farmer who owns the place sees this sight, he pictures a building past its useful life, a mess to be cleared with a bulldozer and burned. When I see it, I see buried treasure.

My wife has long since resigned herself to my affection for dilapidated old buildings. We like to take back roads when we travel and she has become used to my constant chatter. “There’s a good one. Oh, look at the old barn...looks like some good siding on that one. Check out that shed. Looks like old cedar planking...”

I’ve been restoring old building most of my adult life but this special affection for old materials was limited to architectural antiques until I moved to Round Top. Instead of the colonial, Victorian and arts & craft houses that I had been restoring in Houston, I was suddenly confronted by German farmhouses and log cabins. My restoration work took a turn towards the rustic. It was then that I began to look at the materials in old houses and out buildings.

Weathered antique materials have two distinct advantages over new. First, if they have not deteriorated too much, they are generally better wood. Modern lumber, particularly pine, comes from trees that are most often hybrids bred for fast growth. It is very difficult to get old growth material because, for the most part, like many natural resources, the demand has outstripped the supply. As a result, lumber companies now farm trees like any other agricultural crop. Faster growing trees means more sapwood which means more shrinkage and warping, less strength and more likelihood of damage by insects and dry rot.

The old pines, like hardwoods, grew slower and the lumber was generally cut from larger trees. This means the material in old houses is almost always superior to the “fast growth” material available at the lumber yard. Just in the twenty-five years that I have been building,, I have seen an incredible deterioration in the quality of materials. Yellow pine that is graded as “number 1” now, would have barely been considered “number 2” twenty-five years ago. Even more expensive species like white pine, western red cedar and redwood have degraded substantially. The price has gone up and the quality has gone down.

The reason for this is not that the lumber companies are gouging. (Although the funny increases in plywood that always occur when major hurricanes hit is a bit suspicious.) The reason is that there are too many people with too much money wanting to build too many houses. Lumber companies that seek to fill those demands have been forced to find more efficient ways to supply the lumber because, thankfully, at least some of the old growth forests are still protected from the hungry chain saws of the logging industry.

So, we have too much demand and not enough material. What are we going to do?

Here’s an idea. Why not recycle the wood from the trees we have already cut down. This is not a new concept but it is one whose time has come. However, even today, old structures that have reached the end of their useful lives are often destroyed without any attempt to reclaim the bulk of the materials they contain. The reason for this is two-fold.

One, it often cost more to reuse the old materials than to purchase new ones, and two, since the materials have been previously used, it means that the nature and quantity of the materials is a limiting factor in the design of the new building.

When an architect or other building designer sets out to design a new structure or remodel an older one, under normal circumstance, he or she can design almost anything the owner desires. New construction materials can be purchased in a wide variety of lengths, quantities and qualities. If you need 16 ft. long material to sheath a wall, the supply will essentially be unlimited. It will generally match and is readily available.

However, if you are designing a home using recycled antique materials, you have a limited supply. If you have only 300 square feet of longleaf pine flooring, you must design the space around the material, not the reverse. Each lot must be designed into the project with the limited quantity of matching materials in mind.

This can be a real challenge for a designer.

However, in my experience, it is often worth the trouble. Antique materials have a rare patina that cannot be duplicated when using new products. Weathered materials have been sculpted by the wind, rain and sun to expose the hardwood grain of the wood in unique and startling ways. The grain of each piece of wood is as distinctive as a fingerprint. Such materials, used in a thoughtful way, can create surfaces that are literally one of a kind. For those for whom artistic sensibilities run in an individualistic direction, such spaces and furnishings can be treasures. In a world that is becoming increasingly standardized and conformist, a world where restaurants all look the same and even high-end residential subdivisions often contain one monotonous, stamped out box after another, it’s nice to find materials that are unique.

On these pages are pictures of a variety of homes and furnishings where recycled antique materials were used.

Much of this material was saved from distressed buildings in our area but some was bought from vendors who specialize in such materials. The demolition of antique buildings and the re-sale of such materials has become a big business in the last few years. Large demolition companies have long salvaged some parts of the buildings they take down but this often did not include the old wood.

In the last few years, recycled materials have gained enough popularity to make salvage of old wood a practical endeavor. Now, on the Internet, you can find a wide variety of recycled antique materials for sale all across the nation. However, because the reclaiming and preparation of antique materials is labor intensive, materials bought in moderate quantities are still relatively expensive.

This article mainly discusses the use of antique wood but we have reused tin, rusted hardware, stone underpinnings, old windows and doors and many other types of materials in our projects. We use the recycled materials not only on restoration projects but in the construction of new homes. On more than one occasion, we have built entire antique cabins into large new homes and used almost every plank and floorboard in the process.

In this area, there remain a large number of distressed houses and outbuildings which have material in them that is worth saving. Antique wood brokers will pay in the neighborhood of 50 cents per lineal ft. or more for distressed 1 x 12 planks if they have to remove them from the structure and up to $1.50 per foot (2001 prices) for boards that have been removed and cleaned. That means that some types of antique pine can be worth as much as new #1 material.

Here is the way one builder removes and cleans antique materials:

1. First, you should have a reciprocating saw with long blades designed for cutting nail embedded wood. Pry each plank carefully away from the member it is attached to, taking care not to leave pry marks. Then, using the saw, cut the nails from behind the plank to release it. In this manner the face of the board can be saved from any damage.


2. Immediately remove all nails or sharp metal objects from the plank so that it will not scratch other planks when the materials are stacked. Remember, since antique materials are seldom painted, if you scratch or damage the surface, you may ruin the value of the plank.


3. Clean and disinfect the plank. We use a solution of water, bleach and TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) but there are many different disinfectants that may be used.

The plank has been at home in a barn or other area where it may harbor bacteria or other pests. Make sure to scrub the plank well with a stiff brush and rinse it thoroughly. However, use a bristle rather than a wire brush as too rough a brush will damage the weathered surface.

Perform a test on the first plank to make sure the process you are using does not damage or stain the wood.

4. Stack the material with drying blocks on a flat surface. Small 3/4” x 3/4 sticks should be placed between each plank to allow it to dry evenly and quickly. Group all like boards in one area to make sorting easy. You will need to know how much of each type of material you have for each project.

5. After the wood is dry, try sanding a sample to achieve the finish you prefer. A random orbit sander is good for this. Start with 180 grit or finer sandpaper. Some people like the wood rough and weathered and others like it sanded enough to bring out some of the original color of the wood. Remove any burrs, splinters or rotted areas. Make several different samples on a single board so you can compare them. Note the amount of sanding that is required to achieve each look.

Now you are ready to start your project. The only limits you have are the quantity of matching materials and your imagination. Antique wood is great for making furniture and cabinetry. It can also be used to create distinctive accent walls.

Stone and other types of masonry resonate well with the primitive textures of weathered barn wood as do metals like copper, tin and iron. We have used punched tin and copper in several kitchens where barn wood was used to create the cabinetry. Vent hoods with punched tin covers and copper counter tops are just a few examples.

Old log timbers can be re-sawed and milled to various thicknesses to produce doors, cabinets or furniture. Often antique oak has fissures and changes in coloration that make it distinctive and more interesting than material bought from a hardwood supplier.

Old siding can also be used to create interesting effects. We use pine battens to cover the joints in 1 x 12 board and batt siding just as it was done in old houses and other siding profiles create interesting panels for use in furniture or cabinets. Old beaded ceiling is another useful material.

If you find enough of any planking that has been painted the same color, try partial sanding of the boards, leaving some of the old paint, to create a mottled surface. Remember, much of the paint on such boards is lead paint so use a respirator mask and gloves while sanding and cleaning such materials.

In short, recycling antique woods can bring unique architectural conditions into being that can be created no other way. It’s also a pretty good feeling to know that while you are doing so, you are also saving a tree.