How We Source Reclaimed Lumber from NYC Demolition Sites

People often ask us where our wood comes from. The short answer: it comes from New York City itself. The longer answer is a story about partnerships, logistics, and a race against the dumpster.

The Demolition Pipeline

New York City issues thousands of demolition and major renovation permits every year. Each one of those projects generates significant quantities of lumber — framing, flooring, sheathing, trim, beams, and joists. The vast majority of this wood ends up in a dumpster, trucked to a landfill or transfer station.

Our job is to intercept that wood before it gets thrown away.

How Our Partnerships Work

We maintain relationships with approximately 30 demolition and general contractors throughout the five boroughs and surrounding areas. When one of their projects involves a building with salvageable lumber, they give us a call. We visit the site, assess what's available, and work out a recovery plan.

In many cases, we can take the lumber at no cost to the contractor — we're saving them disposal fees, and they're providing us with raw material. It's a genuinely win-win arrangement.

For buildings with particularly valuable wood — old-growth timbers, wide-plank flooring, rare species — we'll sometimes pay for the material. This creates a direct financial incentive for contractors to deconstruct carefully rather than demolish indiscriminately.

What We Look For

Not every demolition site yields usable lumber. We evaluate based on:

• Age of the building: Pre-war structures (before 1940) tend to have the best lumber — denser species, larger dimensions, and higher quality wood than post-war construction
• Type of construction: Timber-frame industrial buildings, brownstones, and old warehouses are our primary targets
• Condition: We assess for water damage, rot, insect activity, and contamination (lead paint, asbestos-adjacent materials)
• Accessibility: Can we get the wood out safely and efficiently? Some sites are more practical than others

The Numbers

In 2023, we recovered approximately 180,000 board feet of lumber from NYC-area demolition and renovation sites. That's roughly 60 truckloads of wood that would have otherwise gone to waste. We estimate this prevented approximately 90 tons of wood from entering the waste stream.

Every board in our yard has a story. It came from a specific building, served a specific purpose, and was rescued by people who believed it deserved a second life. That's the foundation of everything we do.