Project Spotlight: Tribeca Loft Renovation with 200-Year-Old Reclaimed Oak

Every reclaimed wood project tells a story, but some stories are more remarkable than others. This past spring, we supplied reclaimed white oak flooring for a full-floor loft renovation in Tribeca — and the wood's journey from a Pennsylvania barn to a Manhattan apartment is one worth sharing.

The Source

The oak was salvaged from a dairy barn in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, that was built in the early 1800s. When the property changed hands and the barn was slated for demolition, a deconstruction crew carefully disassembled the structure, preserving the wide-plank oak flooring, hand-hewn beams, and vertical siding.

We purchased the flooring planks — approximately 1,800 square feet of white oak ranging from 8 to 14 inches wide and up to 16 feet long. The boards were thick (a full inch), dense, and showing the kind of character that only 200 years of agricultural use can produce: worn edges, subtle undulations, occasional patches where a stall divider once stood.

The Project

The client was renovating a 2,400-square-foot loft in a converted cast-iron building on Franklin Street. The design brief called for a warm, lived-in aesthetic that honored the building's industrial history while feeling contemporary and comfortable. The architect specified reclaimed wide-plank flooring throughout the main living areas and bedrooms.

Our Process

After receiving the barn wood at our Long Island City facility, our team spent approximately two weeks preparing it for residential installation:

• Every board was scanned for embedded metal and de-nailed by hand
• Boards were rough-sorted by width and graded for structural soundness
• We ran each board through our planer to establish a consistent 3/4" thickness while preserving as much surface character as possible
• Tongue-and-groove profiles were milled on all edges
• The flooring was delivered to the site and acclimated for three weeks before installation

The Result

The finished floor is stunning. The aged white oak has a silvery warmth that photographs beautifully but is even more impressive in person. The variation in plank widths gives the floor a sense of authenticity and permanence that you simply cannot achieve with new materials.

The architect and client were both thrilled with the outcome. Projects like this are why we do what we do — giving wood a second life while creating spaces that feel rooted in history.

If you're interested in reclaimed wide-plank flooring for your project, contact us for current inventory and pricing. We regularly source barn wood from throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region.