DOMOTEX RECLAIMED MATERIALS THEY ARE PRECIOUS, HAND-WORKED, ANTIQUE
RECLAIMED TIMBERS. THEY ARE NOT CRAFTED FROM AGED OAK BOARDS BUT FROM THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURY
Salvage Europe | Corporate pledge
Not quite as vivid as the rather eccentric old lady who once told me she would never buy a second-hand book because she could “feel” the reactions of earlier readers, it did nonetheless make me appreciate the selling point of something not merely well-used but visibly well-worn. There are few better examples of that than the market in reclaimed
wood; the footworn aspect giving it a level of authenticity with which planks sawn from a beam cannot compete. Not that there is no intervention. Salvage Europe, for example, which goes all over France in search of oak, insists that each floorboard is “subjected to a meticulous restoration process by expert craftsmen”, adding: “Unlike most salvaged wood on the market, which is cut from old beams, Salvage Europe’s Footworn French oak boards are painstaking removed from actual wood flooring reclaimed from French homes and farmhouses. “These are the most precious, hand-worked from antique, reclaimed timbers, they are not crafted from ‘aged’ oak boards, they are the original footworn boards from both the 17th and the 18th Century.” Reclaimed oak planks are now highly appreciated for their robustness as well as for their authenticity within all historic buildings, whether they are great or small, within many European countries, according to BCA which operates out of The Loire Valley and Normandy. While they too deal in French oak, they also sell chestnut and elm floorboards. According to David Ackers, their Matériaux Anciens’ consultant, when “brushed, waxed, oiled, varnished or simply left natural, they bring charm and authenticity to interiors, and after such a long life elsewhere, they will retain their natural patina for many years to come in their new location, and gain even more patina depending on how they are maintained and treated”. In fact, it’s become something of a worldwide trend. In Pathanamthitta, India, the sculptor, Joseph Mathew, is building a 4,500-sq ft house, in which 95 per cent of the materials are reclaimed. “Wood and stones were sourced mainly from two demolished school buildings. I was able to source at least 60 loads of granite. The ground floor is laid with
QUO
grey tandur stones, although the stairs to the upper floor are made of reused wood. Wooden floors are long-lasting, unlike tiled ones,” said Joseph who added that he found a particularly novel use for leftover tiles out of the 8,000 he bought. “After constructing the roof, the
rest I used on a wall. Now, the walls wouldn’t get dampened,” he said. “Since I make eco-friendly,
low-
budget houses with unconventional interiors, I wanted to replicate those elements in my abode as well. Since it’s my own home, I had all the liberty to make it the way I wanted.” In Somerville, Massachusetts, we find yet another designer, Sebastian Mariscal, who while renovating an antique cottage, simply took what reclaimed materials he had left and used them to create an entirely new home behind it. The reclaimed lumber market was valued at €50.16 billion globally two
years ago and is now expected to grow at a CPR of 4.6 per cent until 2028. The growth was driven by not only increased environmental awareness, and therefore recycling, but by a far keener vision of waste management issues. The building sector has also seen
growth in interest within sustainable construction, using cross-laminated timber which, in turn, has driven the use of reclaimed lumber into many CLT products.
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