Nashville Tennessee, an ultra modern southern city, but as the birth place of country music it is southern first and foremost. At one time there was a pine flooring mill in every small town across Tennessee. Today, because of Southern Pine durability and dimensional stability pine builds houses, flooring an afterthought. The pine acreage once slow growing Southern Pine is now farmed using quick method which does not allow Heartwood to develop. Over the past 3 or 4 years we noticed a big increase in both homeowners and builders in Nashville calling for something to substitute for Antique Reclaimed Heart Pine.
New Heart Pine is not “new” it is just not reclaimed, yet.
The word new simply indicated it is not reclaimed Heart Pine. On the contrary, our timber is taking from private landholders in small batches. Finding Heart Pine in Nashville requires you get past the massive hardwood mills in your area, not to mention the spec houses being built. However, historic restorations, renovations and or homeowner driven new construction allows for choice. Nashville, congratulations on your amazing growth, let us help you add value to all those remodels and restorations.
The best substitue for Reclaimed Heart Pine
Caribbean Heart Pine or Antique
Does anyone remember the commercial “is it live or is it Memorex”? It is what I think of when I email this photo to customers making the decision to buy age, or create it Caribbean Heart Pine. And that word create should jump out at you because that always means more money. How so? Antique Reclaimed Heart Pine needs nothing but sand and poly, or clear coat. On the other hand, Caribbean Heart Pine, while it looks great; in order to match the age of good reclaimed floors requires experience. Adding age requires adding distress to the edges and or face of the floors. Wire brushing and “French Bleed”, darkening and distressing the edges are both excellent ways to create the illusion of age.
Nashville Investors
Rule number one, buy real wood. Real wood is an investment, everything else just a lease. Homeowner equity becomes shareholder profits. A product is something you buy and use then replace, an investment provides some form of return.
Jason Howard Investment Flooring Post 2018.
Solid Heart Pine floors are an investment not a product
Nashville is no different from any other city, 95% of the flooring professionals push veneers or worse, composites. First of all, not all engineered (veneers) are all bad, but unless they have a 4MM wear layer, or better, they cannot be refinished. Unfortunately, years of carpet are now being deposited in your landfills with the next waive being composites.
The footprint of fake wood
If you listen to most “environmental” warriors, logging and timber is the equivalent of fossil fuels when accessing a carbon footprint. This is ridiculous. Managed timber doesn’t lend itself to wildfires. And real wood doesn’t end up in the landfill. If every house only had one floor over its lifetime, how many installations would that save? Real wood floors will outlive your house. In fact, one day they will be reclaimed or salvaged as they are reinvented a century later. Try that with laminate.
Why do people buy ‘single use’ floors? A product designed with planned obsolescence ridiculous promises and useless warranties. Manufactures and their distributors have four conventions per year and one huge one just to talk about all the new and latest technology that they are going to sell homeowners. All of this is to perpetuate a population of consumers and salespeople buying into a false premise, fake is better than real.
Nashville do not settle
Nashville do not settle for a flooring lease, buy one that will outlive your home and one day be reclaimed. It is not too expensive, not at all, but you will hear the opposite when shopping. Trust logic and get the floor you want, buy real wood.
