Concept Companies Modern Office
Custom Milled Heart Pine Vertical Grain

When finding replacement boards for your old wood floors a great place to start is the Goodwin Company. Many of the phone calls we receive start with, “I have this old house…”. The Goodwin Company works with customers all the time helping them match our wood to their existing floors. We offer a wide range of grades in both reclaimed and River-Recovered®. Our Corporate Communications Manager, Jeffrey Forbes was recently featured in an Old House Journal article on this matter.

Finding Replacement Boards for Your Old Wood Floors. Old House Journal Lacing in New Boards.Finding Replacement Boards for Your Old Wood Floors. Old House Journal Lacing in New Boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can read more about a antique flooring repair in Maryland that the Goodwin Company helped with previously.

Whatever You Desire For Reclaimed Wood… Goodwin is Here to Help
Whatever You Desire For Reclaimed Wood… Goodwin is Here to Help

Howard Brickman Teaching a Wood Flooring Inspection Class at Goodwin Company’s Micanopy, Florida Headquarters.

For over four decades, Goodwin has connected with many highly respected wood flooring professionals.

The article below on wood floor cupping is written by longtime Goodwin friend and colleague Howard Brickman. Howard was the first ever Technical Director of the National Wood Floor Association and he has taught several wood floor inspection classes at Goodwin.

Recently, Howard traveled to Bermuda to install 10,000 square feet of our River Recovered® Antique Heart Pine Flooring. Quite impressive as Bermuda has a climate that requires considerable expertise to install wood flooring at the correct moisture content and conditions!

Our connections with wood flooring professionals help ensure that your project is completed as smoothly as possible. We can connect you with highly respected industry experts and communicate with them over the course of your project.

Stuck on a wood flooring project… or looking to get started… Call Goodwin at 800-336-3118.

 

 

Healthy Flooring Options

Healthy Flooring Options

Solid wood, engineered wood, vinyl, luxury vinyl, laminate, bamboo, tile, carpet…there are now more flooring choices than ever before.  And, there seems to be new flooring companies popping up every day in an effort to get a piece of this global, billion dollar industry. Goodwin employs an eco-friendly process to manufacturing our flooring that is safe for your family and pets.  Our process takes extra time and careful oversight, but in the end, the health and safety of our valued customers comes first. The health benefits of our flooring speaks for itself:

  • Hypo-Allergenic
  • Low to Zero VOC Finishes
  • No Formaldehyde
  • Genuine Product Handcrafted from Nature

Read More About Health Benefits of Goodwin Flooring

For more than four decades, Goodwin Company has prided ourselves on providing the most beautiful and healthy wood flooring in the world….period.  We never have and never will compromise on quality or stray away from our green and healthy manufacturing processes.  If you are ready to give your home or office a new look in 2021, we can help.  Give our antique wood specialists a call today!

See Our Specials on Existing Milled Inventory

Unquestionable Longevity

Today’s flooring market is flooded with inferior products that simply do not withstand pets, children or heavy foot traffic.  When you choose Goodwin, you can take comfort in knowing that our high quality products are not only manufactured to last your lifetime, but for generations to come.

Goodwin custom milled wood for this residence more than 21 years ago and it’s arguably even more gorgeous today than when it was first installed!  Goodwin provided 4000sqft of River-Recovered® heart pine and heart cypress and sustainable wild black cherry tongue and groove for this home.

  • A focal point is the feature wall and attached mantel crafted from River-Recovered heart cypress.
  • River-Recovered heart pine was used for flooring, custom railings, stair treads, Newell posts and trims.
  • The columns are re-sawn virgin cypress columns harvested from a church in Georgia.
  • Sustainable wild black cherry was installed in the bedrooms.
  • A gorgeous bed frame constructed from sustainably harvested wild black cherry can be found in the master bedroom.

All of the wood was finished with a poly finish. Since installation, the color has deepened with age. Heart pine is especially photo-reactive, revealing a gorgeous red patina when exposed to light over time.

The wood has not been touched up since it was installed 21 years ago.  It has endured three generations’ worth of foot traffic, including children and dogs, and is still in pristine condition. If needed, heart pine can be sanded and refinished multiple times, lasting centuries with proper care.

 

St. Clair Whitman

Many historic homes were constructed using original virgin growth pine flooring. Goodwin works with both homeowners and building design professionals to custom mill River-Recovered® and reclaimed heart pine floor parts to replace damaged areas. This allows the homeowner to keep as much of the original historic floor as possible and while still maintaining the status […]

Precision Engineered Midnight Heart Cypress – Beautiful and Unique

Midnight Heart Cypress is an interesting antique wood with a distinct look and style.  Take a look at these photos of a gorgeous Precision Engineered Midnight Heart Cypress floor in a home in Texas:

Photos Courtesy of Oldham Goodwin Group, LLC

The home was expertly constructed by Martin & Sims Development.  Goodwin partnered with them to provide 1690 square feet of 7″ Precision Engineered River-Recovered® Midnight Heart Cypress with an oil finish for flooring and stair treads.

Midnight Heart Cypress is as unique as it is beautiful.  Here are some of its architectural features and specifications:

  • Available with arching grain patterns
  • Shows light to dark chocolate tones
  • No knots over 1-1/4”
  • 100% heart
  • 100% dense growth with up to eight growth rings per inch
  • 690 on the Janka scale comparable to Douglas Fir (660)

Midnight Heart Cypress – which displays a range of cozy brown hues, varying from light to dark chocolates – is milled from the same antique logs as lighter Heart Cypress. Its rich textured look makes it perfect for floors, walls, stairs and ceilings.

Want to learn more about how to incorporate either solid or Precision Engineered Midnight Heart Cypress into your home or office? Give us a call today!

View our Midnight Cypress Collection

The Timeless Beauty of Old Growth Longleaf

Chinsegut Hill is a historic home constructed entirely out of old growth longleaf pine.  The longleaf harvested for the construction likely came from the property it was built on.  The entire floor on the ground level needed to be replaced and the Friends of Chinsegut Hill turned to Goodwin to provide replacement flooring. Goodwin milled nearly 2000sf of 3-1/4″ building reclaimed Legacy Vertical Heart Pine for the project.

The original Chinsegut Hill home was built in 1847 by Bird Pearson. By 1852 he had sold the plantation to the Edgerton Family who built the first center section of the home we know today. Chinsegut sits upon what is reported to be the second highest point of land on the peninsula of Florida behind Iron Mountain, home of Bok Tower. Its history is interesting and extensive.

Interestingly, the Legacy Vertical Heart Pine beams that were reclaimed and resawn to mill the floor came from the demolition of the Avondale Mill in Sylacauga, Alabama.  The Avondale Mill was a textile manufacturing facility that operated from the 1890s until the 1980s. In 2011, the massive structure was hit by lightning and burned. As the wings of the building were dismantled, Goodwin purchased the structural heart pine members from the site for re-purposing into flooring.

The floors were installed but never sanded and finished. The Friends of Chinsegut Hill operated the site as a wedding retreat and conference facility but have since ceased operations. Today, the site is being managed by the Tampa Bay History Center and is expected to open to the public for tours by late spring 2020.

Our Marketing Coordinator Jeffrey Forbes recently visited Chinsegut Hill and took photos of the home as it stands now.  We hope to get additional photos once the floor is sanded and finished and Chinsegut Hill is opened to the public.

Back to the Beach!

Goodwin’s River-Recovered®, reclaimed and sustainable woods are often specified for coastal projects.  Our wood is perfect for any beachside residence or commercial space.  Take a look at this gorgeous residence in Key West, Florida.  This contemporary, new construction home features Goodwin’s Pecky Cypress on the ceilings and precision engineered Wild Black Cherry flooring throughout:

When it comes to livable luxury, building design professionals incorporate antique and sustainable wood to achieve a fresh yet warm feel. Are you planning to remodel your home in 2020?  If so, give the antique and sustainable wood experts at Goodwin a call today!

Public Invited to View Key West Custom House Wood Floor Re-finish 2

When should you select flooring for your new custom home?  Ideally, this process will begin while your architect is designing your home.  Too often, people wait until their home is under construction to begin seriously considering flooring options.  This can lead to significant pitfalls. Below is a summary of the main reasons why wood flooring should be specified during the design process.

Flooring Affects Numerous Aspects of the Home

Certain aspects of a home are affected by the type and height of the proposed flooring.  For instance, the baseboards for solid wood flooring need to be set differently than baseboards for an engineered product.  Subfloor is also a consideration.  Whether your home will be slab-on-grade and/or over a joist system defines whether you should use solid plank or engineered flooring.  Knowing the exact flooring you plan to incorporate into your new home will help ensure various aspects of the construction process are smooth and seamless.

Lead Time for Production

Depending on the type of wood flooring you are considering the production lead time could be a major factor.  It takes much more time to manufacture wood flooring from newly recovered logs than it does to custom craft a floor from on-hand inventory.

Acclimation

Wood flooring should not be installed immediately upon delivery as it needs to be properly acclimated before installation. Certain factors such as humidity, subflooring and change of season can affect acclimation time.  You want to make sure your flooring is delivered to your home site in time for it to be properly acclimated to the room(s) where it will be installed.

If you are working with a building design professional to develop plans for a new custom home, be sure to connect with us during this process.  Our wood flooring specialists will work alongside you and your design team to help select the best wood flooring to meet your needs.  We’re here to help!

Antique Legacy™ Heart Pine

Sam Carroll Construction in Savannah, Georgia utilized Goodwin’s Antique Legacy™ Heart Pine to custom craft new flooring and a unique set of stairs for the The Vernon River Estate. The project was part of a full interior and exterior renovation. Take a look:

View Project

Goodwin provided 4″x11″x4′ LEGACY grade solid stair treads which were stained and routed on-site for LED light strips. We also provided LEGACY ship lap siding for the exterior of the staircases:

The new stairs perfectly complement the 2810sf of 3-1/4″, 5-1/4″ & 9″ tongue and groove LEGACY flooring.

Antique Legacy is popular in both traditional and modern designs. Give us a call to learn more about our beautiful Antique Legacy products.

 

Florida Crotchwood Visits Goodwin

Last week, Goodwin was privileged to be visited by Paula and Randy from Florida Crotchwood Mobile Sawmill. They helped us saw five gorgeous River-Recovered® heart cypress logs into beautiful 2.5 inch thick slabs. These “green” slabs dry out at a rate of about one inch per year.  So, it will be nearly three years until these slabs are dry enough for fine woodworking. Believe us; they will certainly be well worth the wait!

What is Vertical Grain Heart Pine and Heart Cypress?

We are often asked about our vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress.  Building design professionals and homeowners alike often specify Goodwin’s vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress because of its attractive pinstriping. It also experiences shrink/swell at half the rate of select.

The vertical grain is actually the result of quarter sawing the wood. Quarter sawing is a process that results in what we often refer to as pinstriping grain, which are perpendicular lines running down the full length of the board.

Vertical Grain

While all woods can be quarter sawn, both antique heart pine and heart cypress really display this particular face nicely.  This mostly has to do with the fact that the growth rings in antique wood are very, very tight.  We say that you should expect a minimum of eight growth rings per inch with antique heart pine and you can regularly find 20 growth rings per inch with antique heart cypress.

Vertical Grain

Below are some key attributes of vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress:

  • 100% VERTICAL grain will display no growth rings more than 45 degrees perpendicular to the face of each board. If you look at the end of a piece of vertical grain heart pine flooring you will see no growth rings proud of 45 degrees.
  • Quarter sawing requires larger logs so it produces fewer over all knots. Knots are a result of branching and most of the branching in older trees is at the top.
  • Quarter sawing produces wood that experiences shrink/swell at about half the rate that plain sawn wood does (i.e. select is an example of plain sawn). In historic wood frame homes you will discover that they nearly all have doors, door framing and jambs, windows and window framing crafted of vertical grain heart pine or heart cypress rather than select pieces.  Better builders have always known that shrink/swell in vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress is greatly reduced and have traditionally used it for parts of buildings that open and close.

Vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress takes more time to produce than plain sawn wood.  The tradeoff is that quarter sawn vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress has a much more refined look, which is why it is often found in high end historic homes. For example, it is widely known that prominent mid-nineteenth century New Orleans architect Henry Howard specified nothing but quarter sawn vertical grain heart pine for the homes he designed.

Are you interested in learning more about Goodwin’s vertical grain heart pine and heart cypress? If so, our antique wood experts are ready to discuss how you can incorporate this elegant wood into your home or office.  Give us a call today!

Why Goodwin Will Never Be a “Run of the Mill” Manufacturer

Goodwin Company“Run of the mill” is one of those common phrases we often don’t put much thought into as it’s a term used in everyday, casual conversations to describe something that has little or no features that distinguish it from other things that serve the same purpose.

The phrase ‘run of the mill’ originates in the early 1900’s America and was used by factories to describe a commodity that was not graded or checked for impurities. This would result in a product that was not the best nor the worst, but simply average in quality. The expression later developed into the more figurative use around the 1920’s.

After more than four decades in business, Goodwin still refuses to settle for “run of the mill” standards. Architects, designers, and building design professionals especially appreciate the time, quality, and craftsmanship that goes into each and every Goodwin product:

  • We use what is arguably the strictest grading standard in the industry. Our 100% American-made wood is milled with strict grading guidelines to ensure our customers truly enjoy the finest products on the market.
  • Goodwin uses the best and most accurate machinery operated by skilled craftsman who have an eye for quality. In fact, founder George Goodwin is still the company sawyer!
  • Our onsite storage facility ensures that our woods can be perfectly preserved until they are ordered. This means you don’t have to wait for the entire milling process to be complete or the season to be right to enjoy antique wood that looks freshly milled.
  • We even offer proprietary finishes including Diamond 7 which is as strong as diamonds and preserves an antique heart pine floor well beyond that of other finishes.

Additionally, Goodwin’s signature product, River-Recovered® heart pine, is an antique wood with a unique story and quality unlike any other species. We have decades of experience with heart pine, cultivating and milling only the finest cuts of this sunken treasure. Goodwin also supplies a sizable selection of other exceptional woods that are sustainably sourced and held to an equal standard as our heart pine.

There have been many imitators over the years and there are still companies who claim the same standards as Goodwin.  However, the proof is in the quality and craftsmanship, which is why we challenge you to compare Goodwin’s wood side-by-side to any other finished wood in the world and you will clearly see why we are considered the industry gold standard.

Goodwin Company

 

Antique Heart Pine and Adaptive Re-use

Antique Heart Pine and Adaptive Re-use

The 1830s era Pennsylvania barn remodel project continues to receive publicity, praise and accolades.  In addition to milling the heart pine stair treads, Goodwin provided 2200sf of River-Recovered® Heart Pine Character and Old Florida for this adaptive re-use project.

Take a look at this in-depth post detailing the remodel:

Read article

Are you working on a remodel or adaptive re-use project?  If so, give us a call. Our antique wood experts will be happy to help you creatively incorporate River-Recovered and/or reclaimed heart pine and/or heart cypress into your design.

Photos by: Dan Williams Photography

Reclaimed Wood Kitchen Floors Blend Perfectly with Contemporary Accents 4

We’ve featured photos of the gorgeous home in the Old Northeast Neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Florida owned by our good friend Maureen Stafford.  A previous article featured her reclaimed wood kitchen floor.

Maureen is restoring another historic home in St. Petersburg. She used 400 square feet of Goodwin’s Legacy building reclaimed heart pine select and vertical heart pine in the closets (which she made) and to fill in where she took out the floor vents. The replacement wood was a critical improvement to the new floor reclamation square footage.

Enjoy this video of the home.  Great job, Maureen!

Makes you want to move to St. Pete, huh…

Video courtesy of Jeff Royer, Distinctive Focus Photography

Read more about Maureen’s reclaimed wood kitchen floors

Luxury Condos in America’s Oldest City Feature Antique River-Recovered® Heart Pine and Longleaf Throughout 3

The Lakeview Condos in historic St. Augustine Florida date back to the late 1800s.  The Lakeview building was constructed between 1885-1893 by the firm of McGuire and McDonald, famously known for constructing the Ponce De Leon Hotel.  Both structures were built by Standard Oil tycoon, Henry Flagler; the Ponce as a luxury hotel and the Lakeview building as the male staff quarters for the hotel.  Originally, the Lakeview building was referred to as the “Ponce De Leon barracks.”

Fast forward to 2004 when the building was purchased and developed into luxury condominiums. Lakeview sits on the edge of Lake Maria Sanchez in a prime area of town just blocks off the heart of the old city.

October 2016 brought powerful hurricane Matthew to the area, which flooded the historic district of America’s oldest city as it passed at high tide.  Sadly, the Lakeview building took on five inches of water from Lake Sanchez.  Goodwin worked closely with the owners association to replace the original heart pine flooring.  Most units were restored using River-Recovered Heart Pine Character or Antique Longleaf pine.  Much of the replacement heart pine was either 2-1/2″ or 3-1/4″.  The 800-1000sf units are now light and airy living spaces with wonderful architectural transoms over the doors and arched passageway. Goodwin is always most pleased when we can be a part of historic restorations.

This is How We Finish…

This video shows Goodwin’s Naily heart pine being finished on site by our partner Heritage Wood Finish Company (HWFC).  Goodwin has partnered with HWFC to develop proprietary, custom finishes specifically formulated for our resinous antique River-Recovered® and reclaimed wood. Goodwin now offers a variety of install ready products – including wide plank flooring, wood walls, wood ceilings and wood paneling – featuring custom colors, textures and environmentally friendly finishes:

  • Zero to very low volatile compounds
  • Second in hardness only to diamonds
  • Customizable to fit your specific design needs
  • Child, pet and environmentally friendly

Goodwin’s antique heart pine beams are recovered from 19th century industrial buildings where carpenters would choose the best face of the beam to nail to. This results in our beautiful naily faced floor grade we get to enjoy now, two centuries later.

Our finisher guides the milled flooring and wood paneling material onto the finishing machine. This is the final process in the manufacturing of our finished wood flooring and paneling for wood walls and ceilings. The grade in the video features rich red tones as a result of oxidation during its life in the industrial buildings. Splashes of yellow heart can be found throughout the grade as well. The black staining around the nail holes is also a result of oxidation. This chemical reaction occurs between the extractives in the antique wood and the iron nails that were used so many years ago resulting the rustic unique character that we see today.

This historic reclaimed wood can’t help but hint to its past even in modern spaces, like the window sills featured in Gainesville, Florida’s Swamphead Brewery. As you can see, introducing antique wood walls, wood paneling or wood flooring adds a warm, natural and relaxing feel to any room in your home or office. From sinker cypress wood walls, paneling and ceilings to heartpine flooring and accents, the use of River-Recovered® and reclaimed wood in contemporary design is on the rise as consumers seek unique and sustainable products to personalize their home and work spaces.