February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Now the wood is available for what Mountain Lumber specializes in, providing elegant wooden floors in a variety of woods, often with fascinating histories.
Not once in its 28-year history has this company cut down a living tree.
“We’ve produced well over 2 million board feet of flooring and we’ve never killed a tree,” said company representative Patricia Boden. “We’re proud of that.”
The result is a selection of floor lumber that Company President Willie Drake has said is “intoxicatingly beautiful.”
He has sourced lumber from many parts of the U.S. and beyond — old factories, barns, piers, and other structures that would otherwise be doomed to demolition. Cider vats have been rescued too, from the Bulmer’s cider company, which provided the idea to look for other types of vats. Guinness came up and Drake headed for Ireland.
The Guinness vats provided what Boden said is a beautiful warm, deep brown oak with “an incredible grain.”
It is one of Mountain Lumber’s most expensive and luxurious products. This is because the casks which once held 60,000 gallons of Guinness were slightly curved — each piece of wood had to be carefully planed and straightened, in an environment that controlled the wood’s existing moisture levels so that it would not split.
For the Irish, the Guinness story is well known: how Arthur Guinness leased a brewery in St. James’ Gate in Dublin in 1759 for