How We Make Our Hardwood - The Forest 2 Home Way to Lumber

Wood: How It Shaped Human Civilization

Wood has played a quintessential role in our history and evolution. Humans have used it for fuel, paper, tools, weapons, furniture, building materials, and more. Even today, our relationship remains primarily unchanged with this resource. Over time, our methods of developing and managing woodlands continue to rely on tried-and-true techniques established by the early civilizations. We can perhaps go on to say that wood has long been an integral part of our lives. Wood's significance as a building material predates written history. Did you know that at a site near Nice, France, a series of post holes show that a hut was built out of wooden posts nearly 400,000 years ago? This is the earliest proof of wood's building capabilities. An old wooden building in northwest Germany dates back about 7,300 years. The first time a sawmill was used instead of hand tools to cut wood was in Northern Europe around 375 AD. It is believed that this sawmill was powered by flowing water.

The size of the lumber that early sawmills produced depended on the customer's specifications. Today, pieces of wood used in buildings have standard sizes categorized into three groups based on their thickness. Hardwood and softwood lumber pieces are graded based on how many and how significant the flaws are. These defects include knots, holes, pitch pockets, splits, wane, and missing pieces on the edges or corners. These defects affect how the wood looks but they may also affect how strong it is.

That is why, at Forest 2 Home, we ensure that each piece of lumber that goes out of our warehouses meets the Gutchess standard of quality and craftsmanship.

A Quick Walkthrough of Our Manufacturing Processes

Most of our timber is grown in managed forests owned or leased by Gutchess and Forest 2 Home. Once the trees reach the right size, they are cut down and brought to a lumber mill to be transformed into lumber of assorted sizes.

The following is a typical sequence of operations for processing trees into lumber.

Modern lumber manufacturing requires a lot of technology. Our 3D optimizing log scanning computer examines, scans, and analyzes it to minimize waste. The moisture in the lumber is then removed through a kiln drying process that utilizes steam that is produced by combusting the sawdust the mill produced during production.

Why is Forest 2 Home Lumber the Most Ecologically Sound?

Did you know that using wood for construction rather than other materials helps lower CO2 emissions. Ironic, isn’t it?

Here’s how!

We all know that trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. The wood of the tree stores carbon. The carbon remains in the wood until it decomposes, at which point it rebinds with oxygen to form carbon dioxide once again.

At Forest 2 Home, our goal is to create a greener future by practicing responsible forestry management programs on our company land as well as for individual forest landowners. We harvest a portion of the forest in 15 and 30-year cycles to ensure a steady and continuoussupply of healthy, quality hardwood. By doing so, we are helping to take CO2 out of the air and store it in our wood. This limits the climate change caused by greenhouse gases.

Gutchess Lumber owns and oversees over 29,000 acres of timberland in New York and Pennsylvania. Our team of skilled and experienced foresters carefully manage these prime forest areas. Therefore, buying hardwood lumber products from us means supporting environmental sustainability.

Ensuring Quality Standards in Hardwood Manufacturing

Forest 2 Home is an offshoot of Gutchess, a name synonymous with hardwood manufacturing in North America. We have been leading the hardwood industry for over a century. At Forest 2 Home, we take great pride in producing premium products that exceed the expectations of demanding lumber buyers worldwide.

Our wood comes from the best hardwood forests and timberlands in the northeast USA, including those we have owned and managed for generations.

To assure precise grade and tally, consistent quality, and maximum yield, every board we manufacture, and sell is sawn in our sophisticated sawmills. They are then dried in our cutting-edge kilns and examined by highly qualified and trained lumber inspectors at least twice - green and dry.

Our manufacturing standards and process controls are strict and precise from beginning to end. That's why our lumber leads the pack in our industry. We don't wholesale or broker lumber, so every board we offer comes directly from our warehouses. And that's why customers worldwide trust our quality with confidence.

Browse our online hardwood store here.