Secret To Success - Forest owner flooring

As a forest owner producing flooring today, industrial traditions are not acceptable.  My goal is to produce naturally beautiful flooring that shows off the character of my forest.  It is my wood, so a high percentage of waste is not tolerated. 

My featured product is mixed species flooring with a variety of widths that minimize my waste, from about 2" to 6" planks.  The tongue and groove on my flooring is perfectly symmetrical with no relief cut on the bottom - so both sides are good.  There is no end matching needed.  The sound character features and color variations are highlighted.  A unique, interesting, and custom blended floor is created for each customer.  I also sell matching baseboard & trim, glued-up wooden countertops, stairways, and fireplace mantels.  I take each board to its highest value use.

Careful kiln drying is essential when using small diameter, curved, and commercially low value logs.  Our custom designed and home built solar cycle kilns may give us a huge advantage here, due to the nightly conditioning feature of our drying system.  (Details on our manufacturing system will be included in the next article of this series.)

Secret To Success - Tell Your Story
What I want Customers to know about Timbergreen Farm

We practice natural forest management, taking only what the forest gives us.
We cut our timber with Arthroscopic precision - there is little if any damage.
We use modern, efficient sawmilling tools and methods.
We dry our lumber with mostly solar and wind power.
We use the most efficient tools for manufacturing here on the farm
We sell a variety of natural wood products for the customer's home.
We focus first on selling our wood in the local community, then beyond.
Every floor we install becomes another showroom to generate more sales.
We share our information and methods freely with forest and business owners
We make full and best use of our harvested trees
We are environmentally aware and conservative at all steps

Forest Certification

Timbergreen Farm was the first small woodlot to be Forest Stewardship Council Certified in the entire Midwest of the US back in June, 1998.  We soon found it to be much too expensive, way too complicated, with little benefit for a small business, so I dropped it. 

When Aldo Leopold described eco-labeling of conservation wood back in the 1940s, his conclusion was that consumer discrimination was the key.  We work to show our customers what they need to know to make good decisions when buying wood.  Being well known in your local community is much better than paying big bucks for some global eco-label.  Telling your own story is better than any third party stamp.




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