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HISTORY
The Rise of Reclaimed Materials in Luxury Construction
Using reclaimed materials in new homes isn’t a new phenomenon. For decades, owners, architects and interior designers reused materials to add character to a home. A stone mantel imported from a French chateau or few antique hardware pieces salvaged from a church added a touch of history to a new structure. More recently, the trend of using reclaimed materials has grown in scale. Now, practically entire homes are being built from recovered materials. “It’s moving into every feature of a home, creating an entire material palette,” said Sebastian Construction Group president, John Sebastian. “From the roof to the wall surface, from the beams to the floors, it’s moving into almost every facet you can touch, see and feel on a project.”
VINTAGE is VOGUE
The appeal is understandable: vintage materials give a new house instant character, an air of gravitas. It looks and feels more historically significant. But the focus isn’t just on provenance - the imperfections in reclaimed materials add depth and beauty not found in modern fabricated materials. Unique historic features like exposed stone, custom pillars or timber floors evoke heritage in a home. The materials tell a story. John Sebastian cites some recent trends. “Antique terracotta floors are very popular right now, along with antique wide plank floors. On slate roofs, the construction team is blending new slate with old slate to give it an aged patina.”
From FRANCE to FACTORIES Two recent Sebastian-built homes reflect the desire for timeworn materials: Beverly residence, a home constructed with limestone recovered from a 2000-year-old aqueduct in Avignon, France. Westlake Ranch, a 36,000-foot horse ranch, used roof material and wood siding recovered from an about-to-be-demolished lumber mill in Idaho. Avignon Meets Dallas Building the Beverly residence, a classical beauty in the coveted Highland Park neighborhood of Dallas, was a labor of love for its owner, a design enthusiast. With a specific French limestone in mind, the owner worked with Dee Brown, Inc., a Texas-based stone and masonry contractor, to find it. Rob Barnes, grandson of the founder and CEO of Dee Brown, Inc., (DBI) recognized the stone the owner described as emanating from southeastern France’s Provence region and tapped his European inspector to send samples. The sought-after stone was recovered from an aqueduct, a system built by Romans in the first century AD to carry water from a source to population centers. DBI, which has a 7,700 square foot fabrication facility, trimmed some of the stones used in the Beverly residence’s two feet thick walls.
One of the most interesting features of the Westlake, a 36,000-foot horse ranch built by Sebastian, is its use of recovered and salvaged materials: a barn made with wood from a dismantled Idaho lumber mill and horse troughs cut from one thousand year old logs. Lance Karnan is a principal at Arc Wood and Timbers, the company that provided the reused materials. Karnan shares a bit of the history of the Westlake Ranch:
LUMBER MILLS and LOGS
“We used some salvaged sinker cypress logs that were hollowed out and used for horse troughs on the property. Sinker Cypress are harvested trees that sank as they were floating down the rivers to the sawmills. Historians estimate that anywhere from 10% to 20% of the logged virgin growth Bald Cypress trees sank en route to the sawmills on the rivers.”
According to Arc Wood and Timbers, old growth Sinker Cypress logs contain a protective oil that creates a natural preservative, making Sinker Cypress one of the most rot resistant and insect resistant woods found anywhere in the world.Karnan describes some of the characteristics that help determine the age of the Sinker Cypress logs used at the Westlake Residence: “These logs (specifically the 48” diameter log used for the 24′ trough) were underwater for at least 146 years. Based on the overall density of growth rings on the large trough log, which when we counted they averaged at least 40 rings per inch, placed that log at being about 960 years old when it was harvested. So, 960 years, plus 146 years underwater equals a 1,106 year old tree. Pretty cool.”
The barns on the Westlake Ranch project have their own backstory, as told by Karnan: “The reclaimed Douglas Fir material all came from a dismantled mill in Lewiston, ID, originally owned by Potlatch Lumber Company and constructed in the 1920s. In 2013, the new ownership entity decided to dismantle all the mills and barns on the property in Lewiston. There was over 4 million board feet of timber and lumber reclaimed or salvaged from the dismantled barns and mills. There were 6 large post and timber barns built at the mill. The largest buildings measured 80’ x 1600’. They were massive!” The Westlake Ranch used every single 3 x 8 dismantled horizontal beam and every single 3/4” x 7” reclaimed shiplap ceiling material pulled out of the two dismantled barns.”
Enduring APPEAL “Whether it’s stone from French aqueducts, or terracotta roof tiles from Italy, these materials have been working for thousands of years. They’ll function for another hundred years or so.” John sums up the appeal, “We’re building luxurious homes, incorporating historic materials in a way that reflects a sense of place and promises to stand the test of time.” Poet Hilaire Belloc’s comments about the Pont du Gard, bridge of France’s most famous aqueduct could apply equally to these homes: “It looks as though it had been built long before all record by beings greater than ourselves, and were intended to stand long after the dissolution of our petty race.”