Onsite Trees Saved for Home’s Oak Flooring

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Partners: Lumberjacks Tree Service, Tervol's Wood Products, Fred Saunders

A homeowners' wise choice resulted in beautiful white and red oak flooring in their new home from trees removed from the site.

  • The property owner felled the trees where the new home was to be built in the woods, thinking only of using them for firewood.
  • Lumberjacks Tree Service of Ann Arbor was hired to move the trees out of the woods and stack them in an open area on the property. Pat O'Connor, one of the owners of Lumberjacks, asked the property owner if he had considered using the trees for flooring. (He hadn’t, and wasn’t sure it was a good idea to spring such a change on his builder.)
  • The property owner felled more trees at his builders request and had Lumberjacks remove these also to the open area. Pat again asked the property owner if he had thought about using the trees for flooring, He had researched sawmills in the area but did not know enough to select one yet. The Lumberjacks suggested Tervol's Wood Products in North Adams, which they had done business with before.
  • The property owner talked to Jeff Tervol who visited the build site and assured the property owner there were plenty of good quality trees to make the flooring. Jeff has a portable sawmill, but recommended that he cut the boards at his business site since he has two kilns in which to dry the boards he cuts. Jeff doesn’t cut tongue and groove flooring, but arranged to transport the dried boards to Fred Saunders, who lives just down the street and finished this step in the process.
  • Lumberjacks Tree Service picked up the finished boards from Fred Saunders and transported them to the build site in time for the boards to sit about a week, acclimating to the locale, before being installed in the home by the builder
  • The new homeowners love their wood floors! Both white oak and red oak were made into 3, 4, and 5-inch-wide boards. You can see the beauty of the wood in these photos, and they love how some of the trees that had grown on the site have returned and are part of the house.

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