Reclaimed Wood Supplier Plays Role in Growth of Local Economy. Visit Douglas "Fir" Stoutenburg" at http://reclaimedwoodmaterials.com

    LOS ANGELES, CA, August 31, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Thanks to a steady supply of locally reclaimed Douglas Fir, barnwoods and others, local furniture maker Riley Rea has seen his business more than quadruple in one year. While this would be an impressive growth rate in any economy, it's even more spectacular considering the current situation. How are they doing it? By keeping it local...

Resource Conservation Group was started in 1994 by owner Douglas "Fir" Stoutenburg as a way of diverting thousands of pounds of usable wood which were ending up in local landfills.

As buildings are demolished, Stoutenburg acquires the wood, sorts it and catalogues it at his mill in Pacoima, where it is then cut and planed into "new" flooring and lumber.

The milling system at Resource Conservation Group is one of the most efficient available, which means that there is very little waste. When a structure is being "deconstructed", every piece of usable wood is preserved. Stoutenburg feels that by taking this kind of care of the wood, a tree cut down in 1850 and once used for structural wood now gets a second life as flooring and that "tree can live forever." Not only is the quality of the wood available for flooring and lumber today lesser, but reclaiming wood prevents the unnecessary cutting of thousands of trees, simply by re-using the ones that have already been harvested.

"After World War II," says Stoutenburg, "the traditional 2"x 4" became a 1 3/4" x 3 1/2" and younger, weaker trees were used. This is what you buy from a typical lumber yard today." The structural lumber which he sells is true to size, stronger and, sometime, even less expensive than what's available at a building supply store.
Riley Rea, owner of Croft House furniture, stumbled across the Resource Conservation Group a year ago and immediately realized the potential for collaboration. Not only was the source of raw material for his designs readily available, it was also great deal more interesting than using new wood. "The wood we get from them is mostly old growth, so it's not available any more other than as reclaimed," says Rea. "It has nicer grain and it has history, it's just beautiful to work with."

Being able to purchase quality, reasonably-priced material locally is a large part of the reason that Crofthouse has grown from a 1,000 square foot workshop with 1 employee to a 4,000 square foot space (which they are outgrowing) and 8 employees a year later. As the business has grown, Rea has been hiring on a new full-time employee approximately every two months, and they all live close to the shop. Keeping it all as local as possible means that not only is Rea supporting a local economy, but he also is able to maintain control and oversight over every step of the process, resulting in a consistently high quality.

The Croft House workshop is located in downtown Los Angeles and buying from Stoutenburg means that transportation costs are low: both the wood and the recycled steel used for the furniture are locally available. Rea's commitment to running a sustainable business is obvious: he uses recycled palettes from the Navy for shipping his finished furniture, and ships primarily by train. Almost every last inch of wood is used and even the scrap (what little there is) is kept in case smaller pieces are needed.

In the near future, both Stoutenburg and Rea are hoping to take advantage of this local collaboration to grow their businesses. Stoutenburg is currently looking for distributors to sell the reclaimed wood products in the downtown Los Angeles area, which would greatly benefit Croft House, among others. Rea is also planning to move to a larger workshop; he plans to stay in the downtown area, since his company benefits from being in the Enterprise Zone (part of the California Economic Development Incentive Program). All in all, keeping it local is paying off for these two companies!

ABOUT Resource Conservation Group
Resource Conservation Group is a supplier of reclaimed wood flooring and lumber, FSC-certified flooring and custom-milled products
For more information, visit:
http://www.reclaimedwoodmaterials.com/
http://resourceconservationgroup.com
(213)278-2815

About Crofthouse
Crofthouse Furniture manufactures fine furniture from reclaimed wood and steel
http://www.crofthouse.com

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