Uses of Reclaimed Wood CEU Course - 2 credits

We'll be in Sarasota this Wednesday afternoon to give our CEU course at 79 S. Palm Avenue from 3-4. Come early for snacks and stay after for wine and cheese if you can!

We would love to have you join us. Call with any questions at 800-336-3118. Invitation is attached.

Goodwin’s Reclaimed Wood course is 2 credits and can be given in a one hour lunch and learn. It is DBPR, AIA/HSW amd IDCEC approved. We can give the course in 45 minutes to an hour due to technical handouts that we email afterward.

The learning objectives and a few  of the tips we offer to ensure that your reclaimed wood lasts for the long term include:

•  A little about wood in general
• The Rich History of antique woods
• Grading and comparisons so you know how to get the wood you want
• Why you need to specify the basics of wood science
• Which finishes work well on reclaimed wood
• A few case studies to avoid unnecessary problems.

A few of the practical applications we go over while showing beautiful floors include:

1.        Buildings that are often not occupied a good bit of the year, may have the HVAC turned off. Humidity can build up and get between the boards to the underside and cause the floor to cup. It is very low cost to back seal the boards with low cost polyurethane before installation. Polyurethane does not encapsulate wood but does slow down the wood’s ability to take on give off moisture and balances both sides of the wood to avoid cupping.

2.        With wide boards or large rooms and a nail down installation start in the middle and nail toward both walls with spline glued into the grooves of the middle boards. Because the tongue side is held down with fasteners, most of the movement is on the groove side, so you cut the shrink/swell in half.

3.        Even with engineered wood we always recommend sealing the concrete. It may be dry now; however, you don’t know what will occur after storms or leaks. A well made engineered wood with a water resistant plywood backer and high-quality glues can dry out and usually be fine if you get the water off relatively quickly, but it can’t dry out if the concrete isn’t sealed.

4.        Every installer should own a moisture meter. Use the kind with pins that measure electrical resistance and orient the pins with the grain as that is how the meters are calibrated. Meters that sit on top of wood measure specific gravity and do not work well on dense reclaimed wood. The only concrete meter that will measure the real moisture content in a slab is the ASTM 2170 type. Calcium chloride tests measure only the top two centimeters and sit on top concrete meters measure only the top two inches. If excess moisture is deep in the slab it will equilibrate when covered and cause problems.