TerraMai's Rescued Floors:
Recycling Old Wood
THE BEST OF GREEN DESIGN: Each year, 166 million tons of plastic, metal, wood, glass, paper and other materials end up in landfills. Some of it can be put to much better use inside your home.

By Jim Gorman
Photograph by James Westman/Studio D
Popular Mechanics, March 2007 

TerraMai turns to condemned buildings, not forests, for prized old-growth Douglas fir, rosewood and other lumber (above). The rescued wood, which, in most cases, dates back at least 100 years, finds new life as tongue-and-groove flooring or beams notable for their tight grain and dimensional stability.