The use of wood and wood products has not only long been popular here in the United States, but all throughout the world as a whole. After all, the Pagoda of Fogong Temple, constructed back in the year of 1056 in the country of China, is made up of all wood and is multiple stories. In fact, it in the oldest such building all throughout the world as a whole. But wood is used in many other forms as well, from wood paneling to hardwood flooring to wooden exteriors of homes to even solid wood table tops and wood restaurant tables.
Why wood? For one thing, wood is highly accessible, as up to 30% of the world is currently estimated to be covered in forest land. In addition to this, with more than three trillion total board feet of lumber milled in the United States alone over the course of the last 120 years or so, buying wood is easy to do – and often quite cost effective. Wooden implements are often quite long lasting too, with the typical hardwood floor able to last and stay in good shape for a century or longer when cared for well and kept away from the elements.
But using wood is not always a good idea, especially when we consider the amount of wood waste generated here in the United States as well as all throughout the world as well. In fact, if you look at just about any construction site here in the United States (that’s using traditional building methods, of course) you’ll see that at least about one quarter of the total waste that is generated will be wood waste. And deforestation is becoming a hugely prominent problem all throughout the world as a whole, meaning that conservation efforts must be more extreme and well thought out than ever before.
Some might say that all we really need to do to combat this is to plant more trees. However, this is not really a viable solution in the long term, as hardwood trees can take as many as 60 full years before becoming mature. Even the fastest growing of all hardwood trees will still likely take at least 20 years, a full two decades, before being classified as fully grown. So while planting as many trees as is possible is certainly a matter of importance, we must take other measures as well.
The use of reclaimed wood is a great way to still use wood while helping out our planet by not consuming new wood – at least at the rate that you would otherwise be using it at. And reclaimed wood can be used for so many different things. Solid wood table tops, for instance, are a perfect use for reclaimed wood. Reclaimed wood can make an incredibly durable set of solid wood table tops, as well as solid wood table tops that are hugely appealing as well. For many people, solid wood table tops will last for many years, and these solid wood table tops can be used in the home setting as well as for wood tables for restaurants.
In addition to the use of reclaimed wood for solid wood table tops, reclaimed wood paneling has also become quite popular indeed. Reclaimed wood paneling can help to add a rustic feel to just about any given space, something that is currently quite trendy at the moment. Creating a rustic home environment with reclaimed wood is a great way to stay on trend and up to date in terms of home decor without harming the environment in really any way.
At the end of the day, conserving our resources and helping the overall health of our planet is something that should be a matter of considerable importance to most people. Fortunately, there are many ways that this can be accomplished, and using reclaimed wood is just one of them, as important as using reclaimed wood in the place of new wood products is and will continue to be for many years to come. For many people, reclaimed wood is easy to swap out, and is even more cost effective than purchasing new wood products.
