Hemlock and cypress previously used for mushroom cultivation are repurposed at AVW.

That chopping block in your neighbor's kitchen may have been made from a salvaged hunk of wood from an old bowling alley. The floor beneath you may have been made from mushroom wood, the wood that once lay beneath the bedding in a dark, aromatic mushroom-growing facility. The tongue-and-groove paneling in your friend's living room? It could have also been made from mushroom wood. It could be cypress—or a mix of cypress, chestnut, hemlock, and other woods—that achieved its character by being partially decomposed by humus, the organic stuff in soil.

"We attempt to salvage all types of woods," says Dale Mitchell, who started Antique and Vintage Woods in 1997 with his partner in life and business, Marilyn Miklau. "Before people like us came along, all of this wood would have been thrown into a dump and become part of a landfill. Now, when we salvage the wood, it can become a beautiful floor or piece of furniture. We give a second life to materials rather than throw them away. Essentially, we're saving trees. We reduce the need to cut trees and waste them."

Wood salvaged from a Chinese temple.

This June, after eight years of providing salvaged and reclaimed building materials to contractors, architects, and homeowners, Mitchell and Miklau opened their first off-site showroom, in Pine Plains. (AVW clients include the architect James M. Crisp, the Museum of Modern Art, Robert DeNiro, and Eartha Kitt.) Inside, customers can see how the company's wood products are used for flooring, restoration, and furnituremaking. In addition to the chopping block and the mushroom-wood items, there are examples of "true antique" products made from old barn beams that have been resawn. "Reproduction old-growth" floors are made from Eastern white pine with saw marks that give it a rustic look. Yet another kind of flooring is made from salvaged roadside or yard trees.

"Often roadside and yard trees can't go to an ordinary sawmill because they may have metal in them," says Mitchell. "If a saw blade costs between ten and fifteen thousand dollars, you wouldn't want to hit anything and damage the blade. We cut the salvaged trees with a blade that costs about $60. We can easily replace it if it hits metal."

At the big sawmills, the logs are fed through a hopper, and everything is mechanized. At Antique and Vintage Woods, the workers physically load a log—the trunk of one of those Eastern pines—onto a saw with a forklift. "We may spend two hours cutting the wood, whereas it might take the mill 10 minutes. It's labor-intensive versus machine-intensive. We can take a log and preserve the center cuts, which can be three feet wide in the center. A machine, on the other hand, slabs off the top, bottom, and sides before it is cut into boards. The mills waste wood that way. We don't."

Mitchell didn't start out a woodsman. After having taught math at a private school for many years, he wanted to try a new career. Since his housing had been provided by the school, he also needed a place to live. Mitchell decided to not only build a home for himself and his family, but also develop land that he owned in Kent, Connecticut, which overlooked the Housatonic River.

"I joined with the Housatonic Valley Association and decided to do an intense development on my land," says Mitchell. "I built 30 houses on 17 acres, all of which contained passive solar applications."

When Mitchell was working on the houses, which would be called Brookwoods Homes, he decided to install wide-plank wood floors instead of carpet. After searching locally, he found just the right wood in Pennsylvania. "One half of the houses had oak trim and floors. The other half had cherry trim and floors. In 1984, when we opened the model homes built in conjunction with Northeast Utilities, we received a two-page spread in the Home section of the New York Times. As a result, we had lots of people coming to visit the model homes. Many were not interested in the homes themselves. They were interested in all that old wood."

Mitchell used the excess inventory to start New England Wholesale Hardwoods in Kent. The business moved to Pine Plains in 1985. Today his son Brad runs NEWH, while Mitchell and Miklau oversee Antique and Vintage Woods.

At the showroom, Miklau cultivates design services and direction, which includes helping customers choose colors from the Sutherland Welles line of natural stains. Altogether, 13 people work for the company, which Mitchell and Miklau hope to expand by opening showrooms throughout the Northeast.

Says Mitchell, "We opened the showroom in Pine Plains to teach people how they can use recycled and reclaimed woods in different parts of their houses. I've always been interested in preserving things and not destroying the environment. I'm not against development. I'm interested in intelligent development. You can slap something together that will fall down in a few years—or you can do something tasteful and with quality."