From Tree-To-Table with Helmwood Urban Lumber
Helmwood Urban Lumber
Running a wood company is a challenging endeavor and one that requires owners to wear many different hats to accomplish everything they need to do to grow and sustain their business. However, business owners can only master these different elements when they understand themselves, their company, and their regional needs.
This self-awareness is especially apparent with Helmwood Urban Lumber, based out of Houston, Texas. Helmwood Urban Lumber lives up to its name by sourcing lumber exclusively from the Greater Houston area, and they state explicitly on their website that they only use logs that would otherwise go into the waste stream or be tossed onto a burn pile.
Adding to the Hat Collection
When a tree comes down in an urban environment, there are many steps before the resulting log can be turned into furniture or other items for sale. Helmwood has now grown to the point where they are capable of handling every single one of those steps to get a tree all the way to its final finished form.
This capability comes down to smart investments. By investing in important items like their own Woodmizer sawmill, transportation for logs, and an iDRY vacuum kiln, Helmwood has given themselves the ability to provide many services for the Houston area including:
Sawmilling
Kiln-drying
Surfacing
Log Recovery
Custom Furniture
With all these services available, Helmwood Urban Lumber is fully capable of handling every step of the supply chain to literally go from tree to table. However, it is worth noting that they provide these services individually as well to provide the best possible service to their customers.
The iDRY Impact
The least understood and yet the most important part of producing furniture-quality furniture. If lumber is not properly dried, it can be prone to warping, forming gaps, and can in certain cases pull itself entirely apart.
This is where the importance of an iDRY vacuum kiln comes in. Many amateur wood enthusiasts dry their lumber with suboptimal options like air-drying or solar kilns. These alternate drying methods are slow and significantly less effective in more humid environments like Houston. While air-drying lumber can take months even in an ideal climate, an iDRY kiln can dry hardwoods at a rate of approximately one week for every inch of thickness.
Additionally, wood naturally contains many bugs, larva, fungus, and other parasites that prevent the lumber from being usable for furniture. The only way to kill off these pests is by creating a sustained temperature above 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which the iDRY kiln more than accomplishes thanks to its easy temperature controls and vacuum environment that completely purifies the wood without the use of any chemicals.
Putting Helmwood on the Map
For those who maybe don’t have a tree coming down on their property, but would still like an incredible piece of live-edge furniture for their home, Helmwood has their region covered. The company has an enormous slab inventory that can be easily browsed through their website, and every single slab in their possession is native to the Houston area.
This homegrown sensibility is part of what makes Helmwood Urban Lumber so special. They are more than just a company located in Texas. One look at Instagram shows that Helmwood values family, friends, and their home enormously. This sense of community is so vital in the wood industry, and it shows through every part of their online presence.
Check out Helmwood Urban Lumber through the links below!
Instagram: @helmwoodurbanlumber
Website: https://www.helmwood.com/