Spencer Home-Rock Elm Plank Floor and More!

Rock Elm Floor, Mixed Hardwood Floor, Timber-frame Plank Floor, Beams for Mantels and Newel Posts, Stair Treads, Trusses, Wood Ceiling Cladding, Doors and Hardware!
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Our Rock Elm flooring is milled from salvaged barn sleeper beams, meaning no mortise pockets or peg holes. There are some rare occasions when the barn was being built that a mortise pocket, peg holes or nails were necessary for perhaps rungs of a ladder, hooks for tools, etc. AND on the very rare occasion, we'll be lucky enough to discover spalting during the cutting process. You'll notice these rare features are showcased and highlighted in the Spencer Home to celebrate the history, heritage and preservation of our American Midwest Barn.

Stylistically, our plank floor can be paired with fixtures and furnishings that span industrial and rustic to elegant and refined. While many of our customers, both residential and commercial, choose this style of floor for it's strength, durability and visual appeal, no two can ever be the same! And like your favorite pair of old jeans, our floor has history and becomes a personal work of art that cannot be duplicated.

Using salvaged, reclaimed architectural elements is sustainable, ecological and fundamentally the materials are better, stronger and far more durable. Most importantly, our nation’s architectural history is preserved, especially when the material is supported with provenance.

The use of architectural antiques is largely driven by committed homeowners like the Spencers, business owners, developers and architects who insist on maximizing their budget and recognizing that they can use real, historic material rather than reproductions. We work with many conscientious architects, designers (Spencer Home, Interior Niche's, Krystine) and builders (Spencer Home, Metropolitan Building Concepts) who willingly exercise creative thought process to achieve the clients vision while staying within budget.

Our knowledge and services are being called upon more than ever by those who wish and insist on taking a more active role in their build process to create a home, workplace or gathering place that preserves their own legacy.

A history of Rock Elm...
"Today, if you could find a rock elm (Ulmus thomasii) that was somehow passed up by yester-year's lumberjacks, you'd marvel at this species. Before the 1920s, you could readily find stands of trees 100' tall and 3' in diameter from southern Ontario to southern Michigan and Wisconsin. The rock elm's size, of course, made it attractive to lumbermen. Without a use, though, even the largest of trees won't spark logging activity. But the rock, or cork elm as it is often called, had many. Back when British shipbuilders scoured the Colonies' vast forests, they discovered rock elm. Its wood was nearly as tough as hickory, yet wouldn't split. And under water, rock elm outlasted any other North American hardwood. So the virgin stands began to fall, their logs sent overseas. Later, in the dawn of the auto industry, loggers again felled the rock elm to get shock-absorbing stock for wheel hubs, spokes, and frames. Wooden ice-box manufacturing also prompted rock elm's harvest. The wood stood up well to dampness, and scrubbed clean with little effort. Made into farm implements-and even furniture-it withstood abuse. In fact, lumberjacks preferred rock elm over any other wood for ax handles. And why is rock elm absent from today's commercial wood list? The species has been relegated to poorer soils, which produce smaller and more widely scattered trees. The large rock elm stands remain history." - Wood Magazine