BARN-HUGGING GUY

The Mountaineer, March 24, 2008
Jeff Schmerker - Staff Writer

A lot of people might look at an old falling-down barn or home and see a picturesque scene. Haywood County resident Zach Guy sees that and more he sees a resource waiting to be reused.

Guy owns Appalachian Antique Hardwoods, a business he started in Bethel as a high school student and has since grown into a flourishing enterprise.

Appalachian Antique Hardwoods takes old lumber and retools it into everything from kitchen cabinets to furniture to hardwood floors to custom doors and porch railings. Guy estimates that his business can sell as much as 90 percent of the total amount of wood used to build and furnish a home.

Guy used to run the company in addition to a full-time job he had at Giles chemical plant in Waynesville, though for the last four years, he's concentrated exclusively on the wood business.

And business is good, Guy said. Appalachian Hardwoods has emerged as one of the nation's premier suppliers of reclaimed wood.

The company is undergoing a huge expansion by opening a new 30,000-square-foot green-certified wood working facility in the Iron Duff area and will be hiring 10 more workers. That comes in addition to the company's 3,500-square-foot showroom in Biltmore Village and its 6-acre lumber yard in Crabtree.

Appalachian Antique Hardwoods secures wood from vendors all over the country, as well as Canada and the UK. The wood is brought to Haywood County where all the metal is removed and the value-added process is begun. Workers kiln-dry the wood, then plane, rip and glue it before using it in doors, beams and more.

"We currently have 130 products and can create almost 700 items", Guy said. "All along the way, the company keeps a detailed tracking system of the wood so when it is sold to the consumer they get a history on where it came from and even a framed picture of what it was in its prior life. It's good to go for another 100 years", he said. "You will know the wood for your door came out of, say, a barn in Pennsylvania built in 1895 and owned by a family there".

The products have gone out to most of the U.S. as well as spots in Europe, the South Pacific, Asia and the Caribbean.

And the prices, Guy says, are competitive. Most people find it's dead-on, or within 15 percent, he said. That is the beauty of what we are offering. We can produce an antique wood door for not a great deal more than if you had a specialty order from another supplier out of new wood.

Appalachian Antique Hardwoods does not use any newly cut wood, and that is carried through to the new manufacturing facility, where even the work benches are being made from reclaimed wood and shavings will feed the kiln and boiler. Other projects have limited emissions at the facility. At the company's lumber yard, the reclaimed wood was also used to make the fence that surrounds the facility.

Guy is using the expansion to initiate several community-assistance projects. He is making scrap wood available to local churches and aid groups to use for heating assistance. "The expansion project", Guy said, "further secures our position in the market. We can now offer our clients a one-stop shop".

Guy said clients fly to Asheville from all over the country, often on weekends, and visit the showroom and then the production facility to pick the woods they want. Many of those woods are species which are practically impossible to find elsewhere. For instance, Guy has enough of one of the rarest woods in the nation, wormy chestnut, to panel, floor and furnish entire houses. But options like that, however, aren't cheap.

The new facility, which will open by the end of this month, will mean Guy will hire 10 new employees; more hiring will follow. There are now 26 employees. "The company is dedicated to green principals", Guy said. "We don't cut trees, we don't fool with any freshly harvested wood", he said. "We don't put a chainsaw to anything that is living. Everything we do is green, and it is all certified".

To learn more about Appalachian Antique Hardwoods and their community projects, go to www.aahardwoods.com or call 828-627-0830.