10/25/2026
This house in Durham was built, as much as possible, with waste wood.
Here’s the story.
When a Duke neuroscientist learned the unfortunate reality of tree work –that most downed trees are taken to a landfill, where they are mulched or buried– he hatched a plan. He called his neighbors and made them an offer: send me your logs and I’ll turn them into a house.
So, over five years, they sent him their logs– pine, walnut, red oak, white oak, whatever. His driveway turned into a logyard, testing his wife’s patience, until he would hire us to turn the logs into lumber. He and his kids would clean the boards and stack them in the garage. The piles reached the garage ceiling.
He then bought a lot in the neighborhood. It had a decrepit house on it, so he knocked down the house with an excavator. He then hired the neighborhood kids to de-nail whatever lumber could be reused. And then he began– building the house. Walnut for the cabinets. Red oak for the stair treads. White oak throughout. Because he was working with boules, he could play with improbable grain patterns, bookmatching everything. And then it was done. He flipped the lights on.
Proof of concept. We can use waste wood to build homes.
