Reclaimed Lumber - Drawbacks

Drawbacks

With reclaimed material being so popular, it is becoming more difficult to source. With such a high demand, some sellers try to pass newer wood off as antique.

It is also common (although not necessarily done intentionally) for species to be misidentified because it is difficult to tell the difference in older material unless it is cut open and examined, leaving the material less desirable.

Reclaimed lumber sometimes has pieces of metal embedded in it, such as broken off nails, so milling the material can often ruin planer knives, saw blades, and moulder knives. Nail compatible saw blades are advisable for the same reason, plus safety. Alternatively, in the absence of nail compatible equipment, all metal must be removed from the reclaimed lumber, which is costly and tedious process commonly achieved by scanning each piece of material with a metal detector and then manually pulling nails, bolts, bullets, screws, buckshot, and other miscellaneous metal hardware.

Many sources of reclaimed wood cannot verify what the wood might have been treated with over its lifetime. This uncertainty leads to fears of harmful offgassing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with lead paint or various stains and treatments that may have been used on the wood. These fears are particularly pressing when the wood is for an interior application.