Wood or Water? Let’s start with Wood.
Most of our days consist of being a product manufacturing rep agency based in Northwest Montana, the Flathead Valley. Matt and I represent a large territory consisting of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and anywhere else our partners’ projects take us.
We’ve been so lucky to curate and work with some fantastic vendors that we get to then represent out into this territory. Let’s get to who those vendor partners are, shall we?
It’s either wood or water. Let’s begin with the wood products. Our complete client list is here.
Kebony — This company checks some big boxes.
Let’s count the ways.
It’s a modified NATURAL wood product that requires ZERO maintenance IF you are ok with it going from brown to grey.
2. It’s SUSTAINABLE
Stop pillaging the rainforest for Ipe; just use Kebony decking because it’s FSC certified, uses Radiata wood, which is fast-growing and sourced the right way, and is easier to work with (won’t break tools) is consistent in dimensions, quality and we have plenty of supply.
3. OPTIONS
Two options are available — Clear and Character. Clear products are readily stocked in North America, where the Character has a lead time. Both carry the warranty, both require no maintenance, but the Character is a rustic grade of wood, leaving it with more knots, raised grain, and emulating that of a Cedar vs. a tight grain little-to-no-knots that is the Clear.
Hewn — These two work and play well together! Kebony raw (unfinished) becomes a beautiful finished wood product when Hewn is all done with it. Want it pre-aged grey? Want it black and charred? Want it purple? Hewn can literally do all the things. Millwork, custom details, faux beams, interior, and exterior cladding, interior and exterior decking, and soffit. They buy excellent wood quality and can likely source anything to your heart’s desire. Their website is an actual beautiful experience with updates showcasing different products, applications, areas, and designs — please check it out here.
Modified woods; Kebony and Accoya
Classic exterior cedar, STK, and clear
Hardwoods; alder, white oak, walnut, and more
Typically Spruce for interior paneling
Box beams; cedar, spruce, oak, plywood
ALL CAPS FOR THIS LAST NOTE: HEWN CAN PROVIDE CLASS A FIRE-RATED MATERIAL FOR ITS CEDAR PRODUCTS.
Arrigoni Woods — Our newest vendor is on board with us, and we are super HAPPY about it. Arrigoni rounds out our wood convo nicely. They are a Colorado-based company that imports Europe’s BEST engineered (primarily) wood floors. They are great fine finishers, offer wide planks, small planks, long planks, oak, ash, reclaimed, old-growth, pine, and have a supply of tons of material to avoid that inevitable facepalm when it comes to supply chain woes at our ports.
Arrigoni offers these flooring collections: Admonter, Arrigoni, Praschberger, and Geyer. Here’s a summation of them all.
Admonter: This line is sustainably harvested from a village in the heart of the Austrian mountains, in a village apply called Admont. Since 1874 timber has been harvested and processed from this region. This line of products carries the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for sustainable forest cultivation. With a focus on sustainability, the manufacturing plant also uses energy waste and material to heat and provide electricity for half the village of Admont. Built on a platform of three layers of solid wood for superior performance and stability this wide product range is suitable for single-family residences, apartments to large commercial spaces.
Praschberger: This line of reclaimed wood provides exceptional natural beauty while bringing history into your home — with wood naturally becoming more beautiful and valuable with time. This process begins with the right combination of climatic conditions, the season when the trees were felled, the age of the trees, the nature and duration of storage, and the final processing of the wood. This knowledge and skill have been passed down through the generations to deliver a timeless product with character and individuality. Praschberger offers the highest quality of reclaimed wood products from Austria — sourced from alpine huts, cottages, farmhouses, and smokehouses. This wood has aged for generations and offers a unique element in any project.
Geyer: These custom wood floors are from Bavaria, the southeast section of Germany. This firm is a family-owned small company that Arrigoni has worked with for 15+ years. With a close connection to the family, Marcel — has incredible vision and attention to detail with great pride to make any project come to fruition. They deliver an actual custom product from beginning to end; they select the tree and fell it at the perfect time of year to the entire floor production. They specialize in wide plank, longboards and the only limit is often our imagination.
We also represent Kaswell Flooring Systems, a 70+-year-old company based in Boston, MA. They originated as a supplier of end grain flooring to manufacturing plants when that was a thing in the US. The end grain cut of the log is the most durable, so this held up very well in busy plants. Kaswell evolved to be more consumer-based when manufacturing became less of a US mainstay. Now they offer the same durable product in a variety (a lot) of different wood species and finishes.
There are multiple ways Kaswell builds its product for install, and there are some species do better in our Northern Rockies climate than others. For example, depending on what the product is Kaswell provides standard engineered planks, T&G, that installers are used to (variety of lengths, thicknesses) and are easy to install. But other products Kaswell produces are single solid wood blocks, which are very different from from an install perspective.
Some of their most popular series are Oak end grain: Oak Products - Kaswell and its Engineered End Grain - Kaswell because of the quality but also ease of install.
Black Locust Pavers
Stoltze Timber Systems — Last but not least! This extensive, massive conversation might be best served later over a cocktail, but mass timber is here in the US. It’s evolving, catching up, and so are we with Stoltze Timber Systems. This startup will manufacturer a variety of mass timber products, but in the meantime, they are importing from Europe’s best and bringing that advanced technology and product suite stateside.
