There was a gap in the winter rain storms pounding Northern California so we decided to take advantage of the window and buy (pick up) the reclaimed wooden beams that we found in Hayward.
The Plan
The beams were located in Hayward, which at the intersection of Interstate 580 and Interstate 880, and we needed to move the beams to Dave Merchant’s milling operation, which is in Bonny Doon in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Dave owns Out of the Woods, and is supplying our Madrone flooring (we toured Dave’s Out of the Woods operation in May 2009). Since Dave wasn’t available, he suggested that I contact Rich Carpenter, who had a truck and trailer that could handle the 25 ft long beams.
Rich agreed to meet with Bryan in Los Gatos just after 9:00 am and then they would drive up to Hayward in his truck, towing the trailer. The expected arrival time in Hayward would be around 10:30 am or so and Kenny, who is selling the beams, would have the beams ready to load.
After loading the beams, we would then take them back to the Santa Cruz Mountains for milling.
Selecting the Beams
Leaving at 9:30 am was perfect - no traffic at all and we navigated perfectly to our destination (not one wrong turn!). When we arrived at the site in Hayward, Kenny, who was selling the beams, graciously allowed us to go through all 25+ beams that he had and select which beams we wanted. However, this was not an easy task as the 20+ ft long beams were on his driveway and we needed to inspect each beam from within the stack. Fortunately, Kenny had an extremely talented forklift operator, Miquel, who could navigate the forklift safely and quickly, so we could go through the beams and load the beams that we bought.
We were able to go through the beams in two hours and selected 10 beams to buy. The beams have some steel rods in them that must be removed, as well as some nails, and there are a couple notches in the beams. We require 6×10 beams, which are 5-1/2 inches by 9-1/4 inches and the beams that we selected were 6×12 and 6×14 beams, we we have some room to play with. Also, only certain faces of the beams will be exposed.
Unloading the Beams
The return trip to Los Gatos was perfect - no traffic! We cruised along safely at a good pace. Rich dropped Bryan off in Los Gatos so he could follow Rich to Bonny Doon. A quick lunch in Los Gatos and we were on our way.
Dave unloaded the beams quickly and Rich was gone.
Grinding the Concrete on the Ground Floor
Back to the job site and, to our surprise (and delight!), Dave and Hunter from Pacific Decorative Concrete were there working on the main floor concrete.
A big day … way, way cool.

Kenny and the driveway that Rich will back into.

Rich 'threads the needle' and backs the 25 ft long gooseneck trailer in perfectly!

Our process was for Miquel to lift the selected beams and then Rich backs up the truck/trailer to load them.

We have our 10 beams and Rich is securing the load for our trip to Bonny Doon.

These are the remaining beams that we didn't take. Kenny will have no problem selling these beams - they are beautiful timbers!

Bryan standing in front of a huge log that Dave will be milling soon.

Dave's current milling order - this is one-inch redwood in long lengths.

Dave unloading the beams from Rich

We were all anxious to see the tight growth rings on the old-growth beams so Dave cut off a small piece.

The growth rings are very tight. Later, we counted more than 105 growth rings in the segment of the tree. It is rewarding to be able to use this reclaimed wood in our house so it can continue in a new life.

Back at the house, Dave Edwards' team continued to make good progress with the framing of the soffits in Nik's room.