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McIlvain: A Lumber Supplier with Old-Growth Strength

Last updated on October 6, 2013 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

Picking lumber
Picking lumber

The J. Gibson McIlvain lumber company lives up to its industry-wide reputation still today but owes its current status to its pre-Revolutionary-war roots. Beginning over two centuries ago, the McIlvain family has owned and operated one of America’s premier lumber suppliers since before its states were all settled, never mind united.

Just like plantation-grown wood often falls short of the stronger old-growth wood, a time-tested, family-owned enterprise like ours offers rare value for consumers. When Hugh McIlvain established a home-grown business on the outskirts of Philadelphia, he took a risk. That risk would form the seedling of what would become a strong and mighty business that would end up supporting his progeny, even 7 generations later.

Just think of it: For over 100 years of this company’s history, no motor vehicles were available to transport logs or sawn wood products to customers or job sites. Word-of-mouth referrals and face-to-face interactions were key to orders and customer relations, while horse-drawn carriages and, later, steam-powered trains provided transportation for deliveries. Historic American buildings like the White House and Smithsonian were built with McIlvain lumber, as were many bridges that helped people move West. The same qualities that made the company successful when those buildings were erected are still what gives the company continued success today: Premium wood products and attentive quality control and individualized customer service.

Premium Wood Products

The wood products carried by J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber were originally limited to domestic hardwoods and softwoods. Our warehouse near Baltimore in White Marsh, Maryland, became our headquarters, while another warehouse was built in Danielson, Connecticut, as our needs to store inventory grew. Later, the company added an extensive selection of pre-made millwork and imported exotic woods, prompting international partnerships with saw mills across the globe, from Africa to Europe and South America.

Dried lumber grading
Dried lumber grading

Attentive Quality Control

From in-person visits and long-time relationships with saw mills across the country and the world to our standard three inspections before shipping, we’re second-to-none in quality control. We ensure that our sources are legal and environmentally responsible as well as dedicated to producing high-quality wood. We fully review the harvesting and drying processes used and hire independent third-party inspectors to provide a detailed review of every shipment before it’s sent to us. We inspect the shipment, once again, when it reaches Maryland, and then after it has been sawn and stacked, but before we ship it out to customers.

Individualized Customer Service

While technology has expanded our customer base considerably, we’re still dedicated to the same old-fashioned values on which our company—and country—were first built. We provide open communication and detailed information to our customers, along with easy tracking of orders. Whether you visit us in person or contact us over the phone, we can assure you that we’ll do our very best to understand your project needs and deliver the wood products you order, meeting your custom specifications to a “T.”

Having weathered many changes in our world and in our nation, J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber is still standing strong, offering timeless quality and old-fashioned customer service.

Filed Under: Lumber Companies

Specialty Softwood Products

Last updated on October 2, 2013 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

The same quality that you’ve come to trust when it comes to hardwoods and millwork from J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber now extends to softwoods, including high-end products such as tongue-and-groove Yellow Cedar and Red Cedar bevel-edge siding. These specialty products are dried, moved, stored, and shipped with the specific needs of softwoods in mind. While you can almost certainly find construction-grade softwoods for framing needs available at your local big box retailer, you just as surely will not find the kind of carefully milled and cautiously handled quality that our premium millwork and other softwood products reflect. We at McIlvain firmly believe that we are the nation’s best choice for hardwoods, plywoods, millwork, and now softwoods, too.

Experience and Growth in Softwoods Handling

With more than 200 years of experience in the wholesale lumber business under our belts, McIlvain Lumber ventured into the softwoods market only a decade ago. We quickly learned that softwoods have very different needs from the hardwoods to which we were accustomed.

Early in our softwoods extension, we learned the hard way that we would need a different process and even a separate space reserved for softwoods in order to cater to their unique needs. We added a new softwoods dedicated facility in order to accommodate the needs for more careful handling, and now we take steps like the following to ensure that these more easily damaged lumber products make it to your jobsite in pristine condition:

• Wrapping softwoods in order to keep dirt off finished surfaces
• Keeping softwoods under cover during storage
• Carefully packaging and banding to protect lumber during loading

Those added steps help us make sure that your softwoods products will arrive on your job site, ready for installation, rather than marred from the shipping and handling process.

Quality Softwoods Products for Specialty Applications

When it comes to durability and aesthetics, you really can’t put a price on quality. Both contractors and homeowners alike know that premium materials—including lumber and wood products—are well worth the added expense. Two trending products that we proudly provide are tongue-and-groove Yellow Cedar and Red Cedar bevel-edge siding.

Alaskan Yellow Cedar excels in durability, in part because of its high resistance to damage by termites, fire, rotting, and chemicals. Long used in marine applications, this strong wood species can be used structurally for applications like bridges, while at the same time boasting workability and tight grain patterns that also make it ideal for decorative paneling and cabinetry. With 50-60 annual rings per inch, Yellow Cedar is often used for carvings and other specialty applications.

In addition to tongue-and-groove Yellow Cedar, Western Red Cedar bevel-edge siding is a highly acclaimed and increasingly popular product for home exteriors. With characteristics similar to those of Yellow Cedar, the nearly invisible joints of Red Cedar bevel-edge siding provide both a beautiful appearance and optimal weather resistance. The pieces are thicker on one side than the other and are also smooth on one face but textured on the other face, providing two distinct appearance options for customers who choose this premium softwood product.

For over 200 years, McIlvain Company has been providing some of the nation’s most discerning customers with the highest quality wood in the world. Whether you are in the market for plywood, millwork, domestic or exotic hardwoods or softwoods, or just information for your next project, McIlvain  Company is here to help. As one of the nation’s oldest and most respected lumber importers and wholesalers, McIlvain is your go-to source for all things lumber-related. For more information, to request a free quote, or to search our vast inventory, visit us online today. And for insider tips and woodworking tricks, check out these selections from our blog:

  • Using Decking Lumber as Siding
  • Paint Grade Material
  • New, More Affordable Mahogany Substitute

Filed Under: General Wood, Lumber Companies

Catering to Cabinet and Furniture Makers

Last updated on September 26, 2013 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

J. Gibson McIlvain helps craftsman produce fine workmanship by supplying premium raw materials for all kinds of cabinetry and furniture projects. From commercial office interiors and custom built-in designs to antique restoration pieces to modern furnishings, J. Gibson McIlvain has the top-quality materials you need for your next project. Two of the craftsmen we specialize in supplying are cabinet makers and furniture makers.

Unique Needs of Cabinet Makers

For cabinet makers, we supply both the domestic and exotic hardwoods needed for solid wood face frame construction and the hardwood plywood commonly used for cabinet panels and sides. We’re also equipped to meet the needs of high-end cabinetry jobs. For example, we stock carefully dried solid hardwood boards in wide widths suitable for door panels and case sides.

From our millwork ship, we run custom cope and stick door parts, door panel profiles, and moulding profiles. While we have the capability of milling, shaping, and delivering your product (and are more than happy to do so), we realize that you may prefer to receive only the raw materials in order to craft the product on your own. For those who pride themselves on in-house workmanship, we provide premium solid wood and plywood materials to fuel your project.

Instead of sourcing your exotic hardwoods like Mahogany from one supplier and domestic species like Red Oak from another, J. Gibson McIlvain allows you to do one-stop shopping, saving you and your customers time and- just as importantly- money. Even unusual requests for uncommon woods like Iroko or Zebrawood are readily available through us.

Unique Needs of Furniture Makers

McIlvain Lumber has a rich history of supplying furniture makers with the lumber they need. In fact, throughout the 1800s, our hardwoods were supplied primarily to furniture makers. While the furniture industry is no longer our main clientele, we are still well-equipped to provide the high-quality lumber required by these master craftsmen.

We understand that the manner in which lumber is sawn greatly impacts its end use in a furniture piece. For tables or desk legs, for example, rift-sawn lumber provides consistent grain that appeals to the eye. We also know that lumber movement is important, so quartersawn and flat-sawn lumber help compensate for the aesthetically pleasing rift-sawn wood. Finally, we understand that furniture makers generally prefer to build a piece from a single log or board in order to achieve consistency in grain and color. We cater to these special needs like no other lumber supplier.

For those who need assistance in selecting just the right species for a piece, the experts at J. Gibson McIlvain can help you realize the pros and cons of each prospective option. The style is limited only by your imagination, but the quality and selection is limited by your lumber dealer of choice. With J. Gibson McIlvain, you’ll be locked into the highest echelon of lumber but given a vast array of species from which to choose.

The furniture and cabinetry industries are only two of many to which we cater here at McIlvain. No matter the end use, our commitment to quality and capability to offer a variety of lumber products brings our customers back, year after year and century after century. Our commitment to supplying only the highest quality lumber at affordable prices has helped us to remain a lumber industry leader for over 200 years. For more information on what sets McIlvain Lumber apart, to request a free quote, or to see what else we have to offer (including softwoods, plywoods, and custom millwork), visit us online today. And for insider tips and woodworking tricks, check out these selections from our lumber blog:

  • Nationwide Shipping on Lumber Orders
  • African Mahogany Shortage Indicative of a Larger Issue
  • Lumber Dried With Radio Frequencies?

Filed Under: Lumber Companies, Millwork, Woodworking Tips

A Brief History of the McIlvain Lumber Company

Last updated on September 16, 2013 by Sozo Staff Leave a Comment

McIlvain lumber helped build this great nation, and the success of the J. Gibson McIlvain Company (website) seems tied to the fact that it just keeps on building. Decades before these United States were even states, the McIlvain family was taking root in its promises of a new world and the opportunities that it held for those who were tenacious enough to stick it out through those first several years. The Revolutionary War had not yet been fought, and the Declaration of Independence had not yet been drafted when the McIlvain family began exercising its rights to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

The official beginning to what would become the J. Gibson McIlvain Company came in 1798, when Hugh McIlvain started his own lumber business near the Schuylkill River, outside the growing metropolis of Philadelphia and the competition of those lumber yards located along the larger Delaware River. While some might have seen this locale as a high-risk enterprise, the fact that you can still buy McIlvain lumber over two centuries later is an encouraging reminder: Sometimes you play an angle, and it actually works! As Philadelphia gave way to growth and westward expansion, McIlvain lumber proved to be positioned just right to provide the needed materials for the needs at hand.

Easily accessible to Baltimore, Maryland, due to new bridges over the Schuykill, the McIlvains’ lumber business continued to grow. Others, however, floundered in the wake of politically prompted trade restrictions. When Thomas Jefferson disallowed exportation of wood, many of McIlvain’s former competitors went bankrupt. In the mean time, McIlvain lumber was being used to build the White House, the Supreme Court, and the many buildings that comprise the Smithsonian.

In the next century-and-a-half, prosperity and growth befriended both the fledgling nation and the McIlvain lumber enterprises. The company’s first specialization emerged, as well: hardwoods. Both industrial and domestic demands helped prompt this change that is not dissimilar to today’s business practices of J. Gibson McIlvain: to study and respond to emerging markets and anticipate increased demand.

Beginning in 1960, McIlvain lumber underwent three major developments:

  • 1960—a new warehouse near Baltimore, Maryland
  • 1970s—international partnerships with saw mills across the globe
  • 1980—a new lumber yard in Danielson, Connecticut, to accommodate increasing inventory and shipping needs

With those three pivotal expansions, the J. Gibson McIlvain Company continues to grow and respond to increasing customer demands. Still specializing in high quality exotic and domestic hardwoods, McIlvain also furnishes an impressive selection of both softwood and plywood, as well as an extensive selection of millwork.

Hugh McIlvain’s dream is still being realized, 7 generations later. The current president is J. Gibson McIlvain III, and a key member of the 7th generation is Caroline McIlvain, the company’s international purchaser.

When you purchase McIlvain lumber, you are buying more than quality lumber: You’re buying wood from the same family that helped build this great nation, from the start.

Read more on the McIlvain blog:

  • Lumber built this country
  • New dedicated softwood lumber distribution yard in Pennsylvania
  • McIlvains expands west coast shipping services

Filed Under: Lumber Companies

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