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There’s a lumbermill right in the middle of Cleveland.
Dean Heidelberg, who grew up in Lakewood, has created a company called
Metro Hardwoods where he takes logs from trees that have been taken down
in the greater Cleveland area and mills them into lumber that can be used
for everything from shipping pallets to fine furniture and lots in between.
Lumbermill in the cityIn a time when we are pressing for the expansion of certified forests around this country to protect old growth timber, there is a growing amount of lumber right before our eyes which often ends up as mulch, but which could be milled into useful building materials.
The biggest challenge he faces in cutting up the logs from local sources are the number of nails and other metal objects that have been imbedded in the trees over the years. A perfectly good saw blade can be destroyed in an instant so Dean uses a metal detector to check over a log before putting it up on his massive saw table. Most of the wood he gets is oak (60-70%), but he gets some maples and walnut. Cottonwood trees provide pallet material, though he wants to keep focused on the better woods in the future. Once the wood is cut, he puts it into a vacuum press dryer which dries the wood much faster than just stacking it and letting it dry.
Metro Hardwood is located at 5901 Train Ave. on the nearwest side. The next time you have to remove a tree or the city is about to take a tree down in front of your house, ask where the tree goes and what is done with it. If it is just going to be chipped up for mulch, ask if it can be taken to Metro Hardwoods. You can help extend the life of that tree for another generation through the materials it produces.
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Dean
gets most of his logs from cities in Cuyahoga County and from tree companies
who take down trees. He likes to get them in lengths of at least 5 feet
or more, so the wood is more useful. 
Most
of the wood is shaped into 1 x stock, but he does do some 4 x 4 and larger
stock. He creates no framing lumber. His next major experiment will be
creating hardwood flooring. The better grade woods are used for cabinetry,
but this leaves a lot of wood with some tight knots in it that could be
used for tongue and groove flooring. He has the equipment to do this and
will soon be setting up production.