A Journey of Death and Rebirth - Salvaging Mahogany Flooring

The genesis of the mahogany flooring now adorning the floors of my home was almost certainly in either India, Bangladesh, Fiji or Indonesia. These are the predominate locations where the genuine specimens of this exotic hardwood grow. Majestically, they grow until they are chopped down in one fell swoop.

The journey begins!

After an egregious encounter with a chainsaw, my wood flooring made it's way to a truck-to a boat-to a mill-to a saw-to a ship-to a truck-to smaller truck, and at last, to a famous hotel nestled in an affluent community  in a canyon in Los Angeles.

It looked something like this...

The journey continues!

The whimsical hotel management decided stone was more apropos than wood. They would trash the mahogany floor. Sparing this aging beauty from certain death, despite strong encouragement otherwise, I decided I would attempt to salvage and reuse the wood floor. I soon learned this was no easy task.

After first cutting it free, I ripped the flooring off the ground. Piece by piece.

It was a battle. The old and curmudgeonly wood was seemingly indomitable at times, but I bested it.

Like the angry thorns of a rose bush, nails protruded from the wood pieces. I bent the nails over and the removed the wood from the hotel.

The journey continued as I hand-carted the material into another small truck, drove it a modest distance, and placed the pieces into a pile in my garage. Laboriously, I cut each of the nails off with a metal cutting wheel and stacked the pieces into piles.

 

The final leg of the journey involved a trip in another small truck from the garage of one house to another where I stacked the fugitive flooring outside in cue for installation.

Salvaged, eager to be reborn, the mahogany realized its second installation:

Replacing carpet...

Finally, the rebirth!