Fabulous Floors Fall 2015

green solutions |
BY ALISSA WOODS
Albany Woodworks — A Well-Built Base
W
hen Richard Woods watched a barn being torn down
4+ decades ago, he had no idea that someday it would
inspire him to open two unique businesses. He constructed his entire home with antique heart pine and cypress that
he carefully salvaged from 100-year-old buildings like the barn,
along with as much recyclable material as possible. Woods found
that reclaimed wood was far better than anything people could
buy new. From this realization, Woods desired to find a better
way to use waste in a positive way for a business. His first company, Albany Woodworks, got its start in the home he built for his
family. Today, the family business reclaims original well-seasoned
beams using state-of-the-art machinery, to supply reclaimed and
salvaged for use in new construction or remodeling projects.
Each customer’s order is first selected from Albany Woodworks’ beam stockyard to maximize the usage of these ancient
timbers. Dating back to over 1,000 years ago, Antique Cypress
and Heart Pine cannot be duplicated in quality, durability, and
affordability.
Albany Woodworks carries on a long-standing tradition of
delivering quality craftsmanship in Southern Louisiana. We are
able to offer the very best selection of reclaimed 100% heartwood Antique Heart Pine and Cypress for homes. With 37 years
in the business, Albany Woodworks is the preferred choice for
Antique Building Materials. ■
Above: Chateau Collection; below: Orleans Floors with Exposed Beams
Above: Chateau Collection; below: Orleans Collection
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FABULOUSfloors
Waste to Energy Systems
Below: Silvan Collection Natural; at bottom: Castlewalk Collection
While growing his lumber company, Richard Woods had to
find ways to manage the waste his operations produced. He
needed a sustainable use for byproducts like wood chips, sawdust and shavings.
Following five years of intense research and development,
Woods invented the bioHearth®, which functions through gasification, a method of converting any kind of carbon-based
waste into a gas similar to natural gas.
Woods quickly learned that the market for bioHearth was
anything but limited, and that it could fit into almost every
industry. Now with the capacity to the Albany Woodworks facility from the plant’s waste with the goal of integration onto the
grid, Woods was ready to take his bioHearth® technology to
market as his second startup, Waste to Energy Systems.
Gasification makes this system more practical and energy
efficient, because bioHearth® can be installed on the customer’s site. This is a big advantage for companies that currently
have to haul their waste to a gigantic plant. Woods’ has developed a system that fits right into their systems; that’s this company’s unique concept. He is now pursuing patents for this new
technology. Five months ago, he put up an Internet webpage
to start marketing bioHearth, and has since been inundated
with contacts from people who want to know how it can help
in their industries.
It seems clear that the new bioHearth® product being
offered by Waste Energy Systems has very significant potential in
a huge number of industries. This is a very eco-friendly product
with important value to both the companies that will use it and
our sensitive environment as well. This seems an accurate prediction based upon the initial results when Woods first exposed
bioHearth on the Internet. ■
FALL 2015
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