PEORIA, Ariz. — It's been a very active monsoon season. The much-needed rain has brought with it quite a bit of damage.
Have you ever wondered what actually happens to all those uprooted trees?
If it weren't for local sawmills like Chequest Millworks in Peoria, it would all end up in the landfill.
But instead, owner Todd Langford repurposes the trunks and logs he receives from tree removal companies, turning them into all kinds of furniture.
"Dining room tables are where my heart is at, but we also do floating shelves, we do coffee tables, sofa tables, commercial bar tops, bars for homes, vanity tops, mantles, we've done hundreds of mantles," Langford said. "Oh, and don't forget about charcuterie boards!"
Langford said this is the busiest monsoon season he's had yet.
"Hands down the busiest we’ve been in the entire time we’ve been here, we’ve been here at this spot for 3 years today," he added.
Langford said he's never had this many logs on site.
"There are 511 logs on the property right now, compared to last year's approximate 300," he explained. "And we had to work to find those ones. This year, tree service companies are really overwhelmed especially in the Mesa, Chandler area that’s where we were hit hardest."
It’s a win-win business deal. Companies drop the trees off to Langford so they don’t have to dump them in a landfill, at a cost.
"We don’t charge them anything to drop the logs off here," he stated
Langford said every piece is one-of-a-kind, and the Valley's diverse greenery makes for beautiful furniture.
"There are actually more types of hardwood trees and species that grow in the Phoenix-Valley than the rest of the United States combined," he proclaimed.
Even though he has plenty of material to work with, keep in mind, there's a lot of demand for his business!
"There's a solid two years worth of material available here so 500-600 projects that would come out of these logs," Langford said. "For small projects like coffee tables that wait is 12-20 weeks and for large projects like dining room tables we're at the 10-14 month mark."
The whole family can get involved with the dining room table build.
"We bring the families in and they interact with us, it's worth it, they can help build their heirloom on the manual sawmill," he said.
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