Our Story

GreenBoard Reclaimed was born in 2009 out of a simple observation: thousands of tons of perfectly usable lumber were being sent to landfills every year across Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. Our founders — Terrence Wakefield, a third-generation carpenter, and Dana Moreno, an environmental engineer — saw not waste, but opportunity. Opportunity to preserve old-growth timber, reduce construction's environmental footprint, and provide builders with materials that carry decades of character and strength.

The Early Days (2009–2011)

What started as a two-person operation in a 3,000 square-foot warehouse in Commerce, California quickly grew as word spread about the quality of our reclaimed stock. Terrence and Dana spent those first months driving their single flatbed truck to demolition sites across Los Angeles County, hand-selecting boards from buildings scheduled for the wrecking ball. They partnered with demolition crews, renovation contractors, and municipal waste programs to source lumber that would otherwise be chipped, burned, or buried. Every board was hand-inspected, de-nailed, and graded before being offered to customers.

Revenue in year one was modest — around $87,000 — but the feedback was electric. Contractors loved the density of old-growth Douglas Fir that their modern suppliers could not match. Interior designers fell in love with the weathered patina of century-old barn boards. Furniture makers discovered wood with grain patterns that no lumberyard in the country stocked new.

Our first major project came in spring 2010 when a Venice Beach restaurant commissioned us to provide 2,000 board feet of reclaimed Douglas Fir for their interior paneling. The result was stunning — rich, warm wood with a century of story in every grain line. That project put us on the map. Within six months, we had a waiting list.

Building the Network (2012–2014)

By 2012, we had outgrown our first warehouse twice. We moved to our current 18,000 square-foot facility on Atlantic Boulevard in Commerce, CA, with a dedicated yard, covered storage, and room for processing equipment. We hired our first full-time crew — Alejandro Reyes as lead de-nailer and Marcus Hendricks as our first certified lumber grader.

We built a network of over 50 demolition partners across five states. Every week, our acquisition team evaluates 10 to 15 demolition sites, cherry-picking the best lumber before it enters the waste stream. We developed proprietary grading standards for reclaimed material that account for both structural performance and visual character — a system that has since been adopted by several smaller reclaimed lumber operations on the West Coast.

By 2013, demand had grown well beyond Greater LA. We invested in three flatbed trucks and built relationships with old-growth timber salvagers and barn dismantlers across California, Oregon, and Washington. Our inventory expanded from standard dimensional lumber to include massive structural beams (some weighing over 2,000 pounds), wide-plank hardwood flooring stock, and specialty timbers that hadn't been commercially harvested in decades.

Vertical Integration (2015–2018)

In 2015, we made our biggest investment: a complete milling line. With a dedicated re-saw, industrial planer, moulder, and wide-belt sander, we could now take rough reclaimed stock and mill it to exact customer specifications — tongue-and-groove, shiplap, S4S, or any custom profile. This vertical integration was a game-changer. Instead of selling rough boards and hoping the customer had access to a mill, we could deliver ready-to-install material that saved our clients time and money.

In 2016, we added kiln drying capability. Our solar-assisted kiln brings reclaimed lumber to stable moisture content without the energy waste of conventional gas-fired kilns. Proper drying is critical for reclaimed wood — it prevents warping, checking, and mold growth after installation, and opens up applications (like flooring and cabinetry) that require low moisture content.

By 2017, we crossed the 1 million board-foot milestone for total reclaimed volume. That same year, we launched our demolition and salvage division, performing our own selective deconstruction on buildings with high-value timber. Instead of relying solely on what demolition contractors brought to us, we could now control the sourcing process from start to finish, dramatically improving both the quality and quantity of our incoming stock.

The Los Angeles Connection

Los Angeles has always been at the heart of our business. The city's thriving construction scene, combined with a growing commitment to sustainable building practices, created the perfect market for reclaimed lumber. Hollywood set designers use our barn boards to create authentic period backdrops. Venice Beach boutique owners clad their walls in our weathered Cedar. DTLA loft developers install our Heart Pine flooring to add warmth to industrial conversions. Residential builders across the Westside specify our Douglas Fir beams for exposed ceiling installations that make a visual statement while carrying real structural loads.

Our location in Commerce puts us at the geographic center of the LA market. We are 15 minutes from Downtown, 30 minutes from the Westside, and connected by I-5 and I-710 to the entire Southern California region. From our facility we serve clients across the Greater Los Angeles area and beyond, ensuring fresh inventory is always available for West Coast projects. Our network of demolition partners spans the entire Pacific seaboard, giving us access to a diverse and constantly rotating stock of reclaimed materials.

Recognition & Certifications

Our commitment to quality and sustainability has earned recognition from the building industry:

Where We Are Today

As of 2025, GreenBoard Reclaimed has diverted over 2.4 million board feet of lumber from landfills. We've preserved an estimated 18,500 trees, prevented over 3,200 tons of CO2 emissions, and helped hundreds of projects earn LEED and green building certifications. Our team has grown to 22 full-time employees including experienced salvagers, certified graders, skilled mill operators, logistics specialists, and a dedicated customer service team who share our passion for giving wood a second life.

Our annual throughput now exceeds 500,000 board feet, and our inventory at any given time holds between 80,000 and 120,000 board feet of graded, ready-to-ship material across more than 15 species and all standard dimensional sizes. We process approximately 40 tons of raw salvage material per month and maintain a waste diversion rate above 95%.

But numbers only tell part of the story. What drives us every day is the knowledge that each board we reclaim carries history — the barn it sheltered, the bridge it supported, the factory floor it endured. When that board finds a new home in a kitchen countertop, an accent wall, or a custom dining table, its story continues. That continuity, that connection between past and future, is what GreenBoard Reclaimed is all about.

Meet the Team