Production Process
Coastal Lumber Company’s customers expect to receive top-quality hardwood, cypress and specialty pine lumber every time they order. And we see that they do.
We start with the best raw material available – hardwoods from the
Appalachian Mountain region cypress from the low country areas of South Carolina and Georgia.
When the logs arrive at our mills, we separate them by species, then grade and scale them. If the logs aren’t needed immediately, we store them on the log yard, or on wet decks to retard staining if conditions warrant.
Otherwise, the logs go to the debarker, which removes the outer bark, then to the headrig, where the sawyer sight-grades the logs to determine the first pass. The log is then sawed on four sides and turned to find the best face to start with. Because appearance is important, we try to maximize the grade out of each log. The sawyer constantly evaluates the log for grade as the headrig saws deeper into the log and changes the face as necessary to get the best cut.
After leaving the headrig, boards go to the board edger, which removes the wane, then to the trim saw where defects are removed and length is determined. Cants either go to the resaw, where the sawyer further grades and turns them to get the best cut, or to the gang saw, where they are reduced to boards but not graded.
Once the boards are edged and trimmed, they are graded by our NHLA-trained lumber grader and sorted by grade, species, length and width.
Lumber that is to be sold green is dipped for sapstain control. Lumber to be dried is stickered immediately to enhance quality.
Depending on the grade and species, it is either dried on the air-dry yard or finished in the dry kiln, where the temperature and air flow are controlled to reduce the moisture for proper manufacturing. Our drying process can be tailored to customers’ general specifications for moisture content.