Today we’re excited to have Brent and Devin from Texas Urban Sawmill and Refined Elements on the show.
The furniture division, Refined Elements was started in 2012 and the focus was live edge furniture, specifically live edge dining tables. About three years ago the sawmill side, Texas Urban Sawmill, came into existence and they have been in operation fully now for about two years.
Part of the inspiration for creating Texas Urban Sawmill was to provide materials to the furniture business, but also to be able to reclaim urban wood and ensure a higher-quality product as Brent and Devin are now able to see the process through from tree to table.
The Beginnings of The Business
Neither Brent or Devin had a professional background in woodworking when they started out, in fact with their combined backgrounds in biotechnology, entrepreneurship, pharmaceutical sales and the military, the leap to sawmill owners and furniture makers was an incredible journey.
Fortunately for Devin he had spent a lot of time around woodworkers with his father and grandfather and he had grown up appreciating his family forest in Michigan that inspired him.
After spending a lot of time building furniture for himself, he decided to start Refined Elements and began building for others. This is when it clicked to him that he was loving what he was doing and the next step was to vertically integrate a sawmill so that he could control the quality of each aspect of the chain.
It took a lot of personal capital and there has yet to be a salary taken for Devin but his goal is to grow the business and make it sustainable. As a man who understands entrepreneurship he knows that growing a small business means some personal sacrifice, especially in this industry.
Challenges of Running Two Businesses
A big challenge with running the two businesses and only two full time employees has been time and manpower. Specifically bringing on the right people who understand the vision and have a passion for the work being done and not someone just looking for a 9-5 job.
So much goes into the business, from identifying the type of tree and what product it’s going to be good for to know how it needs to be cut, through the actual furniture making itself. Every single day is different and overall it’s an industry with a very steep learning curve.
Brent believes that the biggest reward is being able to see the reactions to the incredible finished pieces they make and then on the sawmill side it’s equally rewarding to be the first person to see what is inside the log. The crew has an intention to publish videos on every new species of tree they work with to share that magic with others as well.
For the team, a constant motivation is creating high-quality products for people, helping the environment through carbon sequestering and the relationships that they have built with their incredible customers.
The Sawmill Side
Currently the sawmill does custom cutting, lumber sales and also of course mills wood for the furniture business. Texas Urban Sawmill runs a Woodmizer, WM1000 that can process up to 6 feet in diameter logs and functions essentially as a slabbing monster. They also run a Baker Blue Streak that focuses on dimensional lumber and smaller pieces. The baker was chosen because of it’s incredible speed, high-quality cuts and production capabilities which has been working well for the sawmill.
Between Facebook, Instagram and the website that is where the majority of the traffic comes from, but word of mouth has been huge for this team. The focus that they have on customer satisfaction and doing right by their customers has made them stand out from the rest. Another key aspect has been establishing local relationships and networking.
What is Next For Texas Urban Sawmill and Refined Elements?
The current goal is to see the business grow by 50% every year for the next five years, which is on track so far. Covid hasn’t had a negative impact to the growth of the business which is fortunate for this team, and they are now hoping to grow the sawmill even more because of the love for milling that has taken hold.
Texas Urban Sawmill also specializes in adaptive tree reuse projects which has been a focus since 2019. The goal is to work with large commercial projects that need to remove trees for building, specifically historical or heritage trees. The team then does the removal and turns these urban trees into wood products that can be shared and enjoyed by the public.
The furniture side is a labor of love, and it’s not something that is going to go anywhere but the eventual hope is that all of the furniture coming out of Refined Elements will be from these adaptive tree reuse projects. It’s also worth note these large projects are typically 3-5 years in production.
We can’t wait to see where this innovative team is in a couple of years and strongly recommend you check out their website and social media channels to see some beautiful urban lumber projects.
Website:
Txurbansawmill.com
Refinedelements.com
@TXurbansawmill
@RefinedElements