The wood in Ian Funk's house came from the business he now owns. He did not know that when he bought either one.
In this episode of the Woodpreneur Podcast, host Jennifer Alger sits down with Ian Funk of American Barnwood, a reclaimed wood yard on California's central coast that he acquired at the end of last year after twenty five years in medical device marketing. His job there was translating between surgeons and engineers, and he is candid that a reclaimed barnwood lumber yard was not the obvious next step. What made it click was a coincidence. The house he had bought in Paso Robles came with barnwood beams, doors and shelving, and a sheet of paper explaining that the wood had come from barns in Indiana. When he went looking for a small business in recycling and repurposing, he found the reclaimed wood shop that had supplied it. He says it sounds like a Hallmark movie, and it does.
You will hear what actually transferred with the business and what did not. It came with twelve years of local reputation, a single reliable supplier in the Midwest, and a physical system for handling the wood that the previous owner, an engineer, had worked out and passed on. It did not come with systems or customer records, and the previous owners were straightforward that they had run it to the level they needed on the way to retirement. Ian talks about the discipline of provenance, which is the part that separates a reclaimed wood yard from a lumber pile: because the material is effectively single sourced, they can trace a board to a named barn in Indiana, and an academic historian reads construction methods to date the building and reconstruct who built it, what crops they raised, and what the structure meant to its community. That research gets condensed onto a sheet that travels with every piece of wood.
For anyone weighing a late career pivot or buying rather than building, this is an unusually honest account of being a novice on purpose in the reclaimed wood trade. Ian's answer to not knowing the trade is simply to say so and then go find out, and his read on the market is equally plain: he is not right for every project, but there is nothing between the Bay Area and Los Angeles offering what he offers, so the job is making sure local contractors, designers and architects know the resource exists. You will also hear why Craigslist still works for his customers, why shipping is the real constraint on growth, and the line that sums up his change of career better than anything else, which is that there are no barnwood emergencies.
Chapters:
00:00 From 25 Years in Medical Device to a Barnwood Yard
05:58 The House That Led Him to the Business
12:34 There Are No Barnwood Emergencies
13:57 What Came With the Business, and What Did Not
18:18 Becoming the Reclaimed Wood Resource on the Central Coast
24:04 Tracing the Provenance of Every Board
31:29 The Pergola That Became a Community Space
The Woodpreneur Podcast brings stories of woodworkers, makers, and entrepreneurs turning their passion for wood into successful businesses - from inspiration to education to actionable advice. Hosted by Steve Larosiliere and Jennifer Alger
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You can connect with Ian at:
https://americanbarnwood.co/
https://www.instagram.com/americanbarnwood.co/
