WILLOW CREEK — Willow Creek Custom Flooring, LLC has secured a $340,000 contract to produce custom-milled maple flooring for the restoration of a National Register-listed Victorian home in Bangor, General Manager Stu Peller announced this week.
The contract, one of the largest in the mill’s recent history, will require approximately 8,000 board feet of graded maple, milled to specifications matching the original 1880s flooring in the Bangor residence. Peller said the project will occupy roughly six weeks of production time and will require the mill’s full 40-person crew.
“This is the kind of work we’re built for,” Peller said, standing in the mill’s front office where the original 1903 steam-powered planer sits as a centerpiece. “Any flooring mill can make a standard plank. But matching a nineteenth-century profile, with the right face character and the right cut — that takes craftsmen who know their wood.”
The contract represents a significant boost for the mill, which has seen steady but unspectacular demand since reopening in 1990. Peller credited the company’s investment in a new computer-guided molder last year — financed partly through a small business loan — for making the precision work possible.
“It’s a good sign,” Peller said, allowing himself a rare note of optimism. “When people are spending money on restoring old buildings instead of tearing them down, that’s a trend I can get behind.”