David: Customers and staff conducted their business silently at Bingham Lumber, nonchalantly trying to appear as if they weren't staring at the camera crews set up in the showroom.

Eventually, they lost the battle and watched with open interest last week as Norm Abram, master carpenter of "This Old House," and company president Tom Bingham chatted for the cameras

On Wednesday, May 14, the "This Old House" crew came to film a segment for a fall episode. The project is a prefabricated home in Weston, Mass., built to look like a barn by Bensonwood, a Walpole company. The barn-like interior walls will be a custom job by Bingham.

"We're so impressed," said the show's producer, Deborah Hood. "It's just the kind of story about craftsmanship and artistry that we love to show."

Bingham specializes in reclaimed wood, salvaging wood from old barns and then kiln dry ing, recutting and using it in flooring, wainscoting and molding in homes. That, and the local aspect, said Hood, was especially attractive to "This Old House," which tries to create green buildings.

"We've tried to really source things locally when we can," said Hood.

Meanwhile, Bingham gave Abram a tour of the company, taking him through the steps that created the antique-looking walls that will finally be in the home – from cutting the lumber to the final, seven-step painting process that creates the illusion of a barn that's stood on the property for a century.While "This Old House" has always tried to use green building methods, Abram said, people are becoming more interested in building green homes/Techniques like using reclaimed lumber save natural resources and leave a smaller carbon footprint.

"It's the talk of the town these days," he said. "Everybody's into it."

Abram said he, too, was impressed by Bingham's reclamation techniques. While reclaiming wood for flooring isn't new, he said, converting reclaimed wood into molding and wall panels is, and it reduces waste.

"The percentage of reuse is actually increasing with the processes that they're using," Abram said. "Seeing it in person was well worth the trip."

Before filming, Abram said he and the production crew took a tour of Bingham Lumber, asking questions and getting a feel for what the company does.

Rather than working from a formal script, Abram said, he picks out the high points that he believes will interest viewers the most. Then, once the scenes are planned, there's a brief, five-minute rehearsal before the cameras roll. The show is a half-hour long, and Abram said he works to "tell a story" of the building of the house in several segments.

"We could have easily made a half-hour show just there," said Abram, who heard about Bingham from a New Hampshire woodworker. Abram said he could envision using Bingham products in his own home: "I could see myself coming up here."

Dave Bingham, Tom's father and the former head of the Bingham Lumber, said the company started as a sawmill in 1946s, eventually moving into finished products as sawing became more specialized. Now, he said, the company reclaims wood from all over to use in its finished products.

"We've had lumber in here from Russia," Dave Bingham said.

Tom's mother, Joyce Bingham, is still in charge of the staining shop, where the wood is made to look old. Layers of stain are applied by hand, then sanded to create a worn look, before the final antiquing layer is applied. As three men worked assembly-line style, passing boards to each other for the next coat of stain, Joyce Bingham said she was excited by the television visit.

"Working with everybody's been wonderful," she said.

Tom Bingham agreed. "I grew up watching 'This Old House,' being in the industry we're in."

He said meeting Abram was an experience he hoped to have, but one that made him look at his trade through new eyes. The process of reclaiming wood, he realized as he set up for the television visit, "is a neat thing to step back and look at."

He said he also had a new appreciation of television shows.

"There's a lot of work that goes into that."

Source: Donna Roberson - The Telegraph