Hardwood Lumber And Custom Kiln Drying At Drytec Hardwoods LLC

Hardwood Lumber And Custom Kiln Drying At Drytec Hardwoods LLC

Drytec Hardwoods LLC, based in Sears, MI, is a wholesale hardwood lumber distributor. The company purchases 400,000 board feet annually of Red and White Oak and Aspen (No. 1 Common, Select and Better 4/4).

Established in 2018, Co-Owner Titus Yoder said the operation began strictly as a custom kiln-drying facility but has grown into a wholesale hardwood distribution operation. “Initially we were only offering custom kiln-drying,” he explained. “In 2021 we started purchasing lumber and we’ve seen consistent growth every year. We still do a lot of custom drying, but we are purchasing our own lumber and are an active hardwood wholesale distributor.”

“We are connected to a lot of mills across the state of Michigan and if we receive a special request from the customer, we can usually find it or connect them with someone who has it and dry it for them. There are a lot of options and opportunities when you keep good business relationships.”

 – Titus Yoder, co-owner,
Drytec Hardwoods LLC

The three owners of Drytec Hardwoods including Yoder, are his father-in-law, Mahlon Bontrager and his brother-in-law Allen Bontrager. Yoder said the company began without much prior experience in the lumber products industry. He explained, “We were quite green when we established Drytec. Mahlon was part of a refrigeration business, and he sold that operation, so, we had an opportunity to do something different.”

He said the first idea they pitched was to open a sawmill. “There are a lot of sawmills in the state of Michigan and initially we thought about starting a sawmill,” said Yoder. “What we realized is that the real need was for a dry-kiln facility that could operate for the existing sawmills. We decided to meet that demand and began visiting kiln manufacturers.”

Startup With Ups and Downs

Like any new operation there were a few ups and downs while they were in the middle of the startup. Yoder explained, “The first winter we were relatively slow, and it took a little time to get going. Mahlon and I still had regular jobs that we worked to keep things going for the first year and a half. But by the summer of 2019 we had enough business to hire a part-time employee and business continued to pick up. By 2020 we were up and going strong.”

While custom drying hardwoods became a steady source for the operation, Yoder said they began purchasing their own hardwood lumber and acting as a distributor during the slowdown season of their regular sawmill customers. “We needed to supplement the business during that slowdown, so we started distributing and that part of the business took off as well.”

Drytec uses Nova Dry Kilns with 60,000 board feet of combined kiln capacity. The company has a warehouse and a storage yard. “We like to move lumber in truckload quantities as it comes out of the kilns,” he explained. “Our customers are typically moulding and millwork shops or brokers that buy in large quantities. We also have a tongue and groove Aspen line that we offer on the retail side. That product isn’t milled at our facility, it’s currently outsourced and we sell it from here to distributors.”

We Have a Way With Wood

With a fair amount of export business in Red Oak, Yoder said, “At this time we don’t do color sorting on the Red Oak and currently we are exporting most of our Red Oak.” Utilizing U-C Coatings end coat and wax, Drytec offers end-coating and logo implementation. “We do all the prep work for our export customers including using their logo, so it is ready to sell.”

On the lumber side Drytec has very specific needs for color based on customer request. Yoder explained, “Especially with the Red Oak and Aspen that we buy from Northern Michigan mills for the color specification. Our customers really like the color of that specific lumber from that region.”

As for the company’s strengths, Yoder said, “We go the extra mile for our customers. On the kiln drying side, we try to give the customer the results they are looking for whether that’s in the 10 loads of Oak they bring us or a special tree that your grandpa planted, and you want to dry some slabs and build a table with it, we’re going to make it happen.”

As an example of the specialty products Drytec Hardwoods has been a part of, Yoder said, “We once had two 16 foot long, 8×8 beams that the customer needed dried for a remodeling project, and the customer was very happy with the results.” Another example is an old barn beam that was dried simply to kill any bugs that might have been in it before the customer used it in his house.

Distribution Far and Wide

He continued, “On the distribution side, we are connected to a lot of mills across the state of Michigan and if we receive a special request from the customer, we can usually find it or connect them with someone who has it and dry it for them. There are a lot of options and opportunities when you keep good business relationships.”

When asked about what is next at Drytec Hardwoods, Yoder said a lot of the work is still done by hand. “We stack by hand, we take off stickers by hand,” he said. “We recently had a neighboring fabrication shop build us a tilt-hoist with a sticker collection system. We are planning to install it, and it will speed things up. After the lumber comes out of the kilns, instead of setting a bundle down and taking the boards off by hand, this will allow the boards to move down the green chain and we’ll be able to grade more efficiently.” Yoder also said they plan to install a double-sided planer to be able to provide surfaced lumber for their customers. “That plan is still in the future, but that is our next goal and it will allow us to offer more options for our customers,” he said.

For more information contact Titus Yoder at 231-734-2343, email drytec@upwardmail.com or visit drytechardwoods.com.