• Welcome to Banks

    We invite you to spend a few minutes taking a virtual tour of our White Pigeon, Michigan facility. Use the arrows above or swipe to the left on your tablet or smart phone.

  • Inbounding Green Lumber

    Upon arrival, the green lumber goes through a check in process. Units are block tallied and spot checked to ensure that the lumber meets the specifications of the purchase order. The lumber is then staged for the grading on the green chain.

  • The Green Chain

    Each board that goes through the Green Chain is graded by one of our NHLA certified lumber graders and then proceeds to the double end trimmer. All of our green lumber is double end trimmed green to 2" over length.

  • The Green Chain

    For example, a 8’ board is cut to 8’2". This process allows us to be more efficient with our yard space by creating units with uniform lengths. Customers also benefit from the extra 2" to work with on each board.

  • Anchorsealing

    The units are taken from the Green Chain and the ends are sealed with anchorseal. This process coats the end with a wax like coating to protect the boards from end splits.

  • Sticking Green Lumber

    All the green lumber is put on sticks for air drying. We use grooved, non-tannic acid sticks on our Hard Maple, Hickory, and Ash to protect against stain and shadow.

  • Sticking Green Lumber

    When laying sticks, we have guides to ensure that the sticks are consistently spaced to keep the lumber as flat as possible.

  • Air Drying

    We protect our air-drying inventory with the very best in yard practices. The use of the T sheds allows us to keep the lumber safe from the elements until the units are loaded into a kiln. We carry on average of 1.8 million board feet of air-drying inventory.

  • Kilns

    We have 28 Irvington Moore kilns with lignomat controls at our White Pigeon facility, with 1.6 million feet of dry kiln capacity.

  • Kilns

    We have strict guidelines in place for how to load and unload a kiln to ensure proper air circulation and aid in the safest kiln drying process. All of our lumber is equalized, conditioned, and dried to a moisture content of 6-8%.

  • Dried Lumber on Sticks

    After the lumber is unloaded from the kiln, it goes into one of our warehouse locations. We have facilities that can hold more than 2.5 million board feet of indoor storage.

  • Surfacing

    Lumber is taken off sticks at the Newmar 382 planer. An automated process drops the sticks out from a tilt hoist where they are collected and reused. All lumber is passed through one of two Newman 382 helical head planers with carbide blades, even if we do not intend to surface the lumber.

  • Grading

    We have always graded our lumber after surfacing so we could better see the defects, color variations and characteristics. At every grading station, at Mottville and Menomonie, we have implemented lighting control.

  • Grading

    We have the same parabolic lights, the same distance from the grading chains, in every location to ensure that our color sorted products will be sorted the same. We invite customers to visit our facilities and work with our inspectors to build their own special grades.

  • Value Added Services

    We have a Newman 282 knife planer that we use for cabinet finish planning and offer SLR for the customer who desires only one straight edge. Our Quantum system, shown here, offers the latest optimizing capabilities.

  • Moulding

    Our high-speed Weining moulders allow us to offer high-quality custom mouldings.

  • Unit Prep

    Each unit has one square end and is banded using steel banding with corner protectors. Each unit is carefully painted with black end paint and green/black two color logo on the side.

  • Shipping

    Whether we’re shipping across town or across the ocean, all our lumber is properly packaged for the journey and to the customer’s exact specifications. Our experienced traffic team is here to take care of your shipping needs via flatbeds, containers, and railcars.