Frequently Asked Questions

What kind of wood are the lanes made out of?

There are 2 primary species of wood in each lane. The first 32ft are hard rock maple, a hardwood to take the impact of the heavy bowling balls. The lane then switches to southern yellow pine for 44ft, before switching back to the maple at the end where the pins get knocked around. The two outside planks of the entire lane are always maple. The aiming dots are either fibre resin or walnut. The 7 arrows are inlaid walnut. The pin spots are a black fibre resin. 

How much do lanes weigh, how thick are they, how long are they?

Bowling lanes are few inches shy of 80ft long. They are usually built on-site, using individual boards that start out at 2-3/4" thick by 1-5/64" wide. It takes 39 boards to get the lane to regulation width of 42". Over the decades, the lanes are sanded such that the thickness usually ends up around 2-1/4" before we reclaim them. The maple sections weigh about 9 lbs per sqft, and the pine sections weigh about 8 lbs per sqft. The exception is the approach section of the lane, where you stand to throw the ball. It isn't getting dented as up as much as the rest of the lane. It's sanded quite a bit less, so they're around 2-5/8" thick. That area weighs about 10 lbs per sqft.

Where do you salvage your lanes?

We are located in the rustbelt, where about 25% of all US bowling alleys are. We have extracted old wood lanes from nearly two dozen facilities across the Midwest since our inception in 2015. Our founder was involved in many other lane salvage efforts before going solo with ReclaimedBowlingLanes.com.

Aren't there a bunch of nails in bowling lanes?

Each lane has about 8,000 nails holding the planks together. Yes, you read that right. Eight. Thousand. It can be intimidating, but as long as you budget for a couple saw blades in your project, it is manageable. We like Irwin Marathon blades during lane removal, but for precise cuts the Freud Demo Demon blades work exceptionally well.

How do you ship these huge slabs of wood?

After palletizing the slabs, we work with less-than-truckload carriers to move the wood across the country. Carriers like Old Dominion, Yellow, FedEx Freight, and others have helped us deliver reclaimed bowling alley sections to over 40 states and Canada. The super long stuff is loaded with a forklift on one end and a pallet jack on the other.

Can I get a long slab delivered to my home?

Residential deliveries are limited to 12ft long slabs, and you will need a crew of folks to get it off of the semi-trailer. The hydraulic liftgate that most residential trucks are equipped with only helps for slabs around 7ft or shorter. We recommend picking up your slab at the local freight terminal, of which there are thousands across the US. Typically within a 20-30 minute drive, and a UHaul is often much cheaper than the added residential delivery cost. Deliveries to a business or the freight terminal for customer pickup is always free.

How many bowling alleys are left?

Around 100 bowling alleys go out of business every year, leaving only 3,000 or so operating alleys in the United States. The average bowling alley has about 20 lanes, meaning almost 2,000 lanes are destined for landfill each year. That's over 5 million pounds! 

Do bowling alleys install new wood lanes?

In most cases, the original wood lanes are left in place to serve as a foundation for synthetic panels. It's easier to build on top of the lanes than to rip them out and build a new foundation. Wood lanes are quite rare these days, as most bowling alleys have switched to synthetic or start out as synthetic.