Our History

In 1986 Mike Kinney became aware of the tremendous waste that resulted from traditional wood demolition. Beautiful timbers were being destroyed with absolutely no concept of recycling or salvaging. These experiences caused Mike to wrestle with present-day recycling concerns and the environmental ramifications. In the end, the seed was planted to begin exploring new recycling and demolition methods.

Later in 1995, Mike started Kinney Contracting and it became a continuation of what began in 1986. His environmentally sensitive awareness increased as a wasteful demolition industry continued with little apparent change from eleven years earlier. Now, Mike is aware of wood together with other re- useable building materials. The potential salvage/recycling need is magnified with the reality of a wasteful, fast paced society. Mike began to ask himself "How on this earth can one man make a long term difference?"

Five years later, in April 2001, Mike got a call from a wrecker in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. An old orphanage was slated for demolition and he wanted to know if Mike would be interested in looking at the project. After the initial salvage survey and wood analysis, Mike realized an even greater need for recycling. This orphanage consisted of hundreds of panels of high grade thermal tinted windows and thousands of board feet of Southern Yellow Pine antique grade timber. Little did Mike know at the time the significance of the pre-demolition survey of that orphanage, combined with the project's success, that Orphanwood would become such an important continuation of a much needed global and environmental strategy for today.