CUMBERLAND — The Board Barn, which sells lumber, wood pellets and shavings at a discount, has opened at 222 Gray Road.

The store, across from Skillins Greenhouse, is an affiliate of Record Building Supply in Oxford.

Michael and Hilda Record purchased the property last year and built about 7,200 square feet of storage for pine, framing lumber, hemlock boards and posts and beams. The Board Barn also offers wood pellets for heating fuel and wood shavings for horse bedding.

Mike Biskup, store manager, said the Records “were looking for a new market, and looking at different real estate. They saw that this was just a great opportunity right here.”

The North Yarmouth resident said the Board Barn is different from big-box stores because “you don’t have to walk by 26 aisles just to get what you came here for.”

The wood that the Board Barn offers is milled at Record Lumber in Oxford. Michael Record’s parents, Merle and Jean, opened a sawmill there in 1978, Biskup explained.

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“We’re rooted in Maine,” he said. “The wood is milled in Maine, and we sell it in Maine. It’s all a Maine product.”

An old farm was previously on the property where the Board Barn now stands. Biskup said the house was razed and the barn may not be salvageable, but a chicken coop there may be reused.

Biskup said the response to the store has been strong, in spite of the season and the  economic slump.

“One of the reasons I came to work here is (Michael Record)’s not looking to just start a business and make a bunch of money right off the bat,” said Biskup, who had been in the engineering field for 26 years. “It’s what helped make Record Lumber a success … they’ve been around for so long and they’ve gone through those ups and down, and it’s by just offering a good quality customer service, good quality material, and riding through the ups and downs.”

Alex Lear can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 113 or alear@theforecaster.net.

Mike Biskup is store manager of the Board Barn, which opened this month at 222 Gray Road in Cumberland.


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