Thread: Advice on where to sell church pews?

It's unlikely that a timber recycler will pay more than scrap value for the wood in the pews.

do you know how old the pews are?
do you know the wood species?
is it possible the pews are old enough to be hand hewn?

Gumtree or ebay will probably get you the best price.
and going for the ridiculous amounts being asked for broken down work benches (to be re-purposed as rustic kitchen tables) your pews might be worth quite a lot if sold singularly or in pairs.

Thanks for that! I have had a look at eBay and they go for anything from $50 to $500. I will see how we go because the problem is we have a lot to shift, and little space to store them until they clear.

I will find out more about the species, age, etc and will have some photos eventually. Fortunately I have a couple of months to work with trying to figure out the options.

Am watching this thread with interest

Maybe worth offering them to forum members as pews first and then if not enough takers as re-purposed quality old timber

Maybe find a new church just starting up that could use them?

TT

Shame you're not in Melbourne, would've most likely bought them myself or organised a buyer or two

Have you got any pictures? Would you have any problems with them being re-purposed at a hotel - maybe they're from a Catholic church? I've seen quite a lot of church pews done in Silky Oak - nice.

Cheers,
David

Identifying species, dimensions and pictures would be a great help.

Church pews can be a bugger to sell.

Depending on age and condition etc they range from a few bucks (atrocious) to a few hundred.

The timbers I've seen used was: Australian Cedar, Eucalyptus, American and English Oak, Kauri and Baltic Pine.

The more ornately styled ones seem to attract higher bids at auction and most recently I saw 7 Aust Cedar ones with relatively simple Gothic ends go for $350.

Thanks to you all for all the ideas and comments. Offering them on Woodwork Forums is definitely one of my options as I know everyone here will value the wood for what it is, and repurpose it well.

I will keep this thread up to date, but won't be able to update until after the weekend as that is when I will get more photos. I am also asking the church historian if he can find any details as everybody always loves the story behind the piece.

I just got sent some pictures, and hope to take more myself on the weekend. Sorry, I wasn't sent full size ones, but if you click on the preview I think it gets larger.

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Could be qld maple. Are these the ones in the eastern suburbs I looked at several years ago?
We had a lot at the Boutique Timbers auction at Rollands Plains, quality wasn't as good as your appear to be, perhaps they were more antique but they sold well for around $100-150 each and there was good demand.
You have a lot of various sizes, so I'd suggest you should auction or sell a few here, but you should also offer type separately on ebay or gumtree, I think you will be pleased with the result
Greg

... and of course, pews can be reduced in size to create lovely verandah benches, with the remaining timber used to make a nice side table or footstool.

Originally Posted by Greg Ward

Could be qld maple. Are these the ones in the eastern suburbs I looked at several years ago?
We had a lot at the Boutique Timbers auction at Rollands Plains, quality wasn't as good as your appear to be, perhaps they were more antique but they sold well for around $100-150 each and there was good demand.
You have a lot of various sizes, so I'd suggest you should auction or sell a few here, but you should also offer type separately on ebay or gumtree, I think you will be pleased with the result
Greg

These aren't the ones in the eastern suburbs - they have been sitting here in the north for at least 50 years.

Yes, it is looking quite promising if we have enough space to store the pews during sale. I think the usual thing of buying 1 or 2 would be at "full price" (eg $100ea), but buy 3 for a significant discount (eg $240) would move them faster as well.

As for shortening them - that's exactly what I hope to do if I can score one or two for myself. Have a nice little half length one as a feature piece. Would be super easy to do with the track saw and domino.

I'll get some closer up pictures and measurements this weekend.

Here are some more pictures with measurements. Does any want to venture a guess at the timber variety?

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Internal Panel - Oops! Width is incorrectly marked! Thanks for the person who pointed it out.
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