My Biz: Knot Just Lumber offers more than boards

HIAWATHA — Nic Carter has worked with wood since he was a kid.

He and his sister founded and operated businesses together, including C&C Homes. He ran Hardwood Expressions for a few years.

The next logical step was to open Knot Just Lumber, a boutique lumber store in Hiawatha for professional and hobbyist woodworkers, a year and a half ago.

“I saw a need for something in the community for a smaller lumber store, where someone doesn’t need a ton of material for a smaller project, for DIY’ers, with fine materials,” Carter said.

Also, Carter’s cousin, who has a sawmill in southern Iowa, was looking for a retail outlet.

The store at 1730 Robins Rd. fit the bill. It sells slabs of domestic and exotic hardwoods and flooring, epoxy and finishes.

Carter says a lot of people come into the store and say, “ ‘I love the way it smells in here.’ We’re so used to it we don’t notice it any more.”

Shop in the back

The store also has a shop in back where Carter and his son, Aaron, 23, fashion table tops or other items for customers. They also offer classes there for people who want to work with wood.

The shop has equipment that allows them to “flatten” big slabs, to sand, plane and rip wood and to dry it in two big industrial kilns, ordered from Vermont.

If a customer needs a log picked up, the Carters can do that. They can dry logs in the shop and cut them into slabs and fashion them into furniture, if that’s what the customer wants.

And, yes, he’s helped customers create mementos out of wood saved from trees destroyed in the 2020 derecho.

The store also sells eco-friendly wood briquettes — compressed wood chips and sawdust — for heating. The briquettes have no chemicals, “just wood.”

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In the family

“I’ve been a woodworker since I saw a kid,” said Carter, 40. “I started out building houses, doing all the trim work, flooring, building cabinets. Then I sold furniture at craft and art shows for a few years.”

Carter grew up in Alburnett where his mother, Anne Carter, created and sold home furnishing items, including birdhouses made by her son, at craft shows.

Carter learned woodworking and carpentry skills from his father, Harold “Harv” Carter, who worked as a draftsman at Rockwell Collins.

What’s next?

Carter’s sister and co-owner, Caris Cummings, 44, runs the business side of the store and helps out in other ways while holding down her “day” job at HACAP.

They created an “umbrella” corporation, Minntana Enterprises LLC, for the business.

“Our plan, our goal, is to expand and open other small retail stores” in North Liberty or Des Moines or other Iowa cities, Carter said. “Everything revolves around money and time.”

Know a business that should be considered for a “My Biz” feature? Let us know by emailing mary.sharp@thegazette.com.