Marcus Grooms grew his passion for woodworking into Ohio Wood Connection. The idea for his business began after the loss of his wife Pamela in 2011. Through his grief, he took stock in his life and decided to end his 25-year career in finance and return to his passion for working with wood.
Marcus’ love for woodworking began in high school, where he enjoyed shop classes. After graduation, he joined the Navy Seabees and worked as a builder, further developing his woodworking skills.
In 2014, Marcus founded Ohio Wood Connection out of his garage and has continued to grow his business to its current location in Cincinnati, Ohio. He specializes in domestic hardwood, live-edge slabs, kiln drying, and custom design projects.
Marcus served as President of the Great Lakes Kiln Drying Association (GLKDA) from 2020 to 2023. He now serves as Vice President. This association aims to promote improved drying, storage, and handling of wood. Marcus credits his professional growth and expertise in kiln drying with the knowledge and connections he has made through this association. In fact, Ohio Wood Connection has become one of the largest suppliers of vacuum kiln-dried wood based in the tri-state to meet local needs and ship nationally.
Ohio Wood Connection is passionate about extending the life and revealing the beauty of trees. We believe in making the most of our natural resources and preserving and transforming wood from “Creator to Craftsman.”
Ohio Wood Connection does not harvest trees. All our slabs and dimensional lumber come from trees removed from property owners, private forests, and developers throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. We save locally-sourced wood from ending up in the landfill. Upcycling existing resources benefits the environment because we don’t use any new raw materials in our production process. Through our creativity and expertise, we have reclaimed so many valuable raw materials.
Our team transports the trees back to our warehouse and mills the wood onsite into beautiful live-edge slabs and raw dimensional hardwood. Our wood is vacuum kiln-dried onsite and available for our customers. Our wood selection includes Ash, Cherry, Elm, Maple, Oak, Poplar, and Walnut.
All reclaimed lumber passes through one of our kilns to achieve the proper moisture content and remove any bugs.
Ohio Wood Connection offers drying services, hardwood slabs and custom projects. We vacuum dry green wood for homeowners and sawyers. We sell hardwood slabs in various sizes and species to homeowners, architects, builders, and designers. Hobbyists and artisans use smaller pieces for charcuterie boards, wall art, desks or tables. And, we convert slabs to finished pieces for homeowners and businesses.
We hosted a workshop on June 20 that focused on sawing, drying , finishing and installing hardwood slabs. Speakers included Marcus, Adam Jacobs from M. Bohlke Veneer and Dr. Scott Bowe from University of Wisconsin. Over 30 people spent the day learning, having fun and connecting.
Visit our warehouse to shop a wide variety of kiln-dried live-edge and hardwood slabs.
