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B R E A K I N G N E W S A T L E A D E R P O S T.C O M S EC T I O N F
S AT U R DAY, D EC E M B ER 20, 2014
From old barns to modern homes Reclaimed wood adds dash of ‘soul’ JODIE SINNEMA POSTMEDIA NEWS
NOVEMBER 2014
When Michael Ger rand walks into an old, leaning, wind-beaten barn from the 1920s or ’30s, he often heads to the horse stalls first. Most people see only manure. Gerrand has an eye for the floor beneath: Douglas fir from an old-growth forest that has been spalted or discoloured from horse urine over decades. Once Gerrand and his team have pressure-washed the salvaged timbers, then put them through a planer, a red wood emerges, perfect for beautiful modern tabletops. Gerrand and his wife, Michelle Spencer, launched Salvage Solutions (salvagesolutions.ca) in 2012, a business that reclaims and salvages antique woods from dilapidated barns and buildings in rural Alberta. T he couple sells that wood in bulk for hardwood floors or feature walls. They and a carpenter also design and sell mantels, headboards, tables and sliding barn doors that can be used in modern homes to offset glass and metal. “It adds a soul to a house,” Gerrand said of the antique wood additions. “All I see from my drive up from Pincher Creek to Edmonton is thousands of soulless houses and I think that there’s a market to putting a little bit of soul into some of these places and a little bit of history. I think people want it.” Buyers can even purchase entire sheds from Salvage Solutions that could become the perfect artist studio in the backyard, for instance. Gerrand and Spencer’s
PHOTOS: DUSTIN LECLERC
A feature wall made from salvaged barn wood adds depth to this living area. own house south of Edmonton includes a hodgepodge of such used items: Their floor is from a high school gymnasium, the counter in the laundry room is made from the slabs of an old bowling alley and the kitchen counters are made from prisoner benches, complete with graffiti, from a demolished medium-security jail. But while Gerrand loves the charm and “soul” such historical pieces bring into a modern home, his first love is for rural Alberta and saving its physical history. Each time a farmer calls Gerrand to demolish a barn or shed, he first attempts to convince the farmer to save the old building and replace the rotting pieces with fir salvaged from other properties. “I’m a sentimental fool
and I think that our landscape should be dotted with our historic agricultural buildings,” he said. Gerrand has deconstructed about 30 buildings in disrepair, dismantling the roof first, then moving down by using a hand bar to manually and carefully take out every nail to save the wood. Every nail hole, every crack and burn from the sun adds to the character of the salvaged wood, he said. “This is better wood than you can buy,” Gerrand remembers learning from his father when he was 12 and growing up on a Manitoba farm. Back then, he and his father would take apart old granaries and use the wood to make new ones.
Scott Predenchuk
Joyce Tourney
Bill Mueller
Natasha Blaisdell
Debra Duncan
James Wruth
Martin Blonski
Craig Adam
Cliff Iverson
RE/MAX Joyce Tourney Realty
RE/MAX Joyce Tourney Realty
RE/MAX Joyce Tourney Realty
RE/MAX Joyce Tourney Realty
RE/MAX Crown Real Estate
RE/MAX Crown Real Estate
• 234 UNIVERSITY PARK DR
A one-of-a-kind dining table from wood salvaged by Salvage Solutions.
See SALVAGED, F2
RE/MAX Crown Real Estate
RE/MAX Crown Real Estate
RE/MAX Crown Real Estate
• 2350 2ND AVE.
www.remaxregina.ca
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