Sask. company finds new uses for province's old grain elevators

Entering one of the three grain elevators that stand like giants over Kenaston, Sask., is like walking into a museum.

Old-growth wood houses machinery from another era and rickety lifts with a dusty rope lead to the top of the 30-metre-tall tower.

Rural landmarks like this one are on track to be nearly wiped from Saskatchewan's map. They fall into disrepair — and subsequently fall victim to fire — or become more expensive to maintain than they're worth, leading owners to topple them.

But Alvin Herman looks at each weathered board as having potential beyond the landfill.

"I just found myself allergic to demolition and burning and polluting the environment," the 75-year-old retired farmer and self-proclaimed workaholic said.

His first project was dismantling a 111-year-old elevator he owned himself in Milden, Sask., a village about 90 kilometres southwest of Saskatoon.

Herman said the elevator was "past its best-before-date" and had become a liability to the town and his kids, for its potential safety issues and as a breeding ground for pests.

But Herman, 75, wasn't willing to give up the thousands of feet of lumber that made up the elevator.

That idea ballooned into ABMT Wood Solutions: a team on a mission to deconstruct grain elevators and repurpose their wood into construction materials and affordable housing.

"We offer them a salvation that isn't burning," said Herman.

The team is now picking apart two of the three elevators in Kenaston, 85 kilometres east of Milden.

Herman said ABMT Wood Solutions has about 10 more people on their docket wanting their elevators deconstructed.

ABMT says the vast majority of the wood salvaged from the deconstructed towers is reusable and can be turned into anything from a dance floor to decorative furnishings to entirely new homes.

Old-growth wood, which was used to build the elevators, is difficult to obtain. British Columbia, for instance, is deferring the logging of old growth across about 1.7 million hectares of forest.