What others see as used, decaying wood, Scott Royer sees as a business opportunity. A 20-foot-wide pungent vinegar cask headed for the landfill turned high-end hardwood flooring.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — What others see as used, decaying wood, Scott Royer sees as a business opportunity.
A 20-foot-wide pungent vinegar cask headed for the landfill turned high-end hardwood flooring.
Decades old barns that look like they could fall over during the next windstorm transformed to crown molding and countertops. Royer, owner of Olympia-based Windfall Lumber, buys, mills and sells recycled, reclaimed and environmentally certified wood products. It comes from buildings destined for demolition, trees that fall over during windstorms and forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
He sells the wood to customers looking for environmentally friendly building products.
The wood reappears in a winery in California, Fort Lewis, homes in Tacoma and a soon-to-be built housing development north of Ocean Shores, among other places.
Windfall Lumber acts as a middleman for the wood products. The company locates the materials and contracts with a mill to cut and clean them. Once the work is done, the wood comes back to the Olympia warehouse for distribution to customers all over the West Coast.
One of the biggest finds for Royer was about 90 vinegar tanks from Oakland, Calif., Los Angeles and Chicago. The planks lining the vats were made from old-growth timber and had grain patterns you can't find today. But the wood was nearly black from use and stinky from decades of contact with vinegar. No one wanted wood floors or countertops that smelled like a pickle jar. The wood sat in a yard at the Port of Olympia for months while Royer and his employees tried to figure out what to do with the rare clear fir -- free of knots and imperfections.
Royer searched for a mill with a solution. He found one in Pierce County. The mill figured out how to shave a quarter-inch layer of black residue off the wood and dry it with no trace of the condiment.
"We started out making molding and flooring," Royer said. "The trick was to find the products where the architecture created the highest value."
Then someone mentioned endgrain counter tops. Royer sent the wood to a company in Oregon that sent back wood countertops. The recycled lumber sells for about the same price as new clear wood and looks about the same. The draw is for people who want recycled wood -- or wood with a story.
Bob Baldwin, project manager for the Seabrook planned community north of Ocean Shores, saw a sample of Windfall Lumber's work at a friend's house.
Now the remilled vinegar tanks will appear as flooring in dozens of homes.
"First and foremost, it's a great-looking product," Baldwin said. "Second, it's great that it's recycled. You just can't find old-growth fir like this anymore."
Dozens of companies around the country sell reclaimed, recycled or environmentally friendly wood. The products are used in homes and office buildings that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building standards.
Royer bought Windfall Lumber in 2002 from a friend who sold lumber purchased from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for their environmental friendliness. Royer got the company name and Web site for $5,000 and immediately expanded the business. The first year his revenues were $125,000. This year, he expects to top $500,000. He has six employees.
The company moved in July from a small warehouse at the Port of Olympia to a bigger one with room for expansion, though the building is destined for demolition in a few years as the port redevelops its land.
"We are just hitting our stride," he said. "Next year we will probably have eight employees."
To see more of The News Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.TheNewsTribune.com.
Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Contact Info:
