May 5, 2026

Leave a board, buy a board

Photo courtesy of Earthwise [enlarge]

A warehouse worker preps lumber for resale.

A new hub for reclaimed lumber sales and collection opened over the weekend at 4747 First Ave. S. in SoDo.

Longtime local salvage company Earthwise Architectural Salvage is running the new Salvage Lumber Warehouse (SLW) for the city of Seattle, with initial funding as a three-year pilot project thanks to a $4 million U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant to the city.

SLW is now open 9:30 a.m to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday, accepting drop-offs and offering on-site container pick-ups for intact, reusable lumber from deconstruction, demolition and remodeling projects, and even some scrap wood.

In addition to retail sales of cleaned and de-nailed reclaimed lumber — including remilled hardwood flooring, live edge Black Walnut, old-growth beadboard, remilled nickel gap shiplap and more — the warehouse provides custom milling services and Built Green incentive packages for builders.

The DJC caught up with SLW's Director of Operations Aaron Blanchard (who has run Earthwise since 2016) to find out more about the warehouse operations that aim to reduce landfill waste and preserve forests while providing affordable local building materials.

Photos by Travis Gershaneck [enlarge]

Boards stacked and sorted in the warehouse.

Q. Can you tell me a little more about the Salvage Lumber Warehouse and how it will work for builders?

A. The Salvage Lumber Warehouse is a great avenue for builders in several respects. Besides providing a free place to drop off their reusable lumber left over from projects or from any demo the project involves, they can use our reclaimed lumber to participate in the Built Green program, which gives them awesome perks like being able to build closer to the edge of the lot and higher up. We also carry great products for finish work like baseboard, butcher block counters, shelving, and tongue-and-groove flooring.

Q. What shape does wood have to be in?

A. We need intact, reusable boards, so no rot or splits. Six-foot and longer lengths, and unpainted is preferred. We'll take dump trucks full of fence boards, decks or whole house deconstructions. Nails and fasteners are no problem. Painted wood is taken on a case-by-case basis. We have to ensure there is no lead paint, which we can test for on site.

Q. Can you tell me more about what it will look like behind the scenes? What steps will warehouse workers be taking to help prepare lumber for reuse?

Blanchard

A. Behind the scenes, there is a crew of lumber enthusiasts that don't mind getting sweaty and dusty. We have a plethora of de-nailing tools, and our crew comes to work ready to pull nails and run machines to take ragged old-growth lumber and expose the beauty underneath. They are trained extensively in safely handling reclaimed lumber, which has its own unique process to take it to a finished product. They are also trained to work with our customers to find the perfect solution for their project with world-class customer service.

Q. How will the opening of the SLW change the deconstruction process in Seattle?

A. The SLW removes some of the barriers to deconstructing over demolition of a structure by reducing the disposal cost and providing on-site container services to remove wood products. Right now it's still quite a bit more expensive to deconstruct a building and that has more to do with labor costs than anything.

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The SoDo warehouse is open for lumber sales and drop-off from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Seattle has discussed a deconstruction mandate like Portland has, which would be the best way to make deconstructions happen. Everyone likes the idea of deconstruction, but the cost is often prohibitive. That's why remodels and demolition of bigger structures where the large beams can be saved are the main supply line for the Salvage Lumber Warehouse.

Q. Do you have any estimates of how much lumber is currently salvaged and reused from area projects, and how much more reuse can be happening?

A. Probably a better question for the solid waste folks. I can say that we've saved over 170 tons of lumber at the Salvage Lumber Warehouse since we started accepting lumber — and that's before we've even been officially open.

Q. How significant a role does salvaging and reusing lumber play in reducing waste and embodied carbon?

A. It's a two-fold benefit, because not only is the lumber we save not producing CO2 while it's decomposing in the landfill, each board we are able to put back into circulation is one less board that has to come from virgin lumber, which means less trees need to be harvested and those trees can continue to act as a carbon sink!

Q. How does lumber reuse contribute to cost savings?

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Boards for sale in the warehouse’s showroom include re-milled hardwood flooring, old-growth beadboard, shiplap and more.

A. The biggest way lumber reuse contributes to cost savings is through reduced disposal fees and taking advantage of our discount lumber section. A lot of labor is put into hand removing wood from a structure, pulling out all of the nails and using machines to turn it into something people want to buy, so our premium materials are competitive with other finish grade wood. But there is often painted lumber or lumber that we haven't gotten to remove the nails from yet or B-Grade lumber that we sell that at a very reduced price.

Q. Can you tell me a little more about the roots of Earthwise Architectural Salvage?

A. Earthwise was born out of the demolition industry in the early '90s, before it was cool to salvage. We've grown over the decades to have locations in Kenmore, Seattle, Tacoma and Aberdeen, in addition to the Salvage Lumber Warehouse in SoDo. We have always had a love for salvaging and re-milling wood in addition to the doors, windows, cabinets, lighting, plumbing, hardware and many other materials we salvage.

Originally we outsourced our milling, but in 2018 we got our own sawmill and we've been adding machines and refining our process and keeping thousands of tons of reusable wood out of the landfill.

Q. How many jobs are being created and what does the work look like?

A. At this point we've created eight new jobs, but we anticipate needing more workers as the project grows.

Reach out to slw@ewsalvage.com for more details, and check out the warehouse's current inventory: https://ewsalvage.com/inventory/?store=4