Sask. company gives new life to aging grain elevators

Alvin Herman knows a thing or two about being repurposed.

The 75-year-old from Clavet has found purpose in a variety of different career paths since he retired from farming in 2003.

Being handy with pretty much any type of machinery, Herman would go on to patent more than 40 different types of tools and technologies for oilfield companies, but it wasn't until he began looking at selling an old grain elevator he owned in Milden when he really learned the meaning of being repurposed.

"I'm fairly allergic to burning these things," Herman said. "There's a tremendous amount of timber in place and it seems like such a waste."

Herman started by offering the elevator for one dollar. No one would take him up on the offer with insurance companies not willing to offer any coverage, as well as the roughly $5,000 in maintenance and tax costs every year.

Over the course of trying to decide what to do with the 111-year-old grain elevator, the concept for ABMT Wood Solutions was born.

With the elevator "past its best-before date," Herman said the elevator not only became a breeding ground for prairie pests, but it also became a personal liability as the 30-metre structure was looked at as a gigantic safety concern. One way or another, the elevator needed to come down.

"It's awful," Herman said. "Seeing the sentinels come down, having to take one down. It's awful. Because it's like it's in our DNA."

The elevator in Milden became the first project for ABMT Wood Solutions, a company looking to deconstruct old grain elevators across Saskatchewan and repurpose the wood for art, affordable housing and a variety of other uses.

"We're trying to preserve as much as we can out of it and there's really some really unique stuff," Herman said. "We don't want to throw away anything if it's feasible."

The siding from his elevator was put on a home in Milden, slabs of the rare old-growth wood can be used for dance floors, cedar shingles or even individual pieces of art as the potentially billions of bushels of grain brushing against the wood for more than 100 years has sculpted the wood a certain way, like a unique fingerprint.

"It's a piece of history that you won't get anywhere else," he said.

Repurposing the timber keeps ABMT's carbon footprint low. The big chunks of timber also qualify for Ottawa's platinum carbon credits, creating the potential to build net-zero energy homes — a goal the federal government hopes to see adopted across the country by 2030.

"That was a surprise," Herman said, after one of his partners suggested the idea.

Now, the company is in the midst of a multi-month operation to repurpose two grain elevators in Kenaston.

Nic Zdunich was born and raised in the community located 85 kilometres east of Milden. His grandparents and uncle Brent Guy inherited one of the large prairie obelisks, giving Zdunich a new playground to explore.

Nic Zdunich was born and raised in the community located 85 kilometres east of Milden. His grandparents and uncle Brent Guy inherited one of the large prairie obelisks, giving Zdunich a new playground to explore.

"To have these 30-meter tall towers in towns of 300 (people) is sort of unheard of. I think that's about half the size of the Nutrien building in Saskatoon, and to have these skyscrapers spread out throughout the prairies is something really quite remarkable," Zdunich said.

Now living in B.C., Zdunich made one final trip home last week to pose for a photo alongside his mother and grandmother with the Guy Farms elevator creating the ideal backdrop.

" I think there should be a bit of a plan in place to preserve a handful of them throughout the prairies just so we have that sense of where we came from in the past. But it's sad to see them go," he said.

However, knowing the timber can help build net-zero and affordable homes makes the fate easier to accept.

"The wood and the materials will be used for benefit and not just being burnt down or dismantled is bittersweet, but it makes me happy in the end," Zdunich said.

One section of Herman's elevator is being used as flooring in a mezzanine in Driftpile Cree Nation in Alberta.

Herman said roughly a dozen more people have approached the company to dismantle rural grain elevators.

The company is in the midst of purchasing a 10-acre property near Saskatoon to marshal all the wood and then process it and turn it into various commodities. The three-bedroom show home will be made of the panels from the elevator.

Herman imagines the company will be able to create dozens of jobs in the next ten years.

Being able to repurpose proud pieces of Saskatchewan history helped Herman find another purpose himself.

"After they're gone, there won't be anymore," he said.