A lot of old buildings are coming down on NAS Whidbey Island and that’s a good thing. Just as it is a good thing that a lot of old wood is finding new life once those buildings are torn down.

Take building 20, a 250-foot long by 54-foot wide wooden building built in 1942 for example.

It started out as a maintenance building during World War II. Public Works added a west end for carpenters in 1953, a furniture repair shop added an east end to the building in 1954 and since then, the Seabees and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit have been housed there.

Building 20 came down Oct. 1 as part of a measure to comply with Commander, Navy Installations Command Demolition Footprint Reduction plan to save maintenance and utility costs. It was one of 10 structures torn down so far of an overall 70 slated for demolition. 

Many buildings that are old or contaminated with asbestos or lead paint aren’t habitable or require too much maintenance.  But that doesn’t mean the Douglas fir used in building them is bad. The contractor decided to save the wood for a good reason.

Before the crane came crashing down on Building 20, the base and the State Historical Preservation Office met to discuss the building and site. Any building in excess of 50 years old can be considered historic. No problem was found and down it went.

Cates & Erb Incorporated, a logging and construction company out of Omak, Wash., was contracted to take down Building 20.

They didn’t just knock the building down; they took time to remove some of the 68-year-old lumber: lengths of 24-inch by 24-inch girders and 2-by-12-inch and 2-by-10-inch boards; all aged Douglas fir. That extra effort will bring them about $13,000.

Joe Garnero of Duluth Timber was called to pick up the wood, about two semi-truck loads of it.

“What we do is buy demolition timber from industrial salvage built 40-50 years ago,” said Garnero.

For almost 30 years Deluth has worked with demolition contractors all over the country salvaging joists, rafters, girders and beams. Every job is different.

“How long, how big, what grade, we pay to have it picked up, we pull metal out if it’s good enough to saw up, we make it so you can re-use them and we re-grade them,” said Garnero.

Duluth probably gets a million board feet, paying contractors who are making money to save old lumber. This makes sense.

And the fact that Cates and Erb Inc. made more than $13,000 for saving some old growth timber makes sense too.

The history of Building 20 and the other WWII vintage buildings coming down will be preserved by the Navy in the way of dioramas and oral histories available in the near future at Simard Hall on the Seaplane Base.