Two Homer builders salvaged redwood planks and beams from the mothballed Young Road water tank early this week.
The wood-stave structure, built in the late 1970s, had been leaking for years and became too small to provide adequate pressure and volume for the growing, hillside neighborhood.
Jeff Dean bid $1,247 for the salvage rights, topping five other bidders. He brought a flatbed trailer to town this week, along with helper Michael Olare. They pulled off plywood roof sheathing and shoveled a couple inches of sludge from the bottom of the empty tank during the weekend.
Roof framing and exterior, steel bands were removed next. One band was left in place to keep walls from collapsing as Dean used a wooden mallet to loosen planks attached to the tank floor at a morticed joint.
The 150 vertical planks were 16 feet long, about six inches wide and 2.5 inches thick. Most were clear heart wood, Dean said.
He said he had a few ideas for the haul of rot-resistant wood, including cutting four feet off the bottom of each plank and refitting them to create a swimming pool. The remaining lengths of plank might be used for outdoor structures such as greenhouses, he said.
Dean said he expected the wood would last at least another 50 years. The tank’s leaking owed to a makeshift foundation of beams laid on edge, which made it prone to heaving during winter freezes, he said.