For over 30 years in the salvage business, Second Use has proudly rescued tons of reusable materials from local Seattle schools. These materials not only avoid ending up in the waste stream but also carry with them the history and memories that continue to enrich our communities.

One of the best parts of these jobs is discovering what makes each school unique. So when our resident basketball fanatic, Coach Em, spotted Rainier Beach High on the schedule, we knew we were about to get schooled—in the best way! This place isn’t just a high school, it’s a launchpad. With a stacked list of alumni who’ve gone on to light up the NBA, Rainier Beach is the stuff of hoops legend—and that’s just scratching the surface of what makes it so special.

Notable RBHS alumni include NBA stars like Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford, Dejounte Murray, Doug Christie, Terrence Williams, Kevin Porter Jr., and MarJon Beauchamp. And if basketball isn’t your thing, the school is proud to count former NFL players Trent Pollard and Alameda Ta’mu among its grads.

We’re proud to be part of the Rainier Beach High School Replacement Project! Once completed, the existing campus will be transformed into a brand-new, four-story facility spanning approximately 297,000 square feet. The new school will provide permanent space for 1,600 students in grades 9–12 and feature a regional Skills Center and a district data center. The project aims for LEED Platinum certification, reflecting a strong commitment to sustainability. Completion is scheduled for late 2026.
Learn more at: RBHS Replacement Project

Looking to score unique materials from the Rainier Beach project? Check out what’s currently in stock on our website! These one-of-a-kind items won’t last long — grab them while you can: Shop Available Materials

Sale is happening Friday, June 16th through Sunday, June 18th.

Cannot be combined with other offers. Lumber slabs only, sale does not include dimensional or other lumber. Does not apply to hand-priced wood pieces.

If you haven’t made it down to our Tacoma store since Black Friday, you’re due for a visit! Our expanded lumber warehouse is now open and stocked with a variety of material for your next project.

Join us in celebrating our new warehouse on December 8th from 9-6 and enjoy 10% off your entire purchase!

Before:

Walker’s tiled fireplace was looking a little stuck in the past. Our resident wood expert Nils helped him find the perfect slab of live edge to turn this spot into a cozy entertainment corner!

After:

What a fireplace facelift! Inspired? Check out our selection of lumber here, or stop in at our Seattle or Tacoma locations to peruse our stock yourself!

Have a 2U success story of your own? We’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at customerprojects@seconduse.com with pictures and a brief description of your project for a chance to be featured on our blog/instagram and $5 store credit!

Last month we got in some substantial chunks of purpleheart wood.  Our crafty customers and employees alike were excited to get their hands on it.  For those unfamiliar with purpleheart, it is a tropical hardwood found naturally in Central and South America and its heartwood is a truly breathtaking deep purple color.

One of our employees, Ricky, snagged a few pieces and created this gorgeous table, complete with vintage hairpin legs from Second Use SODO.  The surface was made using two pieces of purpleheart. He split a longer piece into a book-matched set for the center and cut a shorter piece in half to create the ends. The wood was then glued and finished with two coats of oil, two coats of clear polyurethane, and two coats of wax. The hairpin legs were sanded down to bare steel and lacquered with clear coat and waxed before attaching them to their new top. The legs fold down diagonally against the table, making it easy to transport and stow. Beautiful work, Ricky!

Are you inspired to do a DIY reclaimed wood project? Check out our current selection of tracked lumber here, or come by our store to check out even more untracked material.  And don’t forget to send your project photos and descriptions to adj@seconduse.com to be featured in our blog!

-Mostly deciduous trees (typically lose leaves seasonally)
-Examples – mahogany, teak, walnut, oak, elm, alder, poplar, birch, maple
-Generally harder, more dense
-Often but not always used for furniture, flooring, mantels and other finish-grade work
-Tends to be more expensive

• Maple – often used for gym floor and counter tops, common around Seattle, very hard, doesn’t dent easily, lasts long in projects, density is the biggest draw, very blonde
• Red oak –dense, inexpensive, often found around Seattle, has a lot of flecks, reddish hue, heavy, porous, soaks up finishes well
  -White oak –more expensive, very strong, has more homogenous grain than red oak, even heavier than red oak, less porous, lighter hue
• Cherry – reddish hue, darkens under finish, mostly used for furniture and trim, very hard, very strong
• Poplar – greenish hue, heartwood sometimes looks purplish, takes paint well, doesn’t stain well, grows really fast, has very few knots, light, not too durable, not very stable because the trees grow so fast that the wood tends to move after changes in ambient moisture
• Red Alder – native Northwest tree that grows like a weed, a tree for the masses, more sustainable in that regard, paint-grade wood, apt to rotting, more for interior doors, cabinets, furniture
• Black walnut – dark brown color, medium hard density, easy to work with, homogeneous grain

TROPICAL WOODS

• Mahogany – ranges from very blond to dark reddish brown, quality ranges from very inexpensive/low density (Luan or Philippine) to darker reddish brown (Cuban and Honduran), shimmers with finish, denser varieties are very rot resistant, very few knots, primarily grows in South America, India, Cuba, some species are endangered, usually Cuban and Honduran mahogany are used for instrument building
• Teak – very resistant to rot, great for boats, kind of oily greasy, pulls silica up in its roots, golden brown, hard and strong, often expensive, somewhat hard to find
• Ipe – Brazilian wood, extremely rot resistant, extremely dense, extremely heavy, also takes up silica, hard for bugs to eat, could leave it outside untreated and would last 10-15 years, can last way longer with a little treatment too, dark red or dark brown, doesn’t usually need oil, difficult to work with with hand tools

SOFTWOODS

-Mostly conifer trees (have needles)
-Examples – pine, spruce, cedar, fir, hemlock, redwood
-Less dense, but durable
-Often used for dimensional lumber
-Tends to be less expensive
-In Seattle, we often use softwoods, especially Douglas fir, for many interior and exterior applications

• Douglas fir – most common around Seattle, orange-pink, medium density, great for building because it’s soft, grows tall and straight, nice straight grains, less apt to rotting, although not considered rot resistant.
• Hemlock – poor man’s fir, more blonde, softer, dents more easily so not great for furniture, often used for dimensional lumber, apt to rot
• Ponderosa pine – Very low density, has many purposes, usually non-structural, commonly seen as shelf boards, has dark reddish pink heartwood and yellow sapwood
• Cedar – Color ranges from light to dark brown, Western red cedar is most common, highly resistant to rot, used for projects that come across water often such as saunas and decks, not strong so not great as a structural wood, lots of tannins, often used for planter boxes, nice smell, if well maintained could last forever, even if exposed to the elements, other less common cedars are Alaskan yellow, and Port Orford

MANMADE (SHEET GOODS)

• Plywood – multiple layers of veneer glued together, durable, good for construction, doesn’t warp, cheaper, not for outdoor projects, unless it’s pressure treated
• Particle board – Most commonly used material for the construction of cabinet boxes, comprised of wood chips and sawdust glued together to form a flat board, cheap, often made from waste wood, highly susceptible to moisture, weak
• Medium Density Fiber (MDF) – fine wood particles bound together by waxes and glues, versatile, takes paint well, can release toxins when cut, cheap, strong, susceptible to moisture

Jack Bergquist this spring started Urban Timber Recovery. When a tree falls on a person’s property, the customer can call Bergquist to remove it. What makes Urban Timber Recovery different from a traditional logging company, though, is what Bergquist does after he cleans up the debris. Rather than just turning it into firewood or sawdust, he creates more products from the wood. Bergquist actually mills the wood to sell as is or makes yard furniture out of it. Only then will he sell the rest as firewood. “I try to squeeze as much use out of the tree as I possibly can,” Bergquist says. “That’s a resource that’s usually overlooked and wasted and abused.”

Bergquist formed Urban Timber Recovery after working as a commercial driver for heavy construction for more than 15 years. A mechanical failure injured him, and the soft tissue damage rendered him unable to drive for long periods of time without stretching. During his recovery, he got around to removing some problem trees in his backyard. He quickly found that the task was conducive to his work constrains, good for his body (he cancelled his gym membership), and enjoyable. He decided to take what money he had and bought tools for his business.

When Bergquist has extra inventory lying around, he sells it to Second Use. He’s sold more than 50 items to the store that, in turn, customers have bought very quickly. Most of Urban Timber Recovery’s lumber sells in less than one week.

Fallen trees have ecological value in a forest, but in a person’s yard, they can bring many problems, ranging from bugs to fire hazards. Other options for the fallen tree include making it solely into firewood or grinding it into sawdust for particleboard. Neither option is nearly as sustainable or long lasting as using it for lumber.

“Absolute waste is the biggest part of my motivation,” Bergquist says, “and people considering trees to be a nuisance—more like weeds, instead of anchoring the earth to the hills and producing oxygen and shade.”

A new business, Urban Timber Recovery does not yet have a website. But Jack Bergquist is happy to accept any phone calls or e-mails. You can reach him at 206-265-9487 or alterjax@comcast.net. There are currently about 30 pieces of lumber from Urban Timber Recovery in stock. See these pieces and many others on the lumber section of the Second Use online inventory.