Reclamation success story

Michael “Bug” Deakin’s crusade to promote new construction and remodeling with wood salvaged from old buildings has been so successful that the founder of Heritage Salvage hardly has time to swing a hammer anymore.

While his staff of 14 carries on the cause at his company’s three-acre Petaluma lumber yard, Deakin marshals his regional marketing campaign and numerous spin-off projects from his office in the back of a 1974 International diesel box truck at the edge of the property near the Petaluma River.

“I can see Shollenberger Nature Preserve from here,” he said, glancing out his window. “We have river otters under our old dock.”

On his laptop, Deakin screened the first in a new series of television commercials mimicking the hit cable series, “Game of Thrones.” For the past two years, he has co-hosted the weekly “Reclamation Row Radio” show with Steve Jaxon on KSRO-AM radio. Meanwhile, Deakin is working on plans for a reality TV show.

Heritage Salvage also maintains a San Francisco showroom for furniture made of reused wood, and Deakin has a new book titled “Heritage Salvage: Reclaimed Stories” coming out in the fall, to be published by Cameron and Company of Petaluma.

For Deakin, the art of giving new life to old wood is all about the stories. As he roamed the lumber yard, as he still does almost daily,

Deakin pointed out arches from the former country home of the famed Flood family of San Francisco, and beams and doors once owned by celebrated attorney Melvin Belli.

Breezing briskly past a stack of redwood slabs, he quipped, “We love slabs. Slabs-R-Us.”

Would-be wood buyers, stopping Deakin to ask questions, had no trouble spotting him. A shortish, trim man of 65, Deakin was hard to miss in his snappy straw hat, flowered shirt, plaid shorts, white socks and low-topped boots.

Deakin declined to say how he got his widely used nickname, but it’s tempting to think everyone calls him “Bug” because he hops around like one.

He calls his lecture series on reclaimed wood “The Bug and Pony Show.”

“I love wood,” he said. “This is my chosen profession.”

Deakin’s quest to save wood for reuse began in the 1970s, in his native British Columbia. (His 88-year-old mother, his daughter and granddaughter all still live in Canada.)

He opened Heritage Salvage in 2001 in Petaluma, moving the business to its present site nine years ago.

More recently, Heritage Salvage has had great success using re-purposed wood for interior decor at local restaurants, including Taps Restaurant & Tasting Room at its new location in Petaluma earlier this year, and Belly Left Coast Kitchen and Taproom, which opened in downtown in Santa Rosa last year.

Deakin’s company has worked on more than 80 restaurant remodeling jobs throughout the Bay Area.

Describing himself as an “eligible bachelor, quite single,” Deakin seems happy at his work and at home on the lumber lot.

“It’s fun when you have your own custom building department,” he said.

Deakin’s transition from hands-on practitioner to executive hasn’t diminished his dedication to his cause. Instead, he’s more determined than ever, and he doesn’t think he’s going to run out of material.

“There is so much wood, and it’s a shame to see anyone waste any of it,” he said.

“We don’t demolish an old barn. We de-construct it. And we’ve never taken down a tree.”

(You can reach staff writer Dan Taylor at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@pressdemocrat.com. Read his Arts blog at arts.blogs.pressdemocrat.com.)