PHOTO: Mr Aitken says the main stairs are made with wood from a settler’s hut built in the 1880s. (ABC News: Anna Hartley)
The landscape architect, now 70, salvaged centuries-old stones and wooden beams from historical buildings, including the city’s courthouses, jails and flour mills which have since been lost.
A team of workers demounts ceramic tiles in the Institut de Génie Civil in Liège © OPHOTO
“We see this as a pilot project, research,” Devlieger says. “[We are] testing methods for the professionalisation of reuse. Architects sometimes don’t understand the power they have. They are diverting huge streams of money towards new materials when they specify and there are social, environmental and economic consequences of those decisions.”
Source: Why tomorrow’s architecture will use yesterday’s materials | Financial Times
The timber wall and ceiling wrap is an example of the couple’s reuse policy.
“She’s very conscious of waste in general, avoiding things going to landfill but also keeping things in the house as part of its story,” Higham says. They re-used a lot of rimu in particular from the original flooring, door frames, skirting boards and framing.
“Where I’m from in Kentucky, there’s a lumber mill that buys barn wood now, and they have a sign out front saying that anyone caught selling them stolen barn wood will be prosecuted. […]
Source: Is “farmhouse chic” causing thefts from old buildings and barns?
A family home was remodelled by the team at Retrouvius – the reclaimed flooring was specifically designed for hosting cocktail parties.
Some 26 years later, they now rule the roost of the London salvage scene, with both a warehouse trove of reclaimed products and a design studio that specialises in refurbishing top-end properties using rescued materials in a modern context.
“The reuse industry needs to continue building more circular economy partnerships to repurpose reclaimed materials on a larger scale, “ Goodman says.
Source: The salvageable lifecycle – Living Building Chronicle
This North Vancouver home, at 5,000 square feet, is one of the largest projects Unbuilders has taken on. After three weeks, they have completed the front-end salvage and the strip-out of the four units. The entire project, from start to finish, is estimated to take six weeks. Photo by Michelle Gamage.
And now, as some 3,000 homes are being torn down in Metro Vancouver each year, the material is being sent to landfill or, in the case of the lumber, being burned for heat or energy. “It’s really not waste — it is wasted. This is all reusable material,” Corneil said, gesturing around the home.
Source: Eco ‘Unbuilding’ Ensures Material from Demolished Homes Is Re-used | The Tyee
Refab crews will dismantle the historic building and preserve its handmade bricks and timbers.
CREDIT LAURA GINN | SLDC
As part of the contract, Refab will disassemble a three-story brick warehouse built in 1884 in the Vandeventer neighborhood.Schwarz said the building was an “excellent candidate” for deconstruction, in part because its brick and timber have survived more than 100 years without being painted.“We were just shocked when we got into it for the first time that it was so well preserved,” he said.
Source: Deconstruction projects aim to give new life to historic building materials | St. Louis Public Radio
Stardust, a Southeast Valley nonprofit headquartered at 1720 W. Broadway Road in Mesa, is partnering with several Valley companies to divert used building materials at construction sites from the landfill to repurpose and resell.
Stardust, the only building-material reuse nonprofit in metro Phoenix, has created “Starve the Landfill,” focused on sustainability in the construction industry. Starve the Landfill stresses the importance of deconstruction and donating building materials to be reused and repurposed.The goal is to create a strong community of eco-friendly contractors and suppliers that want to reduce their material waste.“One of the amazing benefits is that local companies will be acknowledged for their partnership and commitment to sustainability and the reuse of building materials,” said Karen Jayne, CEO of Stardust.
OLD HARDWOOD is salvaged from the 78-year-old former Smithey’s warehouse building in North Wilkesboro as part of a joint venture between building owner Cam Finley and North Wilkesboro-based Revient Reclaimed Wood. Second Street is seen through a hole left by a tornado last fall.
The old Smithey’s warehouse had part of its roof torn off by a tornado that touched down in Wilkes in October 2017. “As soon as I saw what was inside it, I knew it was a great building for us to salvage,” said Shepherd.
“We have tried to work toward the concept of sustainable construction, also taking into account concepts related to the recycling and reuse of materials, and putting this tool at the disposal of all the agents involved in the construction sector, such as students, professionals and the users of the house themselves,” adds Solis.
Source: A social tool for evaluating the environmental impact of residential buildings
2075 N. Cambridge Ave. Photo by Dave Reid.
“I mean, I thought we were doing something great here. But it’s contingent on, as usual, the private sector, money, fear of hiring ex-offenders.” Bauman called this program a case study in the obstacles confronted by attempts to create jobs. “If every time you try to create jobs for the folks most in need and the folks you want to keep off the street and keep out of the criminal justice system, if there’s a million obstacles put up, we’re sunk. We’ll never solve the problem.”
Photo by Darrell Jackson
Pictured is the interior of the Glendale location where Stardust Building Supplies offers a large assortment for sale to the public.
“Our deconstruction service is free and we have a list of questions that we ask to determine if the job is something we can do,” Fulton said. “Due to Environmental Protection Agency rules, we cannot do houses that were built before 1978 due to rules about asbestos and lead paint. A job supervisor will also do site searches to make sure the job is something we can do.”
Source: Stardust a landfill alternative — recycled building supplies – Glendalestar.com: News
Though we tend to think of buildings as singular entities, in reality, they are complex structures made of thousands (if not millions) of smaller parts. And, even though a building may be at the end of its life cycle, the components that make it up aren’t.
Source: How Do You Recycle an Entire Building? – Earth911.com
Treena Gowthorpe and Kate Otter-Lowe are setting out to prove that a house can be deconstructed and recycled for the same price as demolition.
“You take a house that isn’t wanted in the community and deconstruct it. You carefully harvest all the materials from the house and then you use those materials and reconstruct it into tiny builds,” she said.
Source: One house into three? House deconstruction team recycles large unwanted homes | Stuff.co.nz
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I just wanted to thank you, because since I get all the updates through Reclamation Administration I found today out pieces from the old Waldorf Astoria in NYC are for sale – so I bought an old Waldorf Astoria door bell!!!! Yihaaa! – Diederick Kraaijeveld, Oudhout.com.
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Old Globe Grain Elevator in Superior, Wisconsin – was salvaged by the ReBuilding Exchange after Meegan Czop read about it on the Reclamation Administration.
If you have a story of how the Reclamation Administration connected you with a resource or inspiration – please let us know!
Email: ReclamationNews@gmail.com
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LAUREN MILLER
Lynne and her contractor rescued a nearby barn (that had been destroyed in a tornado) to form the bones of the treehouse. Salvaged windows (including stained glass from an old church) complete the vintage look.
Source: Lynne Knowlton Tiny House – Toronto Tiny House Cabin
Dan Buckwald and Phil Marvin (right) of Veterans Legacy Oregon look through reclaimed wood from the Willamette Stationers building that they will use for construction projects at Camp Alma, an under construction forest camp for veterans. [Brian Davies/The Register-Guard] – registerguard.com
The “true two-by-fours” and other pieces of Douglas fir will make beautiful furniture and decoration at the camp, said Dan Buckwald, Veterans Legacy board vice president. “We aren’t going to put this in walls and put drywall on it,” he said.
Source: Wood from Willamette Stationers building headed to Camp Alma southwest of Eugene
Feature wall made from reclaimed Douglas Fir, sourced locally in Vancouver, by furniture maker Brooke Wingrove of Reclaimed Vancouver Photo: Reclaimed Vancouver for The Home Front: Reclaiming Vancouver’s history through furniture and interior design by Rebecca Keillor [PNG Merlin Archive]
“I like using reclaimed wood because I like the look of it,” says Wingrove. “That’s the main thing for me, and then second is using a recycled product. But (for) most people that contact me, it’s the recycling of the wood that’s the main interest for them. They always comment that it saves cutting other trees down, and they love the fact that it’s been in a Vancouver building and now it’s in their house.”
Source: The Home Front: Reclaiming city’s history through furniture and design | Vancouver Sun
Pete Brands (left) and Travis Blomberg (right) with WasteCap Resource Solutions
The four departments we plan to offer in the next six months are deconstruction, salvage services, the retail store and Do It Yourself, in which WasteCap partners with Fox 6 News to provide upcycling and reuse tutorials using materials in the warehouse.
The crew at Heritage Salvage, which was named Petaluma’s Small Business of the Year.
“Our motto is ‘practice sustainable enthusiasm,’ ” he said. “If you are sustainably enthusiastic about that which you do, it will not feel like work. I love what I do.”
Source: Heritage Salvage is Petaluma’s Small Business of the Year
SalvagedPGH.
In a town where desanctified churches morph into breweries and dusty factories are reborn as swanky apartments, repurposing stuff has been elevated to an art form. Pittsburgh has salvage skill.
Source: Treasure hunting: 5 salvage stores you need to explore
Much of the material these little sculptures are crafted out of came from the rubble of the old Eagle building at 825 E. Douglas.As the building was being demolished last year, Stevenson coordinated with the Eagle and the Bradburn Wrecking Company to salvage quirky bits of the building for use in this art exhibition — at that point, still merely an idea she’d had for years.
Source: Don’t call the police about these odd devices on Wichita buildings — they’re art | The Wichita Eagle
The South Kent Landfill, image courtesy Kent County.
“There are a lot of building materials and resources that are winding up in landfills,” Wieland says. “People are actually talking about deconstructing things instead of just demolishing them. We’re looking at all the waste materials that come out of the building industry and reusing them is one of the ways to reduce that waste.”
Source: UIX: Turning trash into money is going to take a community effort
Using time-lapse photography, the film shows the demolition of the famous Star Theatre. Judging from the various exposures, the work must have gone on for a period of approximately thirty days.
Since the terracotta tiles comprising the house were of very high quality, they are expected to last a lifetime, making them a good candidate for reusing in the renovated version of the house, and ultimately, allowing saving materials costs.
Source: 3 Reasons to Reuse Old Clay Roof Tiles – The Green Optimistic
This feature, nicknamed the “lightbox stair” was built using materials salvaged from the structure that previously took up the site. Overall, more than 85 per cent of the previous home was upcycled.
Source: North Carolina home by Buildsense reuses materials from its site
Mike Malory – photo credit
Historic commissioners would be allowed to go through the building and salvage anything they choose before demolition.Mitchard said the brick from the building will be preserved and used in the plaza area between Village Hall and Bold American Fare restaurant.“Because it is common brick and it looks cool, we are going to try to use it to build a community fire pit there to be used for gathering,” Mitchard said. “We are dreaming at this point of what we could do with it.”
Source: Downtown Algonquin building to be demolished for $26K | Northwest Herald
Anne is an Architect registered in the state of Illinois, a member of the American Institute of Architects and has for the last seven years served as the Executive Director of the Building Materials Reuse Association.
Source: About — Reuse Studio
Founder of Community Forklift & Executive Manager of the Alliance for Regional Cooperation, Jim Schulman discusses his work on the Building Materials Reuse Association. His work in cooperation with the DC Sierra Club and others are pushing building code changes to help rescue building materials from the waste stream.
Big Reuse employees picking up construction materials slated to be thrown away.
“Salvage warehouses should be increasing, not decreasing with what we know about climate change and knowing that building materials make up the largest portion of our material waste,” she said.She said that the company is “really proud of the work we’re doing” and made great strides in terms of diverting waste from landfills and encouraging Queens residents to channel their “inner sustainable-ist.”
Source: Astoria nonprofit Big Reuse will close after 12 years due to rising rents – QNS.com
Demolition dumps materials into landfills, boosts carbon emissions and releases asbestos and other harmful matter into the air, says Ald. Bob Bauman.
The Common Council approved the new deconstruction ordinance – which was co-sponsored by Alds. Nik Kovac and Khalif Rainey – Tuesday, and the rule that goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2018, requires deconstruction rather than demolition of most one- to four-family buildings built before 1930 that are scheduled to be razed.
Source: New city law requires deconstruction rather than demolition – OnMilwaukee
“People probably have never seen anything like this,” Pytel said. “The real reason to come out is some of the beauty inside Gary’s structures that they may have passed over. There are endless possibilities with all the items that have been reclaimed.” Anyone who’s interested in more information should visit www.delta-institute.org or call Pytel at 312-554-0900.
John Owen talks about his passion for architectural salvage in his new shop, Dry Levee Architectural Salvage.
TY KERNEA | HERALD-CITIZEN
A lot of the items he’s salvaged have been leased for props in weddings. “That’s a trend that’s starting to really take off,” he said. Several school teachers also approached him asking about historic elements he has found. “It’s a hands-on tool for those kids,” he said. One of the first projects was the deconstruction of a log cabin that housed 10 children in the early 1900s. “It was a small cabin,” he said. “When we took it down, the grandson of one of those kids found me and asked what I did with it. He wanted us to rebuild it for him. So that’s what we did.”
Source: Owen ‘investing in the future by repurposing the past’ | Herald Citizen
Another tool, called Portico, tracks the health of materials used in buildings. Google has used it internally in about 200 of its own buildings. “If you envision this world in which you’re endlessly cycling materials back into the system, it’s really critical that you know what’s in them, and that you know there’s nothing harmful,” says Brandt. Digital tools can also be used to create online marketplaces for reused building materials.
Source: Cities Need To Transition To Circular Economies: Google Wants To Help – The future of business
Recycled doors from Materials Unlimited in Detroit. Image: Lucy Schroeder
Domicology is a new term coined by some experts looking to repurpose materials from old buildings to avoid large scale waste and high landfill costs.
Source: Connecting blighted Great Lakes cities to boost economy | Great Lakes Echo
Mat Ouellette, assistant project manager for Chinburg Properties, shows an orginal low ceiling area that still remains, before a new level is built, at the Frank Jones Brew Yard in Portsmouth. [Rich Beauchesne/Seacoastonline]
“The quality is amazing,” said Spitzer, about the wood planks with aged patina. Spitzer said a local craftsman will use some of the timbers to make club room fixtures and tables, mill some for shelving and use other old planks for finish work. More of the pine timbers will be reused for counter tops and furniture, he said.
Source: Frank Jones Brewery redo saves architectural treasures
Jaime Walton creates woodwork at his workshop in Railroad Square. (Photo: Jaime Walton)
Today at age 51, Walton can’t imagine himself in any other line of work and believes in interrupting the waste stream to landfills by placing discarded items back into mainstream use. In Albany, he would purchase items from salvage yards, auctions, and estates, but since arriving in Tallahassee has received many donations. He also creates with found objects, like an abandoned railroad tie whose sculptural qualities allow Walton to see it as a future fireplace mantle or bookshelf.
Source: Craftsman’s ‘mad science’ transforms salvaged material
Every industry has a part to play in climate change and the construction industry is no different. In a 2011 report on construction and demolition waste, it was reported that ‘buildings and their users are responsible for almost a quarter of Australia’s greenhouse emissions’, of which ‘choice of materials and design principles has a significant […] impact on the energy required to construct a building.’
Approximately 42 per cent of solid waste in Australia is generated in the building industry. Waste in the construction industry affects everyone and the importance of re-using and recycling this waste cannot be emphasised enough.
Aaron Beatrice & Serge Biryukov, Sons of Salvage.
The duo, friends since elementary school in Terra Linda and now in their early thirties, have stumbled upon a crowd pleasing business making unusual and one-of-a-kind wooden furniture for restaurants and other businesses. “We have been artsy and artistic and did different things with our hands. We got into woodworking by necessity,” Beatrice said. “We did not have any money to furnish our apartments so we had to make the furniture. We put photos of the things we made on Instagram and then people started ordering the furniture and we started our business.”
Source: Petaluma’s Sons of Salvage goes against the grain | Petaluma Argus Courier | Petaluma360.com
ReFab Founder Eric Scharz. Photo by J.B. Forbes.
Schwarz’s experience had taught him that in an increasingly imitative world, some people hungered for an authenticity conceived in the marriage of age and use.
He founded Refab, a salvage yard in south St. Louis, in a condemned building four years ago. At the time, he had about $3,000 in his pocket and an idea for salvaging discarded building materials and turning around the lives of veterans. Today, Schwarz leases a 40,000-square-foot warehouse off Gravois Avenue and employs 14 people. His budget for 2017 is $1.2 million. That growth is partly attributable to a backlash against the uniformity produced by globalization.
The customers who frequent this two story red-brick repository of rescued material are weary of seeing the same furniture, the same sinks and the same light fixtures — all of it mass-produced on the other side of the planet. “You go into a lot of houses — and I don’t know if we coined the phrase — but they are all ‘Lowes’d up,’” said Randy Miller, who was looking for material for his coffee shop in Southern Illinois. “This is a like a candy store.”
Source: Nonprofit’s founder has 2 missions: Save history, help veterans | Metro | stltoday.com
Nick Swaggert, of Better Futures, said the work he and his company do has “saved 700 tons of building materials from going into the landfill.”
With many homes over 30, trend experts expect homeowners to tackle remodeling projects as long as the economy remains strong. Thrift stores such as Habitat ReStores, now at 875 locations nationwide and 15 in Minnesota, are riding the wave too. Sales at the new location, which opened in September, are exceeding expectations. “Our New Brighton store is doing $1 million a year, and we hope the Minneapolis store will match that in two or three years,” said Pete O’Keefe, senior manager of operations at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity.
Source: Thrift stores for building materials ride the re-use wave – StarTribune.com
Workers take part in a “deconstruction” of an old motel on U.S. Highway 2 in Cass Lake.
Fisher is part of a social enterprise called Miigwech Aki, or “Thank you, Earth” led by Christopher Bedeau. The goal is to provide jobs and training in northern Minnesota, partnering with tribes and the local communities, while honoring Mother Earth by diverting resources from landfills.
When he decided to demolish this latter building, Bruggink made use of its materials to fit out the empty shell of the coach house.
Source: Rolf Bruggink uses salvaged materials to convert coach house into home
Reba VanAcker and her son Christopher Green. By Gerry O’Brien H&N Editor
When Green put the word out on the Internet that DoubleHead had well-preserved timber from the 1930s to the 1960s, a group of Japanese buyers jumped on it. “They flew out here and were overwhelmed at what we had,” Green said. As it turns out, Japanese love all things from the West. The Japanese reproduce vintage-style door handles, lamps, clothing, etc. They use our lumber for flooring, wall coverings, doors and furniture.” “It was like watching kids in a candy store. They were literally running from place to place. We sold them four container loads of flooring,” Green said, mainly two- by 12-foot slats.
Source: The art of deconstruction | Local News | heraldandnews.com
Mark Wallace, owner of Wallace Detroit Guitars, makes his instruments from reclaimed wood salvaged from Detroit buildings. Musician Stewart Francke vouches for their quality.
“It’s a beautiful guitar. It makes you feel good to hold it. It makes you feel good to play it,” says Francke, 58, who’s recorded with Bruce Springsteen, toured with Bob Seger and opened with the guitar for Joan Jett at this year’s Arts, Beats and Eats festival. “I’ve got 25 guitars, but this one is the one that I play the most live, and it sounds probably the cleanest.”
Source: Sound investment: CEO turns reclaimed wood into original guitars
Wood planking was stripped from the wall of a 75-year-old barn alongside the Island Highway in Qualicum Bay by a trespasser earlier this month.— Image Credit: J.R. RARDON PHOTO
The barn apparently fell victim to a hot building trend, in which weathered and distressed wood from salvage buildings is used to build furniture, wall paneling and trendy bars and restaurants. “I get people here looking for it all the time,” said Bernie Muller of Demxx Deconstruction in Coombs. “You’ll have guys in Vancouver who pay $7 a square foot for those slabs. It’s probably more valuable than drugs.”
Source: Theft of wood from barn in Qualicum Bay: Nailed down but not safe – Parksville Qualicum News
TRI-COUNTY TIMES | TIM JAGIELO
While the landscaping is still well tended, the house on Shiawassee Avenue, as of Friday, Sept. 9, was nearly gone.
“We’ve been building homes for years, and have demolished a lot,” said Bloomingdale. “I always felt bad about disposing of material that we’re never going to find again. Slow-growth lumber doesn’t exist anymore and here we are throwing it away.” That’s why Bloomingdale decided to get himself a warehouse and start dismantling and reusing materials out of these homes.
(Credit: Lovett Deconstruction)
“We’re providing money to these projects but we’re getting something back,” says Wood. “We’re getting hard data but then also some softer stuff like lessons learned.” That feedback helped inform the deconstruction ordinance. Grant recipients were required to place a sign on the site of an active deconstruction, for example, to educate the public and promote the method. The ordinance requires signage too. The grants will continue; they’ve recently been increased to $3,000.
Source: Portland Promotes Deconstruction Over Demolition – Next City
Building Research Establishment Trust is working on several research projects focused on mitigation and resilience to climate change
Another research project last year also looked at the impacts of deconstruction – or, essentially, demolishing buildings – on the circular economy, as “effectively dealing with buildings at the end of their life has the potential to unlock significant economic value”, according to the Trust. Construction and the built environment is the single biggest user of materials and generator of waste in the UK economy, but the value that can be extracted from deconstruction is very much dependent on how buildings have been designed and built.
