Homeowners, the next time you want to start your home renovation
with a sledgehammer party, think again.
Contractors, interior designers and homeowners alike are all
finding that deconstruction -- the careful removal of building
materials to reuse them elsewhere -- trumps demolition from a
financial, environmental and even an aesthetic perspective.
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"In the late '90s, if you Googled the word 'deconstruction'
you'd find pages about philosophy," says Jesse White, owner of
Sarasota Architectural Salvage in Sarasota, Fla. "But now it's
becoming more mainstream."
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The intention of deconstruction, as opposed to demolition, is to
salvage as much building materials as possible for resale. There's
a huge opportunity, especially in the north and Northeast where,
says White, "urban forests are waiting to be harvested."
Sadly, America is a throw-out society where seemingly everything
gets tossed in the trash.
According to Census Bureau data
, "approximately 245,000 dwelling units and 45,000 non-residential
units are demolished every year, creating approximately 74 million
tons of debris." Furthermore, according to the Construction
Materials Recycling Association,
at least
325 million tons of recoverable construction materials are
generated in the U.S. annually, including aggregates such as
concrete, asphalt, asphalt shingles, gypsum wallboard, wood and
metals.
Deconstruction lets landfills last longer
"The most interesting thing I think we're doing is choosing to
use deconstruction as an alternative as the landfills are filling
up," says Cynthia Main, director of education and special projects
at the Rebuilding Exchange in Chicago, a nonprofit organization
that strives to divert building-material waste from landfills.
"Here in Chicago, we have just one landfill in the county.
Basically at some point things have to be shipped further and
further away. People are considering this a more serious problem.
It comes down to where are we going to put this stuff?"
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The Rebuilding Exchange has more than doubled its business each
year since they started collecting building materials in 2008.
"Lots of contractors and homeowners are looking for a nicer way to
de-install what they have," says Main. "Whether they are redoing a
kitchen, a bathroom, or whatever, at some point, something is
coming out of the house that can be reused."
RRR: Remove to reuse and repurpose
"Recycling is great if your only other option is to throw it
away," says Shannon Barnes, systems and digital media manager at
The ReUse People, a company that collects and resells reusable
building materials in Oakland, Calif. "The thing is, it costs money
and resources to recycle. You have to haul it, and break it down,
and then you have to recreate it into something new." That is why
it is wiser to reuse a cabinet as a cabinet.
"You can walk into half the Irish pubs in New York City and see
that they're built out of deconstructed old barns," says Bill
Polyn, a builder in New York City. "This has been going on for
years and now people are doing it for their homes."
Savings: Deconstruction trumps demolition
Deconstruction is really starting to catch on because homeowners
are realizing that their old tub and sink are actually worth
something (donations are tax deductible). Even the rich and famous
are doing it: Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods' ex-wife,
deconstructed a home
she purchased in Florida, and donated the items to Habitat for
Humanity. Habitat officials said they expected to raise at least
$30,000 from the donations.
(Click here to see a side-by-side cost comparison between
deconstruction and demolition.)
Businesses like Green Demolitions, a nonprofit based in
Greenwich, Conn., that help consumers recover and repurpose luxury
items, come into homes and skillfully remove the items homeowners
wish to donate. Homeowners get free labor and pick up, reduced or
no disposal fees and a tax write off for their donation. The
downside is that the deconstruction process usually takes two to
three times longer than typical demolition, and requires more
skilled workers.
The demand for deconstruction services is not only growing
because more environmentally conscious homeowners want their old
household items to be reused, but also because more homeowners have
decided to purchase deconstructed items as opposed to new items
when they renovate.
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Three years ago Maria Parisi, a property manager in Morristown,
N.J., lost her home to a sudden fire. As Parisi began to rebuild,
her nephew suggested they check out Green Demolitions.
Parisi purchased an entire kitchen reclaimed from a mansion for
$50,000. Parisi later saw that same kitchen at a retail store for
$200,000. She went on to purchase fixtures, a bathroom, a mahogany
fireplace wall and mantle and more from different deconstruction
outlets from Atlantic City to Connecticut. "We ended up with a
warehouse of stuff before we had a house," says Parisi. "We
actually built our house around all the things that we got through
Green Demolition." Parisi estimates her deconstruction savings was
"at least $300,000."
There's an immediate gratification factor to donating or buying
deconstructed items. Buyers can inspect the condition, and get a
quick delivery "within a week," according to Parisi. "I tell all my
friends. They keep asking me where did you get your kitchen? You
might go three times and not find anything -- but you might fill up
your house. It's a treasure hunt!"