Green alternative to crunch-and-dump demolition takes root in Vt.
Toolbox
By Madeline Bodin - Published: January 20, 2008
For about four weeks last summer, the leafy-green quiet of Cemetery Avenue in Manchester was transformed by the bustle of men at work. The sounds were typical of a construction site: drills whirred, ladders clanked, wood slapped on wood.
But a moment’s observation showed that this was not a construction site. Windows came out of the building and down the ladders. Electrical outlets came out of the walls and into buckets. Kitchen cabinets were carried out the front door.
The house on Cemetery Avenue was coming down, not going up. Instead of demolishing the building with excavators and sending the rubble to a landfill, the house’s owners instead chose to use a process called “deconstruction.” When a house or other building is deconstructed, it is carefully taken apart piece by piece. As much of the house as possible is salvaged and reused.
For Holly Squires, the owner of the Cemetery Avenue house, saving landfill space, and therefore the environment, was “a big plus,” but the main appeal of deconstruction was that the materials from the home would be reused and would give other homeowners the opportunity to build or make home improvements that they might not otherwise be able to afford.
If a building’s components are 80 percent or more reusable or recyclable, the structure is a good candidate for the type of thorough deconstruction that has gained attention in recent years as an environmentally friendly alternative to building demolition. Two nonprofit organizations in Vermont specialize in just this type of deconstruction: ReCycle North of Burlington and ReNew Building Materials and Salvage of Brattleboro.
According to ReCycle North, an average home of about 2,000 square feet sends about 10,000 cubic feet of debris to a landfill when it’s demolished. Deconstruction can divert from 60 to over 80 percent of that debris from the landfill. In 2006, its first full year of operation, the nonprofit organization that deconstructed the Cemetery Avenue house, ReNew Building Materials and Salvage of Brattleboro, diverted 260 tons of demolition waste from landfills and incinerators, says ReNew President Erich Kruger.
That is significant savings for the environment, but building owners who use deconstruction techniques benefit in other ways, especially when the cost for demolition waste disposal is $100 per ton, as it is now. Homeowners who deconstruct instead of demolish all or part of a home can also get a tax credit for salvaged items donated to a nonprofit organization. For big projects that require an Act 250 permit, deconstruction can help fill the requirement for a waste management plan.
Thrifty New Englanders have been using deconstruction techniques for a long time, but deconstruction today spans a spectrum of techniques and services that goes far beyond raiding an old cellar hole for the foundation of a new barn. A familiar form of deconstruction in our area is architectural salvage. In this case a salvage company may pay a homeowner for the right to go through a structure to salvage valuable items such as hardwood floors, moldings, fireplace mantles, and stained-glass windows.
Kenneth Epworth, owner of The Barn People in Windsor, began in business as an architectural salvager. He explains that these architectural elements simply can’t be duplicated today. “Look closely at lumber from an old growth forest and you’ll see 30 rings to an inch,” he says. Wood purchased today is much less dense, with eight rings to the inch. Epworth, always attracted to rural vernacular architecture, soon fell in love with barn frames. He’s been dismantling old barns and rebuilding them as luxury homes for 33 years.
Thomas Longstreth, executive director of ReCycle North, says that barn deconstruction represents a particularly pure form of deconstruction. The components of many barns are almost totally reusable, unlike other buildings where percentages of reusable materials are lower.
ReNew’s Erich Kruger describes a typical house deconstruction project. Five trained, experienced workers systematically disassemble a house in reverse order. In a residence, they take out the kitchen cabinets first, then the sheet rock, then the flooring. Finally the roofing and frame are dismantled. The entire process takes from three to six weeks.
Cabinets, appliances, light fixtures and framing lumber can be reused. Unpainted wood can be burned for home heating or sugaring. Wire and other metal items have high value for recycling. The considerable savings in disposal fees helps offset some of the labor costs.
Even so, deconstruction costs more than regular demolition. Kruger estimates, “We are probably 50 to 100 percent higher than excavation. But there is a tax incentive to the homeowner or contractor, in addition to the saving in disposal fees. We can offer a tax donation receipt for the resale value of the materials.”
And there are other advantages. ReCycle North and Renew Building Materials and Salvage emphasize the social benefits from deconstruction. Longstreth says that, beyond the environmental benefits, deconstruction is so labor-intensive that it provides more employment than demolition with heavy machinery. It also provides training opportunities. ReCycle North uses its deconstruction program in its YouthBuild Training program, which serves 16- to 24-year-olds who are economically disadvantaged and have dropped out of school. In just a few days of working on a deconstruction job, the trainees see firsthand how a house is put together, though in reverse. It would take weeks, or even months, to be exposed to so many different trade skills in a construction project. Kruger points out that in addition to those social benefits, deconstruction provides low-cost materials to people who might otherwise struggle to build or maintain their homes.
Reusing the salvaged materials is the key to making deconstruction environmentally friendly. High-end items, such as antique mantelpieces, are sold at a premium by antiques dealers or architectural salvagers. The concept is only effective, though, if willing buyers – or even just takers – are found for used Formica kitchen counters and drop-ceiling panels. Sometimes that is easily accomplished on the job site, as when construction workers take home insulation to use on their own home improvement projects.
Often, though, the salvaged materials are sold through stores run by ReCycle North, ReNew Building Materials and Salvage, and the ReCover Store in White River Junction, which is run by Cover Home Repair, a nonprofit organization that provides urgently needed home repairs for low-income homeowners.
The items carried vary at each store. ReNew offers a full range of building supplies, including small items, such as pipe fittings, and also sells furniture. In addition to building supplies, ReCycle North also sells appliances and “Waste Not Products.” These are items made by the staff with materials from the store – picture frames made from wood flooring, mirrors made from windows and birdhouses built from scraps. The ReCover Store sells furniture, appliances, furnaces and carpeting, as well as the more expected doors and plumbing fixtures.
A new Web site, VCRN.org, is designed to match salvaged items with new owners. Sponsored by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, VCRN.org provides a database of services, such as deconstruction services and contractors, as well as places that sell salvaged materials. Amy Moore of Internet Support Service in Pownal, who developed the Web site, explains that the services component is especially important. Any contractor can install a prehung door from a big-box store, but specialized skills are required when reusing a solid oak door from another building.
Like other aspects of building construction in Vermont, demand for deconstruction services outstrips the supply of experienced firms that provide the service. The demand is especially intense each spring, Longstreth and Kruger report. Because each job takes about three weeks, and each organization only has so many trained workers, the organizations have to pass on many opportunities. Also, since the organizations are headquartered in far corners of the state, they have to travel to deconstruction jobs in the state’s middle. Kruger believes that the central part of the state could use a specialized deconstruction crew and a salvaged building supply retail outlet of its own. Through his role on the Agency of Natural Resources’ Construction and Demolition Waste Reduction Steering Committee, Kruger hopes to encourage more ANR funding for just that purpose.
Madeline Bodin is a freelance environmental journalist who lives in Andover.
For information online visit:
The Vermont Construction Reuse Network(VCRN) www.vcrn.org/
VCRN helps home owners, builders and contractors utilize used building materials in projects and learn about resources to make the choice of reuse efficient and easy.
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