Builder Jeremy Teicher bought a century-old house in Englewood intending to replace it with a new home. But instead of just demolishing the old house, he had it dismantled, so the pine floors, bead board ceiling, solid oak doors and other features could be reused or recycled.
"It's good for the environment, and we believe it's the right thing to do," said Teicher, a principal with the Englewood construction company Build Within Reach.
Like Teicher, a growing number of builders, architects and homeowners are looking for ways to recycle building materials, even though it's generally easier and faster to just haul everything to a landfill. The environmental benefits are obvious, since the U.S. Green Building Council estimates that 10 million tons of construction and demolition debris was dumped in 2003.
'Value in everything'
But saving these old building elements can also make economic sense, because they can be resold, donated or reused to save the cost of buying new items.
To dismantle the old Englewood house, Teicher hired a crew from a Baltimore non-profit, Humanim. Interviewed at the house recently, Chris Posko, an operations manager for Humanim, said that 80 to 85 percent of a home can typically be saved.
"There's value in everything," Posko said. "To be able to get over 1,000 square feet of heart pine flooring [from the Englewood house] is beautiful." Part of Humanim's mission is to hire and train the unemployed to do the deconstruction and build their own work record.
Posko said demolishing a typical house costs $15,000 to $20,000, while deconstructing the same house takes more time, and might run $25,000 to $30,000. But the materials are donated, providing a charitable deduction. That deduction covered the extra cost in the Englewood job, Teicher said.
Humanim donates building materials to Habitat for Humanity, the home-building charity, which sells used furniture, building materials, carpets, and appliances and more in its ReStores, including one in Wayne. The ReStores have three missions: to raise money for Habitat, provide affordable items for the community and reduce the amount of waste dumped in landfills.
The ReStore in Wayne, in the Wayne Hills Business Campus on Hamburg Turnpike, raises money for Paterson Habitat. It contains a wide assortment of products, including kitchen cabinets, appliances, furniture, carpet remnants, lamps, hardware, piles of tiles — everything, including the kitchen sink. All are at least 50 percent off retail price, and furniture prices are cut the longer an item stays in the store. For example, a maple dresser that's now $75 will drop to $60 after 30 days, and $38 after 90 days.