Photo by Bryan Wesel/Register-Guard Creative Services
Alec Maxson and fellow BRING crew members are able to salvage
about 85 percent of the materials in homes they “deconstruct.”
Recycling project brings down house
By Christena Brooks
Special Publications, The Register-Guard
June 18, 2005
| Recycling bottles, cans and newspapers is hardly a new concept. But recycling the better part of a house? That’s guaranteed to raise some eyebrows. It’s happening right now at a Villard Street home near the University of Oregon. The 1,300-square-foot house in a historic neighborhood is coming down piece by piece, and then will be renovated/rebuilt to double the home’s size. Rather than sending the old materials to the dump or even sorting the salvag himself, contractor William Pippitt has hired professional recyclers to do the job. BRING Recycling, one of the nation’s oldest nonprofit recyclers, is the subcontractor in charge of deconstructing the house. That’s right: This crew is “deconstructing,” not “demolishing.” Crew members are saving everything in sight — doors, windows, fixtures, pipes, boards, wires and more. “These guys are probably taking 85 percent of the house. Only the foundation, the first floor and a few exterior walls will stay,” Pippitt says. “They’re very efficient, and they know what they’re doing.” Pippitt has been working in construction for 36 years, the last 10 as the owner of William Pippitt Construction Inc. He typically asks his own crews to take down old buildings. This time, he was delighted to receive from BRING a bid that rivaled his own demolition costs and guaranteed most materials would be recycled. The salvage materials will be resold at BRING’s reuse warehouse, where fancy wooden doors start at $20 and simple glass fixtures cost $1. “Somebody’s going to reuse that material. That warms my heart,” Pippitt says. BRING’s fenced “warehouse” at Franklin Boulevard and Seavey Loop Road features a mixture of outdoor and indoor storage. Buyers can find everything from insulation to used lumber to kitchen sinks. Toilets stand in rows, waiting for purchase, while nearby boxes overflow with tile. Used building supplies, some nearly new and others in need of serious sprucing up, are sold for a fraction of what they would cost new. “We view ourselves as being these items’ last chance before going into the landfill,” says BRING business manager David Wollner. “We find that when we’re taking down a house — a good quality home — 85 percent of the material can be reused.” Every ton of material that’s saved from the landfill means a $45 savings in dump expenses for the contractor and, ultimately, the house’s owner. Homeowners also benefit from tax write-offs — some as high as thousands of dollars — by donating the materials to BRING. In extreme cases, houses have been deconstructed at no cost to the homeowner due to massive tax write-offs, Wollner says. Last year, BRING crews made 70 house calls, ranging from materials pick-ups to building take-downs. Wollner estimates his organization’s bill for deconstructing a simple garage would be roughly $800. His bids are competitive, and the ensuing jobs provide a steady stream of saleable materials for the warehouse. Article excerpt and photo reproduced with permission of The Register-Guard |