Pensive Thoughts
Trying not to be wasteful.
The one thing that really irks me about our decision to build a new house is the amount of waste we are going to generate by tearing down the old one. The fact that some upgrades that we made to the house will be lost (such as the birch hardwood flooring, and the new carpet) is also a big disappointment.
But we are going to try our best to make sure that not all is wasted. Habitat for Humanity is going to be visiting next week to take a look at the house and let us know what they can use. Cabinets, electrical outlets, switches, sinks, bathtub, toilets and maybe even doors and windows will probably be donated. That said, if anyone thinks they can re-used items in the house, let us know. Just prior to demolition there will be a great stripping of the house. Everything left will be fair game, and we would much prefer to avoid throwing it out.
In addition I plan to shadow the demoliton and rescue as many of the old 2" x 8" joists as I can to reuse as wood accent elements in the new house (or possibly a table). I believe it is not allowed to reuse building materials for structural elements, but non-structural should be fine (or maybe for sheds or repairs or something).
I am under no illusions, though. I neither have the time, money or space to keep a lot of the materials, so much will be thrown away. However, if anybody knows a company that will recover used building materials we would be very keen to talk to them.
PM: The underfloor is beefy stuff, but it is solid pine, not oak. I can tell from looking at the nail punctures from the birch flooring install from the basement. It is probably 1 inch by 6 inch pine, but it will be so perforated from the hardwood install that I doubt it will be salvagable. (02/13/07)
Zilla's other half: It occurs to me as well that my Father's advice might come in very handy at this point. If you think there's even a vague chance that something might be reused but you don't have space for it, we can bring it to the farm and store it in the driveshed. That way, 3 months down the road, you don't need to say "crap, I wish I hadn't pitched....." (02/10/07)
PM: It would be comfort to me if it could be reused. Considering the way the floor was installed, I think with some care that they would come up fairly undamaged. The tongue may get abused, but as long as there is some of it on a strip, it should still be good for reuse as flooring. I may do some tests to see how it goes. (02/09/07)
suelet: As I recall, the under floor under the floor we installed (how's that for a brain twister) was some really nice thick heavy oak. As we are probably going to be looking at our own "rip out and renovate" projects, I doubt we have the room for it either, but I thought I'd remind you, in case you'd forgotten. (02/12/07)
Grondzilla: Very good. Be assured when you get to doing any of this stuff I'm ready to swing a hammer/prybar/wedge/screwdriver/cat as required. (02/09/07)
Grondzilla: At the very least I would certainly be curious to see how the birch flooring would come up when *pried*. Although I'm certain it would rip up parts of the tongue and grooves there still has to be alot of good finished wood there that could be altered for some other worthy endeavour. As we draw near the hour of doom get in touch and I'd really like a chance to see what we could see. Even reducing it to wooden strips one half the size leaves alot of useful material for another purpose. (02/09/07)