On a pleasant day in one of Chicago’s suburbs, a deconstruction contractor and his crew remove an original, custom-made window for salvage from a 1923 home.
Deconstruction prevents waste from being sent to landfills, and clients receive tax credits that may off-set the cost.
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After a recent demolition, though, the remodeler found himself with huge steel girders and other scrap metal that he knew he had no use for. He called 20 different people to offer it for free, before he found someone willing to salvage it.
Demolishing an existing house for a renovation or infill project may be quick and easy, but a lot of those building materials unnecessarily end up in land fills. According to the EPA's 2003 estimates, 164 million tons of waste was generated from building activities, including construction...
Jonathan Mills, owner of Mills Builders in Sacramento, Calif., says, “We tear down homes that have nothing wrong with them all the time out here.” Mills didn't feel right about dumping the materials. From his company's inception in 1999 he began donating them to the local Habitat for Humanity.