It is an amazing feat to take something that spent 100 years or more in one place, and then to transport that item to a place where it will add beauty and form in a new home for a hundred more!
Here are a few stories of items that made that transformation.
Salvage Stories
We have rescued hundreds of thousands of antique architectural elements from deconstruction over the years. With over 2,000 salvaged buildings, there are lots of great stories about who and where these items came from, and where they're off to!
Going Green
The need to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste by saving reusable items is greater than ever before. Although comprehensive figures on the percent of building materials in the waste stream are not available, some data on waste wood is in the public domain.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that wood and lumber waste alone comprise 3.7 percent of the waste stream. In one year alone, that could mean 10,900 windows, 8,175 doors, 7,630 light fixtures, 163,500 pieces of hardware and 545,000 board feet of flooring were sent to a landfill.
Even though reuse of salvage material has become more common and its reuse can add value to new and remodeled spaces, it is sad to say that only 2 to 3 percent of buildings slated for teardown are actually salvaged or deconstructed in some manner.