JUST SAY NO TO SLEDGEHAMMERS!
You’ve finalized the design of your new kitchen, sourced materials, made it through six arguments with your partner, found your new favorite contractor, hammered out a budget, relocated all of your pantry items into your bedroom, and set up a lovely slop sink in the basement to wash your dishes for the next three months. It’s finally time to start your kitchen renovation!
But wait. Have you considered what will happen to the cabinets you’re taking out? What about the appliances? Are you demolishing all that stuff straight into the landfill?
Fortunately, there is a more sustainable option: deconstruction! Portland is famous for passing the nation’s first ordinance requiring deconstruction for residential tear-downs, but deconstruction also ensures your home renovation helps your community instead of burdening it with more waste.
Instead of destroying your cabinets, appliances, lighting, doors, windows, fixtures, and floors with sledgehammers, deconstruction teams carefully disassemble the rooms you are renovating, by hand. Just this change alone reduces the risk of harmful lead and asbestos dust in your (and your neighbors’) house and yard. It also makes it possible for the items to be salvaged for reuse, giving your stuff a second life for someone who needs low-cost items. Keep it out of the landfill!
And if you’re looking for a way to make sure your stuff is reused, give us a call and we can come pick it up! We do have guidelines for what we will accept, to make sure our store is meeting our community’s needs for quality, affordable used building materials. And we also encourage you (or your contractor) to text photos of your stuff to us at 503-310-7701, to make sure it meets our guidelines and to schedule a FREE PICKUP!
So, if you’re doing a renovation and you want your stuff to have a second life, tell your contractor that you’d like to prepare the space with a deconstruction crew and you’d like your materials salvaged for reuse - and sent to the ReBuilding Center! You’ll generate so much less waste, provide useful stuff for our community to reuse, and you can even claim a tax deduction for the value of the donated material. We (and the planet!) will thank you for it!