Three demolished homes will get a new life

[sevfiv]

the homes are on Chaucer St. in West University, and more than 10,000 bricks and fixtures will go toward the construction of a new childcare facility, which might be LEED certified as well.

Though much more time-consuming and labor-intensive than regular demolition, deconstruction reflects the university's commitment to sustainability.

"There is quite a bit of demand for some of the architectural items from older buildings," said Johnson. "The environmental benefit of doing this is significant. It's not just that we are keeping this material out of the landfill, but we are reducing the need for new materials to be extracted and manufactured."

For instance, the bricks will be taken down and, if broken, crushed and reused as aggregate for new concrete. Old cement slabs are also crushed and reused as aggregate. Bricks that remain whole will be reused in the new building on an exterior wall. Two air-conditioner window units are slated to be installed elsewhere on campus.

http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.as...IEW&ID=9941

http://www.khou.com/news/local/houstonmetr...s.af95fa62.html

[Dan the Man]

Cool! I'm glad that this salvage and reuse of historic building materials is finally starting to catch on. Demolition can be so wasteful.

[musicman]

Cool! I'm glad that this salvage and reuse of historic building materials is finally starting to catch on. Demolition can be so wasteful.

youj're in the minority...but i agree with you.

[house567]

youj're in the minority...but i agree with you.

Here! Here! for recycling homes. Thinkers and planners at Rice U. have a soul. OLD HOUSE JOURNAL recently published an article on recycling homes. I would vote FOR more laws to encourage recycling of materials. When Cherry Demolition tore down the 35 acre Parkwood Apt. complex for Baylor College of Medicine's new hospital, literally almost a thousand sturdy wood paneled, 1950's interior and exterior doors ended up in landfills that TAXPAYERS fill the bill. Those doors (and other materials) could have would up in the RE-STORE by Habitat for Humanity and helped our fellow citizens who have not felt the economic virtues of the college educated readers of this website. Instead they are forced to choose a cheap foreign made door from a big box store where the floor worker gets paid a pittance and the CEO gets a golden parachute.

Big developers are passing the buck - at YOURS and MY expense - when they rebuild large tracts of Houston neighborhoods.

[Native Montrosian]

I'm all for this. Wish Weingarten Realty would have at least allowed salvage first before they turned the bulldozers loose.

[flipper]

I would vote FOR more laws to encourage recycling of materials.

Yes! More LAWS are the answer!!!

:closedeyes:

flipper

[Guest danax]

Yes! More LAWS are the answer!!!

:closedeyes:

flipper

I say a slight modification of the current ones, from time to time, will do the trick.

The current building codes adopted by the City of Houston prohibit the use of recycled lumber, for example. I helped decontruct a 100 year old house and wanted to reuse the studs to build my garage. I called the city inspector and they said no way, that old lumber was "unsound". I told him how hard the studs were and he said he knows, but too bad. The entire structure ended up in the landfill and now I'll be stuck getting bent sapwood studs from Lowes.

[Dan the Man]

I've also heard that one cannot use old wood windows when restoring a historic home since they do not meet energy code. That's another stupid law...