Taking Deconstruction to the Max!
Greeting Reuse Fans,
Exciting news! Construction Junction’s Deconstruction operation has received a grant from the Allegheny Foundation to support us developing the capacity to do “full house” deconstructions. Deconstruction is essentially taking apart a building (mainly by hand) in the reverse order it was constructed. This process maximizes the reuse of material like brick and structural lumber.
Over the last decade, CJ has done nearly 1,000 salvage jobs (harvesting doors, windows, cabinets and trim before the structure is demolished), from individual homes, hospitals, school buildings, offices, and municipal buildings, bringing in unique materials that often don’t get donated through our pick up or drop off services. Salvage opportunities for our present Deconstruction program are getting larger and more frequent.
However, we recognize the environmental, social and employment benefits from offering a fee-for-service full deconstruction option. In order to offer a full deconstruction service, our first challenge is to develop a skilled deconstruction labor force. The grant from the Allegheny Foundation will help CJ subsidize the cost of this training.
We will be working with a variety of social service programs to recruit individuals with barriers to employment, to become certified deconstructionists using the Building Material Reuse Association’s (BMRA) training. This is the same training program that was used in Portland, Oregon to create a trained labor force to implement the city’s deconstruction ordinance. This same training will be used in Milwaukee, WI as they implement their ordinance.
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CJ has grant support for three full deconstruction pilot projects. The first project is tentatively scheduled to be in Wilkinsburg, in cooperation with the Borough of Wilkinsburg. The key to successful training is to find the projects that are worthy of being deconstructed from a material value and safety standpoint. We had to look at 30 properties in Wilkinsburg to find a good training candidate.
We are still looking for two more residential pilot projects. We are open to working with municipalities, like Wilkinsburg, or a private property owner. One important note is that the subsidy from the grant is not intended to cover the entire cost of a project, but to make it affordable while CJ develops the capacity to explore the role deconstruction can play in reducing waste going to landfills.
