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Q&As
Rebuilding on Same Plot: Can I Reuse Materials?
I am planning to tear down an 8 year old property and rebuild a new home next to it. This means that the old property does not need to be demolished before the new begins.
I want to recycle as much as possible from the old house and reuse in the new. My question is are there companies that specialise in carefully stripping properties, or should I negotiate with the main contractor for the removal and refit of specified items?
One Answer
Hi Christine,
I’m not aware of any particular specialists in this area, but there are plenty of materials that can be relatively easily reused, either in their existing form (such as good quality kitchen worktops, internal doors etc) or by recycling them for another use on site (such as crushing bricks/concrete to form aggregates).
In fact, demolition firms will often take a careful approach to removing certain items precisely because they can be reused and sold-on (reclaimed flooring can be particularly valuable, for instance). This kind of work might be referred to as ‘deconstruction’ or ‘soft strip’.
The best thing you can do is speak to your contractor and some demolition companies about what might be possible, how they would approach it and what they might charge for the work. Bear in mind that some materials, once stripped, might not be of quite the quality you were expecting and therefore not suitable for your new project – so you need to consider how this might affect your project budget and schedule.
Hope this helps somewhat!
Chris (editor, Build It)