Kyle Keever's blog

In these lean economic times reusing building components can help save money and the environment but there are a few things to think about first. Has your desire to recycle and reuse caused you to sacrifice some of your end results of the construction? Will any savings of your reuse recycle efforts be offset by having to protect, augment or remove and reset those components. Who will be responsible for warrantying those reused items? Reusing and recycling components is on the face of it a good thing. However if you’re a building owner that is trying to update your building to find higher end tenants, chances are there will be very little that should not be upgraded. If the original components don’t lend themselves to the design then by all means recycle them by donating to Habitat for Humanity or other building material recycling companies. However don’t let your desire to reuse force you to settle for less. Many times when an item is designated in a construction project to be saved and reused that item becomes one of the most expensive pieces of the project. This is usually because the fixture or whatever it may be needs to be taken down during construction, stored, reinstalled and in some cases augmented to work in its new environment. With extra handling comes more opportunities for damage to the item. It always makes sense to look at the costs of reusing something before making that decision. Another pit fall of reuse is that if for example you wish to reuse the toilets in your building, and after they are re installed a leak develops flooding the the bathroom and the causing some damage who’s responsible? Assuming the toilet was installed properly, there is nobody to warranty the problem and the owner is left with cleaning up the mess. In the same example if the plumber had supplied new toilets, the plumber would be responsible for cleaning up the mess and correcting the problem. This is not to say arrangements can’t be worked out to clearly define who warranties what in a situation of reuse but that would of course need to happen at the beginning of the project. I believe reuse to be something everyone should try to do when renovating an existing building. However it’s not as cut and dry as it may sound. Making sure you are not sacrificing your design, paying attention to the possible added costs for reuse and determining the level of warranties for reused items need to be taken into account. If it can’t be reused on your site it surely it will be valuable in another project and can find its way there through the companies that recycle building materials. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kyle Keever eats, breathes and blogs about custom general contracting in Seattle, Wa... Seattle, Custom Contractors