At some point or another all of us who love architectural design would like to own “the perfect house.” And we run head-on into the economics of making an existing house into something new. So when is it better to renovate and when should we invite “Mr. Bulldozer” to come to the house and level it?
I am on my third significant remodel, and each time we left the house more or less in-tact, but replaced systems, windows, doors, hardware and finishes. In every case, the existing house had more influence on the final product than my imagined “perfect house,” but the idea of sending several debris boxes full of stuff to the dump is not appealing, nor is the $10,000 - $20,000+ cost. So what to do?
This Old House has this to say on the matter:
As a last resort, it’s sometimes smarter to rip it down. If the framing is inadequate, the foundation frail, or the house has suffered major water damage, knocking everything down and building new is an option, particularly when the house has no historic or architectural value.
On the other hand, there are companies who will come out to the house and do all or some reclamation for you. Whole House Building Supply, an East Palo Alto, CA company will come out to your job site and run an auction. Architectural salvage yards, used building supply companies and other builders buy the parts of the existing house that they can re-use. The proceeds, in the case of WHBS, are then donated and the owner gets a healthy tax write-off.
Alternatively, you can hire a building contractor skilled in de-construction. An article in Entrepreneur Magazine offers details about a project in Philadelphia where deconstruction was contracted out. They list the desired qualifications and selection considerations:
The RFQ outlined:
- Services to be required
- Submittal requirements
- Additional considerations for evaluation
- Schedule.
Selection Criteria:
- Price
- Qualifications and capabilities
- Proposed techniques to recover materials
- Waste management strategy
- Disposition of recovered materials
- Personnel
- Schedule
In the case of the Philadelphia project, they found that hand demolition cost $8.94 vs a range of $7.75 to $9.30 for regular demolition. Of course, the savings are more substantial if you reuse the materials yourself.
One final option is to use a company like The Reuse People in Oakland, CA. TRP will hand “de-consruct” your home (for a fee). They then donate the value of the de-constructed material in your name and you get the write-off. Here is an spreadsheet from their site detailing the savings:
Before calling in the ‘dozers, consider one more thing; there are loads of “small” costs that you need to include when calculating the cost of removing and replacing an existing structure. I will only mention one (of many).
We had to move a PG&E (gas) meter at our house to put in a new patio. The meter will move a total of 8′. the cost of the work looks like it will be in the $4,000 neighborhood. The cost of installing a new meter woud be higher. Just a couple of those can throw the economics of the de-construction into the toilet.
Resources mentioned in the post:
This Old House Article
Whole House Building Supply
New York Times Article
Entrepreneur Magazine Article
The Reuse People
Not mentioned, but interesting:
NPR podcast on rebuilding
Please let me know your thoughts, or send me other resources.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Sean // Apr 28, 2008 at 9:16 pm
You don’t seem to factor in the embedded energy in an existing house. Even if you manage to do thoughtful salvage like you’ve outlined above, it’s much more energy-conscious to re-use as much of an old building as possible in situ. Something about construction contributing some inordinate amount of the carbon dioxide being poured into the atmosphere.
If you really need to build your so-called “perfect” house, go out into the sticks, clear several acres of old growth, and commute the longer distance in an high-status, low-mileage truck.
Just don’t tear down any old buildings.
Thank you.
2 admin // Apr 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Good point. Of course, the buyers of reclaimed lumber and architectural parts are likely to be local, so the transportation effects should be minimal.
Also, the “dream” house would almost certainly be significantly more energy-efficient than a ready-to-demolish older home. My experience is that when a home is merely spruced up, many of the existing, uninsulated walls, ceilings floors and single-glazed windows are left to leak energy.
This is important in California, but would be especially true in Newton.
3 Sean // May 7, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Apples to oranges.
If you’re considering a tear down, your budget can accommodate more than a spruce up. And, if you’ve only got the budget to spruce up, a tear down is probably not an alternative.
Also, the sellers of the materials that you are going to use are not likely going to be local. Net loss.
Insulate and replace energy-inefficient systems like leaky windows, but don’t start from scratch.
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