Domicology: practices and consequences of abandoning buildings
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1margd
Defining domicology: Study of practices and consequences of abandoning buildings
By Darien Velasquez | July 10, 2017
Constructing, remodeling and demolishing buildings have significant environmental impacts: natural resources are used to build them and large amounts of waste are sent to landfills when they come down.
...“For right now, we’re looking at ways to discourage structural abandonment for structures that already exist,” Berghorn said. “Then we can start looking proactively at how to end the overall problem.”
Domicology (new word) includes selective and careful building disassembly to recover the maximum amount of materials for reuse, according to Michigan State University’s Center for Community and Economic Development...
Abandoned homes in the U.S. reached a record high of 7.4 million in 2012, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Construction-related waste constitutes one-fourth of landfill waste in the U.S., according to Michigan State’s Center for Community and Economic Development.
...designing for deconstruction (use screws, pole barns easy to deconstruct, etc.)
Tomorrow: Learn about deconstruction and architectural salvaging.
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/10/defining-domicology-study-of-practices-and-...
By Darien Velasquez | July 10, 2017
Constructing, remodeling and demolishing buildings have significant environmental impacts: natural resources are used to build them and large amounts of waste are sent to landfills when they come down.
...“For right now, we’re looking at ways to discourage structural abandonment for structures that already exist,” Berghorn said. “Then we can start looking proactively at how to end the overall problem.”
Domicology (new word) includes selective and careful building disassembly to recover the maximum amount of materials for reuse, according to Michigan State University’s Center for Community and Economic Development...
Abandoned homes in the U.S. reached a record high of 7.4 million in 2012, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Construction-related waste constitutes one-fourth of landfill waste in the U.S., according to Michigan State’s Center for Community and Economic Development.
...designing for deconstruction (use screws, pole barns easy to deconstruct, etc.)
Tomorrow: Learn about deconstruction and architectural salvaging.
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/10/defining-domicology-study-of-practices-and-...
22wonderY
I've helped to deconstruct buildings for salvage. That's just the way it has always gone in Appalachia. My own balloon frame house built in 1914 was built from timbers salvaged from something else. It's apparent from the odd sized pieces and sistering in the framing.
I joined a volunteer crew once taking down a three story home, hoping to get some of the wood clapboard siding. I got T&G flooring instead and used it to replace my front porch floor and a bit on the interior.
I've scavenged plenty of trimwork, mantels, doors, stair treads, ceiling beadboard, even built-in cabinetry. Recently, I've collected brick and block for re-use in a variety of projects. Yeah, I hate that most of the debris goes to the municipal landfill.
I wish that Habitat ReStores would quit using old paneled doors for store décor and let homeowners buy them for use!
My favorite book on the subject is Salvaged Treasures.
I joined a volunteer crew once taking down a three story home, hoping to get some of the wood clapboard siding. I got T&G flooring instead and used it to replace my front porch floor and a bit on the interior.
I've scavenged plenty of trimwork, mantels, doors, stair treads, ceiling beadboard, even built-in cabinetry. Recently, I've collected brick and block for re-use in a variety of projects. Yeah, I hate that most of the debris goes to the municipal landfill.
I wish that Habitat ReStores would quit using old paneled doors for store décor and let homeowners buy them for use!
My favorite book on the subject is Salvaged Treasures.
3margd
Our claim to fame is a hand-me-down toilet in house we are building! Oh, and some cupboards we're employing temporarily in kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, and laundry room. We'll give them to ReStore or friends/family or basement storage eventually. But other than that and some handmedown light fixtures and a repurposed vanity mirror in bathroom--ooh, and a propane fireplace from Craigslist--we're not doing that well, I'm afraid...the frame, roof, finishing materials are all new.
There's quite a few abandoned and cheap homes in Detroit--most extreme fixer-uppers--as discussed in 2nd article mentioned in OP:
Reclaim Detroit finds treasure in blighted homes
By Lucy Schroeder | July 11, 2017
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/11/reclaim-detroit-finds-treasure-in-blighted-...
Tomorrow: Learn about the research to find new ways to reuse the wood holding buildings up.
There's quite a few abandoned and cheap homes in Detroit--most extreme fixer-uppers--as discussed in 2nd article mentioned in OP:
Reclaim Detroit finds treasure in blighted homes
By Lucy Schroeder | July 11, 2017
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/11/reclaim-detroit-finds-treasure-in-blighted-...
Tomorrow: Learn about the research to find new ways to reuse the wood holding buildings up.
42wonderY
>3 margd: Ah! Lath board. When I took down my old plaster walls and ceilings, I learned how to safely remove long sections rather than bashing it into trash. I used much of it for fence pickets, which lasted a decade before rotting away. I've sanded a few pieces and the quality, density and color of the wood is remarkable. I've thought I'd like to buy a planer just to smooth this wood to the point it could be used as a finish material.
And see, others are marketing it online now.
Your list of re-used materials doesn't seem too short. It's not easy to re-use old materials in a new construction home. And lots of late 20th century materials are not worth saving.
And see, others are marketing it online now.
Your list of re-used materials doesn't seem too short. It's not easy to re-use old materials in a new construction home. And lots of late 20th century materials are not worth saving.
5margd
Whew, some slack in third article on using reclaimed lumber for new buildings!
Recycling your home: Can structural wood be reused for the same purpose?
Lucy Schroeder | 7/12/2017
...Robert Falk, a scientist with the U.S. Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, has tested structural wood to see if it can be safely reused as structural wood in yet another building.
Structural wood receives a grade that describes its quality and best use. Once wood has been nailed and cut, it may not be sound enough to be reused structurally. It needs to be tested and re-graded.
Falk and his colleagues attempted to work with the wood and deconstruction industry to develop a new system for grading. But industry officials have decided that it must be regraded by existing standards for new wood, he said.
Because of the high cost to have the wood inspected and re-graded, deconstruction and reclaimed wood industries need large stockpiles of reclaimed lumber to make it worth the expense, Falk said.
...cross-laminated timber products...can be used as a load-bearing wall that does not require additional wood framing.
...Large timbers can be really beautiful,” he said. He sees structural wood being reused for more decorative
...wood pellets to heat homes.
...Other options for wood as a fuel source include torrefied wood, a coal substitute that is better for the environment and equivalent in energy value to coal.
...Another possibility for wood from old homes is biorefinery, which is the process of breaking down the fibers in plant materials into fuels and other useful chemicals.
...For now, the deconstruction industry may be best for serving the local community and reusing the wood in non-structural applications, Falk said.
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/12/recycling-your-home-can-structural-wood-be-...
Recycling your home: Can structural wood be reused for the same purpose?
Lucy Schroeder | 7/12/2017
...Robert Falk, a scientist with the U.S. Forest Products Lab in Madison, Wisconsin, has tested structural wood to see if it can be safely reused as structural wood in yet another building.
Structural wood receives a grade that describes its quality and best use. Once wood has been nailed and cut, it may not be sound enough to be reused structurally. It needs to be tested and re-graded.
Falk and his colleagues attempted to work with the wood and deconstruction industry to develop a new system for grading. But industry officials have decided that it must be regraded by existing standards for new wood, he said.
Because of the high cost to have the wood inspected and re-graded, deconstruction and reclaimed wood industries need large stockpiles of reclaimed lumber to make it worth the expense, Falk said.
...cross-laminated timber products...can be used as a load-bearing wall that does not require additional wood framing.
...Large timbers can be really beautiful,” he said. He sees structural wood being reused for more decorative
...wood pellets to heat homes.
...Other options for wood as a fuel source include torrefied wood, a coal substitute that is better for the environment and equivalent in energy value to coal.
...Another possibility for wood from old homes is biorefinery, which is the process of breaking down the fibers in plant materials into fuels and other useful chemicals.
...For now, the deconstruction industry may be best for serving the local community and reusing the wood in non-structural applications, Falk said.
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/12/recycling-your-home-can-structural-wood-be-...
6margd
Another problem might be pilotage rules such as Jones Act, which limits intra-country shipping to vessels flagged to that country. ETA: Apparently senator McCain once again introduced legislation to repeal 1920 Jones Act. Interesting to see if free trade will trump MAGA in time of Trump-- https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=press-releases&id=886FD58C-...
Containers are being shipped to Nova Scotia and Montreal on ships too big (Panamax) to navigate the Seaway; form these ports goods are shipped on Canadian lakers and barge trains, I think to both US and Cdn ports on the GLs. However, if non-US vessel calls in Toledo, say, it can't pick up cargo to transport to US port. (In addition to economic inefficiencies, it can mean inter-lake transport of ballast water, with invasive species such as Ruffe, rather than cargo.)
#4
Once a hub for building cities, Muskegon could become one for taking them apart
Lucy Schroeder | July 13, 2017
...The researchers evaluated the efficiency of shipping to 10 ports in the Midwest and found that the most appropriate method of shipping deconstruction material is by containers—the large metal boxes that hold cargo on both ships and trucks.
Shipping in containers is safest because materials from abandoned buildings may contain lead, asbestos and other harmful substances, the report said. Ideally, the material could be loaded onto dedicated containers then trucked to the port, where it could be loaded and shipped around the Great Lakes.
The problem?
There is no container shipping industry established in the Great Lakes, LaMore said. And the infrastructure to build containers is expensive...
Tomorrow: Learn about how domicology can spur economic development in the Great Lakes region.
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/13/once-a-hub-for-building-cities-muskegon-cou...
Containers are being shipped to Nova Scotia and Montreal on ships too big (Panamax) to navigate the Seaway; form these ports goods are shipped on Canadian lakers and barge trains, I think to both US and Cdn ports on the GLs. However, if non-US vessel calls in Toledo, say, it can't pick up cargo to transport to US port. (In addition to economic inefficiencies, it can mean inter-lake transport of ballast water, with invasive species such as Ruffe, rather than cargo.)
#4
Once a hub for building cities, Muskegon could become one for taking them apart
Lucy Schroeder | July 13, 2017
...The researchers evaluated the efficiency of shipping to 10 ports in the Midwest and found that the most appropriate method of shipping deconstruction material is by containers—the large metal boxes that hold cargo on both ships and trucks.
Shipping in containers is safest because materials from abandoned buildings may contain lead, asbestos and other harmful substances, the report said. Ideally, the material could be loaded onto dedicated containers then trucked to the port, where it could be loaded and shipped around the Great Lakes.
The problem?
There is no container shipping industry established in the Great Lakes, LaMore said. And the infrastructure to build containers is expensive...
Tomorrow: Learn about how domicology can spur economic development in the Great Lakes region.
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/13/once-a-hub-for-building-cities-muskegon-cou...
7margd
#5 Connecting blighted Great Lakes cities to boost economy
Abigail Heath |July 14, 2017
...Constructing buildings without compromising the recyclability of the materials only adds about one additional day to a construction project,
One example...The system for putting up drywall moved to gluing the slabs directly onto studs that were screwed into the wall. When trying to deconstruct this, the drywall would break and the studs would be ruined because of the glue.... A better system has been created where workers use clips to hang drywall. When deconstructing, workers can manually break the drywall at every clip. Both the drywall sheets and clips are reusable.
“The economy of scale is always going to work best when you’ve got a large concentration of deconstruction,” (George Berghorn, an assistant professor of construction management at Michigan State University) said.
That makes old industrial cities of the Great Lakes region a good source of material.
“Detroit has a huge problem with blight,” said Jeremy Haines, the executive director at Reclaim Detroit, which is a non-profit that reclaims valuable resources from landfills through deconstruction and reuse practices. “Detroit has probably more than 10 times the amount of buildings that need to be taken down than any other city in the country.”
Haines is trying to get at least 3,000 feet of wood from 7 percent of the abandoned houses in Detroit. This equates to $500 million in economic value – starting with the value of the wood, manufacturing it, paying the wholesale prices and then the price the end user pays, he said.
This aids the economy because the price of a material goes up as it circulates from the laborer who removed it from a building to the end retailer, Haines said.
“It would be wonderful for any city to look into adopting reuse and recycling strategies when they issue demolition permits,” Haines said.
But that takes a lot of time and relationship-building between people and politicians, Haines said. Aligning goals with the city and community is the best path to deconstruction and policy changes. This is important because political landscape is a huge factor in what can be done with deconstruction and on what scale...
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/14/connecting-blighted-great-lakes-cities-to-b...
Abigail Heath |July 14, 2017
...Constructing buildings without compromising the recyclability of the materials only adds about one additional day to a construction project,
One example...The system for putting up drywall moved to gluing the slabs directly onto studs that were screwed into the wall. When trying to deconstruct this, the drywall would break and the studs would be ruined because of the glue.... A better system has been created where workers use clips to hang drywall. When deconstructing, workers can manually break the drywall at every clip. Both the drywall sheets and clips are reusable.
“The economy of scale is always going to work best when you’ve got a large concentration of deconstruction,” (George Berghorn, an assistant professor of construction management at Michigan State University) said.
That makes old industrial cities of the Great Lakes region a good source of material.
“Detroit has a huge problem with blight,” said Jeremy Haines, the executive director at Reclaim Detroit, which is a non-profit that reclaims valuable resources from landfills through deconstruction and reuse practices. “Detroit has probably more than 10 times the amount of buildings that need to be taken down than any other city in the country.”
Haines is trying to get at least 3,000 feet of wood from 7 percent of the abandoned houses in Detroit. This equates to $500 million in economic value – starting with the value of the wood, manufacturing it, paying the wholesale prices and then the price the end user pays, he said.
This aids the economy because the price of a material goes up as it circulates from the laborer who removed it from a building to the end retailer, Haines said.
“It would be wonderful for any city to look into adopting reuse and recycling strategies when they issue demolition permits,” Haines said.
But that takes a lot of time and relationship-building between people and politicians, Haines said. Aligning goals with the city and community is the best path to deconstruction and policy changes. This is important because political landscape is a huge factor in what can be done with deconstruction and on what scale...
http://greatlakesecho.org/2017/07/14/connecting-blighted-great-lakes-cities-to-b...
8John5918
I'm a bit taken aback at the industrial scale that these last few posts seem to be dealing with. I identify more with the comment at the end of >5 margd: about best serving the local community.
We tend to reuse building materials for smaller projects where structural integrity is less essential - fences, gates, sheds, chicken houses, stables, carports, etc. Also for decorative purposes, as mentioned somewhere above. Incidentally, in Nairobi and presumably many other cities, you can buy secondhand building materials, including roof and floor tiles, bricks, doors, windows, gates, timber, corrugated iron sheets, bathtubs, toilet bowls, wash basins and more, by the roadside in certain markets and industrial areas.
We tend to reuse building materials for smaller projects where structural integrity is less essential - fences, gates, sheds, chicken houses, stables, carports, etc. Also for decorative purposes, as mentioned somewhere above. Incidentally, in Nairobi and presumably many other cities, you can buy secondhand building materials, including roof and floor tiles, bricks, doors, windows, gates, timber, corrugated iron sheets, bathtubs, toilet bowls, wash basins and more, by the roadside in certain markets and industrial areas.
9margd
>8 John5918: You would weep to see homes on market for just a few thousand in Detroit. A few artsy types are taking advantage, but often the city gets them for taxes and they sit for years before being torn down, destroying what remains of local property values for neighbors struggling to hang on. Too often, wouldbe purchasers face major rehab of gutted buildings, dangerous neighborhoods, and high taxes as fewer people shoulder the costs of running a once-large city. Photographers actually flock to the city to capture ruins of such beautiful old buildings as Michigan Central Station. With your love of RRs, that one will really make you weep: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31596161
10John5918
>9 margd:
Oh my, what a magnificent building.
In UK, where many buildings have "listed" heritage status and can't be demolished or altered without special permission, there has been a practice of keeping the facade of the building and reconstructing the interior. This also includes many of the new apartments built in old warehouses in upmarket areas such as London's Docklands. Copenhagen is another European city where it's nice to see historic buildings modernised and still in daily use. I think it's such a shame to see old buildings knocked down instead of converted.
Oh my, what a magnificent building.
In UK, where many buildings have "listed" heritage status and can't be demolished or altered without special permission, there has been a practice of keeping the facade of the building and reconstructing the interior. This also includes many of the new apartments built in old warehouses in upmarket areas such as London's Docklands. Copenhagen is another European city where it's nice to see historic buildings modernised and still in daily use. I think it's such a shame to see old buildings knocked down instead of converted.
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