Buffalo ReUse Completes First Deconstruction
The final debris were cleared away last night from 26 Lombard St., where just days ago another house stood neglected in its East Side neighborhood. But, thanks to Buffalo’s newest non-profit, this house fell by deconstruction, not total demolition. So instead of wasting away in a landfill, many of the home’s remains will find new life in other corners of the city. And the lot where the house once stood will likely become a garden for its very happy, horticulturally-blessed neighbor.
Volunteers with Buffalo ReUse took down the house, their first deconstruction attempt, in just four days. With 6-8 volunteers working each day, through the rain and mud, the group completely dismantled the building to ground level and successfully recycled 1,000s of pounds of material. All the salvaged material will be on sale at their Ellicott Street warehouse this Sunday.
The crew worked under the supervision of national deconstruction consultant David Bennink, of Re-Use Consulting, who has been guiding the founding members along their journey. He has clients from coast-to-coast who are trying to change the way societies look at their buildings and their resources.
Michael Gainer, executive director of Buffalo Re-Use, brought Bennink in to teach the new group techniques for deconstruction, which will continue to evolve with each new project.
"Now we know we can do it,” Gainer said upon completion Monday. “It's challenging but meaningful work. I think we're really ready to put this idea into motion and fulfill our mission."
The very triumphant, yet very tired, group will set out to dismantle their second home, on Wasson Street, on May 18.
Buffalo ReUse’s warehouse at 459 Ellicott St. will be open from noon to 3 p.m. this Sunday, May 6. Check here for a list of their salvaged inventory.
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sbrof
This is really a great project. To be able to recapture the energy and money that went into these buildings is great for the city and the environment. The site itself looks 1000 times cleaner than on a typical demolition lot and it probably more ready to be reused for something else in the future. No lead paint, no chunks of treated lumber, no tar shingles, it looks like earth again, not rubble.
What do you guys do about the foundations? Are those deconstructed as well? It is a shame that these structures need to be taken down but it it has to happen then I can't think of a better way to do it.
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Kernwatch
It is good to see Buffalo Re-Use up & running on the threshold of a massive demolition initiative by the City.
Rich Tobe summarized on Michele Johnson's radio show yesterday that the City has allocated $14 million for demolitions in the coming fiscal year. The city has $6 million in the new budget beginning July 1 & is awaiting $8 million more from NYS. He also expressed stong support for deconstruction & its potential to create neighborhood jobs, while reducing landfill.
Tobe reviewed some shocking statistics:
a. 40% of fire calls are to vacant structures
b. The city did 144 emergency demo’s last year at a cost of $2.4 million.
c. There are over 22,000 housing vacancies (NOTE: 2000 Census, likely 25,000 today?) in 10,000 vacant structures.
d. There are 7 vacant units for every 100 persons in Bflo.
e. It costs the city $20,000 to maintain a city-owned house over 5 years
f. The city plans to demolish 1,000 structures annually for a decade.
It was also good to hear from Tobe that there are clearer criteria & priorities for determining order of demo’s:
1. Emergency demo of dangerous or fire-destroyed house.
2. Bad houses by public institution (school, agency, etc)
3. Good block with single bad house
4. Proposed site for new housing
5. Eventual landbanking (badly needed, but Tobe not promising it immediately)
Tobe also committed to removing any house from the demo list for 6 months if interested parties want to explore their capacity to rehab it.
This hand demolition initiative is long overdue.
About 5-7 years ago I was required to demolish 452 Sweet, a $2,000 HUD-forelosed house, when the occupant & block-club secretary failed to make promised repairs or repay my rehab loan to her. I contracted with an alleged environmentally-friendly demolition contractor from Lackawanna, who turned out to be a scammer. Having been convicted of "failure to evict" by Hosuing Court Judge Michael Broderick, I contracted for a $6,000 demolition with an ES contractor. It was the 26th demolition on the block of devastated Sweet Avenue (near Walden Ave).
Dick Kern, (in Mpls)
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BryanJamesWhitley
This is an awesome venture and I hope that it catches on across the city. What better way to preserve an unpreservible home than to reuse it!
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MisterChips
I hate hate hate demolitions but there is something that has to be said about Buffalo reuse. I drove by Lombard Street and had a look myself. If we have to lose these houses, I'm all for bringing in Buffalo Reuse.
These houses served generations of Buffalo families and neighborhoods. They were humbly built but people still grew up and laughed and cried and loved and lived full lives in them. It's like the day when you realize that your frail elderly dog or cat should not have to live pain-filled days anymore. When that happens, you don't throw it under a bus, you go to a vet for a respectful, gentle injection.
There is something shockingly violent about the bulldozer coming in and leveling a well-lived house in under an hour. Taking the time to separate and treat the timbers and windows and usable components with respect is like that careful euthanasia instead of that oncoming bus.
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viking
Half the projects I've been associated with have used recycled building materials, mostly because of the saving and some for unique characteristics. Habitat For Humanity is also a great resource for items and maintains a resale store. I hope this endeavor continues and grows.
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Denizen
This is setting an awfully great precedent for Buffalo! As these houses stand abandoned in these blighted areas, most people wouldn't touch them with a 10 ft. pole. But in a deconstructed state the value of each material component is worth a lot.
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KPHayes
Sbrof asks:
What do you guys do about the foundations? Are those deconstructed as well?
At this point, we're deconstructing houses without basements. The first two houses have beams on stone piers. We'd only deconstruct and save foundation materials if we can do it efficiently, so depending on the desired use of the property after deconstruction, we'll have a demolition contractor either bury the foundation or dig it out entirely.
Kevin Hayes, Buffalo ReUse
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KPHayes
Mr. Kern raises several significant points. Buffalo ReUse is offering an alternative to the City's approach of demolition on a large scale. Even with the plan Commissioner Tobe laid out, they'll never catch up or do much more than pick away at the problem. I'm not criticizing; I know they're frustrated and a bit overwhelmed at the scope of the situation.
Buffalo ReUse is in its startup phase. We intend to deconstruct 20 houses this year, 10 for private owners and 10 for the City. We'll be building our skills and our core team of deconstructors. We expect to expand the deconstruction efforts and begin job training within a year.
So our effort is smaller than the City's, of course, but we believe it will be significant over time.
I haven't added it all up yet, but we have hundreds of board feet of reusable lumber, 6x8, 8x8, 3x10, 2x8 hemlock in lengths up to 18 feet, pine flooring, some trim, that is available for sale now. We also diverted as much as 5 tons of wood from the landfill; this will be ground up for garden mulch. So we've reduced the landfill impact, created usable materials and created a vacant lot for the Lombard Street neighbors to use for whatever they want (not that there's a shortage of vacant lots!)
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KPHayes
Buffalo ReUse’s warehouse at 459 Ellicott St. will be open from noon to 3 p.m. this Sunday, May 6. Check here for a list of their salvaged inventory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be updating this inventory later today and will post it on our website.
We'll be open from noon to 4pm right next to the Washington Market.
Kevin Hayes, Buffalo ReUse
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KPHayes
I'd like to explain the top picture in Anna's article.
It shows us lifting the second-to-last piece of the house, the gable end facing Lombard Street. We started at the back where we had room to operate our machines and worked methodically toward the front. We use an extendible-booom forklift, slings and chains to lift and move sections of the house.
Basically, hybrid deconstruction is an approach that uses machines and human power to dismantle a house safely and efficiently. Using saws, we cut each section, or panel, away from the house, then lift it to a staging area where it's further dismantled. For example, one side of a roof or one wall or floor will be a panel, as large as 20 feet square. After it's dismantled into its components, we remove nails, trim ends, then transport to our warehouse.
We focus on efficiently salvaging material with real value. For the Lombard Street house, that's mostly lumber, though we have a large pile of pier stones and some old red bricks also. All the other salvage, fixtures, doors and windows etc. has already been removed.
As we continue deconstructing, we'll be selling lots of material directly from the job site.
I'll have more pictures soon on our website, www.buffaloreuse.org, that will show the sequence of events and some details of the process. I'd be more than happy to answer any questions anyone may have.
Kevin Hayes
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mgainer
Thank you all for your positive support of Buffalo ReUse and a huge thank you to all the volunteers that supported the effort on our first project.
Please refer our website to others that may be interested in voluteering, providing financial support, or purchasing salvaged materials.
A huge thank you to the board of buffalo reuse. These committed folks have committed hours of time, skills, and labor to bring this idea to reality. Your passion, commitment, and diligence have driven our organization forward.
We welcome interested folks to get involved...we're growing and need your support. It's an exciting project and you can be involved in helping to direct the mission. Call us to get involved 885-4131 or email volunteer@buffaloreuse.org.
Finally, hybrid deconstruction is a technically involved skill that involves training and support. We will be employees employees in the near future, particularly folks that have some background in the trades, retail management/sales, and community development. If you would like to be considered for a position, please send your resume to info@buffaloreuse.org. We will likely be hiring employees in the next 1-3 months and will have job announcements and descriptions on our website in the upcoming weeks.
Many thanks, Michael
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