Green (Re)Building: Restoration Resources
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 09.13.07
Part of TreeHugger credo reads "'Tis better to recycle, reuse, renovate and restore than to go with new." With that in mind, here are a handful of renovation resources to help you get the most from stuff that's been around the block a time or two, courtesy of Materialicious:
John Leeke's Historic Homeworks -- "Helping owners, tradespeople, contractors and professionals understand and maintain their historic and older buildings."
Old House Parts Company -- focused on "18th, 19th and early 20th century restoration and home improvement Architectural Salvage and Architectural Antiques."
Plus a few we found on our own: Traditional Building Magazine's TradWeb -- a searchable directory for services offered by architects, artisans, contractors, designers, installers, fabricators, managers, consultants and educators in the restoration field.
Custom Building and Restoration Catalog -- whether its asbestos abatement or wrought ironwork, this online catalog of 184 categories has info on just about anything restoration-related.
See also: Ecovation, LEED Renovations, Eco-Renovation Network and domino & TreeHugger's Green List: Renovation. List via ::Materialicious
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These links seem to be mostly about where to find doorknobs to match your Edwardian, which is fine, aesthetically. However, what is really needed is how to make your Edwardian carbon-neutral.
Otherwise, tear the ant-pile down, and re-use it as flooring inside your new Living Building.
That is the stupidest thing I ever heard; tear down a 100+ year old house to build some new green building? I'm sorry, I'd rather replace the doorknobs.
So you're reusing the floors... what about the plaster, the wiring, the plumbing, the phone lines, the joists, the lathe boards, the fixtures, the radiators, the roof, the foundation?
And how do the rowhouse neighbors on either side of you feel about you tearing down your house to build some glass and steel box?
I know some of that wasn't to be taken literally, but if you are reusing 100 year old wiring and pipes, good luck passing an inspection and I worry for your health and safety. Potentially lead pipes and old wiring to burn your house down and release all the stored CO2 in the wood :(
The Australian Greenhouse Office has an excellent website about sustainable house design.
Among pages of useful information, there are a range of case studies, including some on alterations and renovations to existing houses. Although the case studies are in Australia, they are done across a range of climate zones (including cold places and warm places). You just need to replace south with north for the orientation of the sun.
Check them out here ,
I agree, it is better to reuse an existing house (and all the resources) than to demolish it and start over. Sure, you may need to replace the plumbing and wiring, and presumably you'd also be doing things to the windows, putting in sky lights, insulation etc, but as jwer said, you've still got the floors, walls, roof....
happy renovating :-)
To clarify: I was talking about the fact that tearing an old house down produces both reusable materials (most of which the previous commenter was apparently not intending to reuse) and a lot of waste, some of it toxic, as noted below my original comment.
Building a new house requires a lot of energy and materials, as well; this argument is pretty similar to those who think that everyone who has a 5-year old moderately efficient small car should instantly sell it to buy a brand-new Prius.
Used is good!
It does make sence I agree with JC you have to pass inspction so why not go green.