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Discussion Forum

salvage

OldGuy | Posted in General Discussion on February 28, 2008 07:14am

Quite often I’ve seen postings here of architectural salvage someone has come up with.

How does one find such items? Just lucky? Hanging out at a deconstruction company?

I have had random thoughts of creating a salvage yard where folk could come to purchase said items. I don’t want to just gather a bunch of house parts for the heck of it. (sure I don’t…)

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  1. Scrapr | Feb 28, 2008 07:21pm | #1

    This is a pretty big deconstruction/salvage place in Portland.

    Get most of it for no cost. Sell for market value. They can provide deconstruction as well.

     

    http://www.rebuildingcenter.org/

  2. Dave45 | Feb 28, 2008 07:34pm | #2

    A demolition company would probably know about salvage yards in your area - if there are any. - lol

    There used to be one here in San Jose and it was kind of cool to wander thru it - they had lots of cool "junk", but it wasn't cheap. 

    I once broke the lid to an old toilet tank and found a replacement there.  It was a little pricey, but it was cheaper than replacing the whole toilet. - lol

    1. OldGuy | Feb 28, 2008 08:17pm | #3

      We have a couple demo companies in the area. I'll be making contact with them. Normally they just appear on site with some large equipment and containers. three hours later you would not know a house had been there. I usually find out about these things after the fact.

  3. frenchy | Feb 28, 2008 08:54pm | #4

    oldguy,

     Talk to your local habitate for humanity chapter.

      They frequently get stuff donated that sometimes is too cool to use in their houses.

      MY local chapter got a whole bathroom done in white marble.. While you may not need 12 marble urinals the marble for the stalls and walls were great big pieces and most were undamaged.   The sinks were cool beyond belief as were the old fashioned pull chain toilets..  (maybe you don't need a dozen?)

      They've also been donated whole churches which the roof trusses alone are enough to make my mouth water and some great stained glass windows (as long as you don't mind the religious theme)..  Not to mention the alter and pulpits etc..

      They had a pair opf sliding doors that were 4 feet wide and 9 feet tall made of carved 1/4 sawn white oak. The hardware alone was impressive!

    1. jet | Feb 29, 2008 02:40am | #7

      Ya beat me by 6 hours. I was going to say the same thing. I found a "Homes for Humanity" in Toronto for a friend and got a like new window (double hung alum,) about 24WX36H for $100.

      They had rooms full of old doors/casings/ Fire place mantles/antique "style" vanities (I'm sure the real antiques were sold off to dealers at a much higher price)/Just tons of stuff."No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it's only a question of degree." - W.C. Fields

      1. frenchy | Feb 29, 2008 04:44pm | #12

        Jet,

         That's a case of networking helps.. Go find out who runs their warehouse and bring him some rolls and coffee, sit down with him and express what you are interested in.  Explain what you are willing to do for them (ie for example, strip old houses of any architectural salvage and haul it to the warehouse) A good relationship and you will be rewarded for your efforts with complimentary pieces, or first dibs on them, or discounted prices)

           The antique dealers who buy seldom want to do the required salvage work.  So you'll be in ahead of those guys.. 

  4. theslateman | Feb 28, 2008 08:59pm | #5

    You've got to establish a network so that you get the call prior to the excavators arriving on the scene.

    Once in the loop you'll perhaps get the few days prior to wrecking to go in and salvage architectural items. Other ways are to buy from "pickers" who know you have interest in these items.

    Building a network takes time, but is rewarding when you get time to save items from a certain fate in the landfill.

  5. dirtyturk | Feb 29, 2008 12:58am | #6

    All the methods that the other guys threw out are spot on. Most of the things that they mentioned take time but the rewards are certainly there.

    My own salvage story goes to your quest.

    I sat on the local architectural bored of review so I could see what developments were coming into town. (I have an 1837 farmhouse). Right in the middle of town there was a 700acre farm. Developer bought it. Had a four other houses along with the farm. All got torn down. But....there was this one old house on 11acres that stuck into the side of this larger farm. I told the project manager of the developer that someday he's going to be buying that place and I wanted first dibs on the insides.

    He smiles, OK. Three years later they did buy the house, 1850 vintage, and he calls me to say their tearing it down in about a month was I still interested.

    I was allowed to remove anything and everything from the house. My Dining room, Kitchen, Foyer, Living room and Office now have all that trim, details, and doors installed.

    Cost? A Thank You note!

    Make yourself know as a potential salvager to any and all and their brothers. And I'm sure that you know your area and where the building is going on. Restoration companys' may be looking for someone to part out a section of building. You'll develop a sense of the value of what you find as time goes on.

    We're not true pothunters (thieves of antiquity) but getting even a few things back into a house is a great pursuit.

    ciao, ted

     

  6. DougU | Feb 29, 2008 03:22am | #8

    OG

    There are some areas that do a really good job recycling good reusable architectural stuff and there are places like the area that I live in that totally suck at it!

    Chicago has a big place that sells about everything under the sun. As do numerous other places.

    I've seen first hand some beautiful places just demo'd without any regard for saving the good stuff, and there is plenty of good stuff in some of these older homes.

    There was  a local church here that needed more parking, they bought up three adjoining properties, all older homes. They ran an add to give the houses away to anybody that wanted them, only condition was that they had to be moved - no tear down, just move it off the lot.

    I went to take a look at the 3 houses. Two didn't have anything that I was interested in but the third one, wow! double pocket doors in spoon carved walnut. 8" high base with a nice bolection molding on top, walnut as well.  All man doors were also walnut.

    I had no interest in moving the house and there wasn't anyplace close by to move it to so as to do a demo. I went to the church and offered to buy the woodwork out the place for $3000. NO DEAL, they were not going to sell it to me. They would rather have the building bulldozed over then take the 3 G's and off set the demo work. Nothing I could offer them short of taking the whole building away from the site interested them. Bunch of fools! What a freaking waste. House came down and all material made its way to our local landfill!

    Damn shame but I think I could tell you 8 or 10 stories similar  to this one and that's just the ones that I know about in my little area.

    You gotta keep your eyes out for the stuff and act on it, dont always mean that you'll get it but you gotta make the effort.

    We have habitate resale stores that get some good stuff, gotta hit it up often to find the good stuff. We used to have a boys club/group thing that did a lot of demo work, it was designed to give troubled kids a place to work and do some recycling at the same time. Funding for this program disappeared and so did the store.

    Doug

    1. OldGuy | Feb 29, 2008 06:56am | #9

      Thanks to all for the great replies and tips.Maybe thirty years ago I went to a house auction. Contents and parts were for auction as the house was to be torn down to increase a parking area. Missed getting a nearly new multi fuel furnace that ended up going for $2.00 (I came on the scene a bit late and thought the auctioneer was asking for $200.00).I'm off to follow some leads!

      1. theslateman | Feb 29, 2008 02:51pm | #10

        Keep us posted with your finds please

        1. OldGuy | Feb 29, 2008 03:12pm | #11

          absolutely!

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