Making It Go Round: Recycled House Parts
This Old House’s Jordan Novet has put together a great list of “house part thrift stores” bringing to light the thriving second life of unused construction materials, and where to find them. Many of our favorite stomps made the list, like Build It Green! NYC and the Building Materials Resource Center Building Materials Resource Center, where you’ll find donations from Scott’s company SBK Unlimited.
The list covers centers across the nation and readers have piped in with their favorites to add to the coverage. It’s definitely worth a look, and not just for specialty items. These organizations have everything from lumber to finishing touches and for a wide range of styles. The common element is reuse and keeping perfectly good materials from taking up space in landfills.
In addition to taking on complete renovations, Scott has refurbished quite a few light fixtures in his time, much to our mom’s delight. We actually find house-part recycling centers as difficult to walk out of empty handed as a visit to Buddy Dog, because we’re suckers for just about everything that just needs a good home.
My favorite recycled parts house is this beauty, The Big Dig House, which turned over 600,000lbs of construction “waste” from the infamous redesign of Boston’s main artery into this stunning residence (Via Inhabitat). The Big Dig is done of course but you can still find parts for your project at House-Part Recycling Centers.
top photo: Via Old House Parts
