Remains of the day, April 2005

Remains of the day - using recycled building materials, April 2005

Hey presto. What was once a rotten timber window frame, is now a kitchen cupboard door. And old timber fence palings have been transformed into a bathroom vanity cabinet.
Carpenter Geoff Williams built his quirky Kangaroo Valley house from an old weatherboard cottage which was destined for demolition but was saved after he bought it for $3500.
He humbly describes his large four-bedroom, two bathroom house which he built from a materials salvaged from the 1920s era cottage as “just a bunch of old stuff”.
“I tell people that I’ve got Chopper Read in the laundry and Neddy Smith in the kitchen, because at least it gives the house a story,” he says.
The wire mesh on the kitchen and laundry doors is metal sheeting salvaged from the old holding cells of a Wollongong court house.
“That sheeting had all kinds of foul things scratched into the back of it and we cleaned up the front of it, but when you open the cupboards you can see what the crims had scratched into the back of it,” he says.
Geoff and his wife Monica built the Kangaroo Valley house over a four-year period and used recycled materials for one reason – to save on costs.
“I’m not big on recycling, I just did what I could based on price – I could not afford to do it with new materials,” he says.

CHANGE IN SHIFT

Chippendale Restorations owner Jeremy Lethlean says the market for recycled materials has changed in the last 15 years, with previously hard-to-shift Federation era materials proving more popular.
“The world’s become wealthier and houses are worth more so the people that own them can afford to spend money to restore them,” he says.
“You’ve got one half of Sydney demolishing their old houses to build something new and the other half paying money to restore their old houses.”
There are at least a dozen second hand materials yards in Sydney, with many concentrating on selling bricks, doors and windows to renovators.
A select few outlets are starting to specialise in more select – and expensive – recycled materials that are rare and beautiful, such as fireplace surrounds, leadlight, cast iron work and unusual timber doors and windows.
The trend for minimalist interiors and modern streamlined furniture has hit the recycled materials business hard, says Sydney’s biggest building materials recycler Chris Barber.
“Hopefully it will all go out of fashion again – the only thing that looked any good in those concrete warehouse places was the nice chunky timber posts, which were recycled,” says the owner of Second Hand Building Centre at Rockdale.
Many demolishers and recyclers report builders’ reluctance to use the materials which may be heavier, require restoration or involve non-standard sizes.
“Some of those builders just want plastic rubbish that’s ABC and as easy to put together as a meccano set,” Barber says.
Barber says there are two distinct markets for recycled building materials – the do-it-yourself market and the more lucrative and growing architectural market.
“We are now importing some beautiful French doors with timber shutters that came out of beautiful old buildings in South America – stuff that was never done in Australia and is so good that architects are designing whole houses around it,” he says.
Barber is importing items like chandeliers, leadlights, doors and windows from countries which would never recycle the materials themselves – and charging decent prices, with double front door sets costing around $2750.
Architect Christopher Gillett uses recycled materials in the $1.5-million-plus renovations he specialises in on Sydney’s upper north shore.
“I don’t use recycled materials because they are cheap, I use them because it is something very special,” he says.
“Recycled hardwood floors look amazing with the wormholes and bolt holes still in them and they have such a rich colour and hardness when they are old – they just don’t even compare to the new hardwood.”
Heritage building designer Ray Pecotich says the beauty and quality of recycled timber is often overlooked, especially as people think it has to look rustic or country-ish.
“It doesn’t have to have that rustic look, in fact if you strip it back to see the grain and finish it correctly it will look better than any other new material,” he says.
Pecotich has saved old hardwood floors from skips, re-used timber from warehouses in kitchen benches and re-fashioned Federation and Victorian timber doors into built-in wardrobes.

THE BENEFITS

Sustainable building consultant Michael Mobbs says there are two huge benefits of buying recycled materials – firstly, it reduces demand for new products and secondly reduces landfill.
“Most renovators are the victims of poor building and waste practices and they are happy to pay $10,000 to demolish a house and create waste,” he says. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to re-use what people don’t want?”
The executive director of the Urban Development Institute of Australia David Poole says the land shortage in Sydney has effectively created a spate of house demolitions to make way for relatively affordable new project homes or townhouse developments.
It is cheaper to demolish houses and rebuild than it is to renovate, with the project home industry boasting that renovation costs up to twice as much per square metre than building from scratch.
Geoff and Monica Williams bought their old weatherboard cottage after it was destined for demolition. Geoff spent two weeks dismantling it from its home in Berry, loading it on to a truck and driving it up the mountain, where he de-nailed the timber and stacked it near the house he was building.
The Williams’ didn’t restrict themselves to using only recycled materials in their house – they have used new materials as well because there wasn’t enough material in the old cottage to go around.
Geoff estimates he saved more than $10,000 in material costs by recycling materials, but says he spent many hours de-nailing, stacking and rebuilding the materials for re-use.
The boom of demolition may create a bonanza of potential recycled building materials – but only if demolishers take the time to dismantle houses and don’t dump all the materials at the tip.
As Good As Used Building Materials owner Gerry Perceval says 95 per cent of demolishers just drive 20-tonne excavators through a house to break it up small enough to take the entire amount to the tip.
“I actually take the house apart and then salvage the materials to re-sell in the yard because I think it’s a crime to waste so much.”

MATERIAL SIDE OF THINGS

Demolisher Steve Bassett, who owns the House Recycling Centre, says the most common building material recycled in Sydney is old hardwood, including timber beams, posts, bearers, floorboards and weatherboards and joists.
“The recycled hardwood is actually better than the new stuff because it’s done all the shrinking and twisting that it will ever do,” he says.
Demolisher Andre Frykers says all kinds of materials can be recycled, especially old bricks set in lime mortar, Victorian, Federation and Art Deco era solid timber doors and windows, Marseille roof tiles, old iron work such as posts and iron lace, old stoves and fittings like door handles, window latches.
The materials available vary from yard to yard, but generally a renovator can save between 30 and 50 per cent buying recycled materials compared to new – although there are many specialist items that are one-offs that command a premium.
It’s usually pick and pull and cash deals rule. Most recycling yards will not guarantee the materials they sell, but at least five demolishers interviewed for this story said they will refund the money if something is faulty and could not be checked before purchase.
“I hope more people will start to buy second-hand – you don’t know how many times I have bought something back to the yard, only to have to take it to the tip six months later because no-one has bought it,” says demolisher Steve Bassett, from House Recycling Centre.
“It’s only worth something if you’ve got a customer who will pay something for it

BREAKOUT CASE STUDY

Markus Lambert is a hunter gatherer.
He stakes out houses that are about to be demolished and waits for the demolition team to arrive and then offers to remove the best materials from the site – usually for next to nothing.
The demolishers are happy – they have saved tipping and transport fees – and Markus ends up with materials like Victorian sash windows for $30 a pop, or kauri floorboards for $1 a metre.
“I have a sixth sense about these houses. I see that the grass is growing long and it looks a bit neglected and then, boom, the fence goes up and the demolisher hangs his sign out the front,” he explains.
“Then you go in and you can do deals with them to take the stuff you want.”
Lambert and his wife Dai Le have successfully built and renovated several houses using a mix of recycled and new materials.
“I am one of those people who can’t stand stuff being chucked out when it should be recycled,” he says.
“I have seen truck loads of Kauri being dumped at the tip and that’s $4000 or $5000 of material going into landfill – it’s criminal.”
Lambert says he built a first storey addition to his Victorian house in Dulwich Hill for $110,000 in 2000, which was $30,000 cheaper than the best builders’ estimate.
“I rang up one of the timber companies to get quotes for the windows and it would have cost me $20,000 to buy all 17 of them new – but I spent $1800 on windows and 100 square metres of floorboards by using recycled stuff,” he says.
“You have to be committed and you have to treat it like a hobby, like it’s something you can enjoy.”
Lambert – who works in local government – says it should be mandatory to recycle at least 20 or 30 per cent of every house that is demolished.
“So much is going to waste because labour costs are so high that it’s more efficient to just bulldoze everything down and take it in a truck to the tip instead of take some time to remove things carefully so they can be re-used.”
Lambert says he goes through different hunting and gathering phases, depending on his own renovation and building needs.
“I go through the gatherer period, then the use-it period, then the I-don’t-need-it-anymore-and-my-wife-wants-me-to-get-rid-of-it period,” he says.
“At one stage I had 11 stoves in my backyard.”

Hints for buying second hand

Know the materials you want – and the specific sizes you are after. You may have to be patient to get what you want.
Visit recycling yards with a tape measure and some tough negotiating skills.
Most of the deals are done for cash, and the more you buy the more you can save.
Most recyclers and demolishers won’t guarantee the quality of the materials, but many are happy to refund your money if something fails to work once it is installed.
Try to deal directly with demolishers to get the best prices. Most can organise delivery.
Regularly check the newspaper classifieds for materials that are available – sometime things are free if you can remove the material on the same day.

LIST OF SYDNEY SUPPLIERS

Chippendale Restorations
Cnr Parsons St & Crescent Sts, Rozelle
26 Parsons St
Tel: 9810 6066
Large range of restored and unrestored windows, doors, fireplaces, iron fencing, . Also stocks reproduction materials.

The Home Recycling Centre
12a Parramatta Rd, Lidcombe
Tel: 1300 739 888
A yard with garage doors, old stoves from $100, hot water heaters from $150, timber doors from $100, aluminium and timber windows, cleaned bricks, de-nailed timber, basins, sinks and taps.

Architectural and Antique elements
124 James St, Leichhardt
Tel: 9560 3067
A range of restored and unrestored windows, fireplaces, iron work, timber doors and imported antique materials such as timber or iron doors.

Second hand Building Centre
Rear 432B West Botany St, Rockdale
Tel: 9567 1322
Sydney’s largest recycling yard with everything imaginable, including special French doors salvaged from Argentina and hardwoods.

Terrace House Factory
304-308 Harris St, Ultimo
Tel: 9660 6768
One of the cheapest yards with restored kooka stoves, leadlight and Federation windows, timber doors, fireplaces, tiles and light fittings. Prices start at $2 for a tile or handle and go up to more than $1000 for rare cedar doors.

Riverside Secondhand Building Supplies
66 Riverside Rd, Chipping Norton
Tel: 9755 3984
A yard part-owned by demolishers which sells a range of salvaged material like bricks, fencing, roofing, doors and windows.

Quality Recycled Building Materials
34 Woodfield Blvd, Caringbah
Tel: 9542 7203
A yard with a range of salvaged materials, including timber, doors and windows.

Ironwood Antique Timbers
88-90 Lilyfield Rd Rozelle
Tel: 9818 1166
The biggest range of recycled hardwood, salvaged from bridges and wharves as well as reclaimed timber from dead trees.

As Good As Used Building Material
House Recycling
89 Dunheved Cct St Marys
Tel: 9673 5398
A big yard with timber and aluminium doors and windows, roof material, combustion heaters, ovens, stoves, blinds and pool fencing.

Brookvale Recycled Second Hand Building Materials
Unit 12 Meatworks Ave Oxford Falls
Tel: 9451 5566
A large yard which sells bricks for .50 cents, roof tiles for $1.10 each and a range of floor tiles, toilets, doors, windows, iron, sinks and vanity units.

Andre’s Demolition and Building Recycling
Harbord 9938 1980
There is no public yard, but this demolisher will take orders and sells sinks for $50, second hand stoves, timber, doors and windows, and recycled sandstone for $300 a load.


contact me alex may \| books \| property \| renovation \| magazine stories
Remains of the day - using recycled building materials, April 2005 Hey presto. What was once a rotten timber window frame, is now a kitchen cupboard door. And old timber fence palings have been transformed into a bathroom vanity cabinet. Carpenter Geoff Williams built his quirky Kangaroo Valley house from an old weatherboard cottage which was destined for demolition but was saved after he bought it for $3500. He humbly describes his large four-bedroom, two bathroom house which he built from a materials salvaged from the 1920s era cottage as “just a bunch of old stuff”. “I tell people that I’ve got Chopper Read in the laundry and Neddy Smith in the kitchen, because at least it gives the house a story,” he says. The wire mesh on the kitchen and laundry doors is metal sheeting salvaged from the old holding cells of a Wollongong court house. “That sheeting had all kinds of foul things scratched into the back of it and we cleaned up the front of it, but when you open the cupboards you can see what the crims had scratched into the back of it,” he says. Geoff and his wife Monica built the Kangaroo Valley house over a four-year period and used recycled materials for one reason – to save on costs. “I’m not big on recycling, I just did what I could based on price – I could not afford to do it with new materials,” he says. CHANGE IN SHIFT Chippendale Restorations owner Jeremy Lethlean says the market for recycled materials has changed in the last 15 years, with previously hard-to-shift Federation era materials proving more popular. “The world’s become wealthier and houses are worth more so the people that own them can afford to spend money to restore them,” he says. “You’ve got one half of Sydney demolishing their old houses to build something new and the other half paying money to restore their old houses.” There are at least a dozen second hand materials yards in Sydney, with many concentrating on selling bricks, doors and windows to renovators. A select few outlets are starting to specialise in more select – and expensive – recycled materials that are rare and beautiful, such as fireplace surrounds, leadlight, cast iron work and unusual timber doors and windows. The trend for minimalist interiors and modern streamlined furniture has hit the recycled materials business hard, says Sydney’s biggest building materials recycler Chris Barber. “Hopefully it will all go out of fashion again – the only thing that looked any good in those concrete warehouse places was the nice chunky timber posts, which were recycled,” says the owner of Second Hand Building Centre at Rockdale. Many demolishers and recyclers report builders’ reluctance to use the materials which may be heavier, require restoration or involve non-standard sizes. “Some of those builders just want plastic rubbish that’s ABC and as easy to put together as a meccano set,” Barber says. Barber says there are two distinct markets for recycled building materials – the do-it-yourself market and the more lucrative and growing architectural market. “We are now importing some beautiful French doors with timber shutters that came out of beautiful old buildings in South America – stuff that was never done in Australia and is so good that architects are designing whole houses around it,” he says. Barber is importing items like chandeliers, leadlights, doors and windows from countries which would never recycle the materials themselves – and charging decent prices, with double front door sets costing around $2750. Architect Christopher Gillett uses recycled materials in the $1.5-million-plus renovations he specialises in on Sydney’s upper north shore. “I don’t use recycled materials because they are cheap, I use them because it is something very special,” he says. “Recycled hardwood floors look amazing with the wormholes and bolt holes still in them and they have such a rich colour and hardness when they are old – they just don’t even compare to the new hardwood.” Heritage building designer Ray Pecotich says the beauty and quality of recycled timber is often overlooked, especially as people think it has to look rustic or country-ish. “It doesn’t have to have that rustic look, in fact if you strip it back to see the grain and finish it correctly it will look better than any other new material,” he says. Pecotich has saved old hardwood floors from skips, re-used timber from warehouses in kitchen benches and re-fashioned Federation and Victorian timber doors into built-in wardrobes. THE BENEFITS Sustainable building consultant Michael Mobbs says there are two huge benefits of buying recycled materials – firstly, it reduces demand for new products and secondly reduces landfill. “Most renovators are the victims of poor building and waste practices and they are happy to pay $10,000 to demolish a house and create waste,” he says. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to re-use what people don’t want?” The executive director of the Urban Development Institute of Australia David Poole says the land shortage in Sydney has effectively created a spate of house demolitions to make way for relatively affordable new project homes or townhouse developments. It is cheaper to demolish houses and rebuild than it is to renovate, with the project home industry boasting that renovation costs up to twice as much per square metre than building from scratch. Geoff and Monica Williams bought their old weatherboard cottage after it was destined for demolition. Geoff spent two weeks dismantling it from its home in Berry, loading it on to a truck and driving it up the mountain, where he de-nailed the timber and stacked it near the house he was building. The Williams’ didn’t restrict themselves to using only recycled materials in their house – they have used new materials as well because there wasn’t enough material in the old cottage to go around. Geoff estimates he saved more than $10,000 in material costs by recycling materials, but says he spent many hours de-nailing, stacking and rebuilding the materials for re-use. The boom of demolition may create a bonanza of potential recycled building materials – but only if demolishers take the time to dismantle houses and don’t dump all the materials at the tip. As Good As Used Building Materials owner Gerry Perceval says 95 per cent of demolishers just drive 20-tonne excavators through a house to break it up small enough to take the entire amount to the tip. “I actually take the house apart and then salvage the materials to re-sell in the yard because I think it’s a crime to waste so much.” MATERIAL SIDE OF THINGS Demolisher Steve Bassett, who owns the House Recycling Centre, says the most common building material recycled in Sydney is old hardwood, including timber beams, posts, bearers, floorboards and weatherboards and joists. “The recycled hardwood is actually better than the new stuff because it’s done all the shrinking and twisting that it will ever do,” he says. Demolisher Andre Frykers says all kinds of materials can be recycled, especially old bricks set in lime mortar, Victorian, Federation and Art Deco era solid timber doors and windows, Marseille roof tiles, old iron work such as posts and iron lace, old stoves and fittings like door handles, window latches. The materials available vary from yard to yard, but generally a renovator can save between 30 and 50 per cent buying recycled materials compared to new – although there are many specialist items that are one-offs that command a premium. It’s usually pick and pull and cash deals rule. Most recycling yards will not guarantee the materials they sell, but at least five demolishers interviewed for this story said they will refund the money if something is faulty and could not be checked before purchase. “I hope more people will start to buy second-hand – you don’t know how many times I have bought something back to the yard, only to have to take it to the tip six months later because no-one has bought it,” says demolisher Steve Bassett, from House Recycling Centre. “It’s only worth something if you’ve got a customer who will pay something for it BREAKOUT CASE STUDY Markus Lambert is a hunter gatherer. He stakes out houses that are about to be demolished and waits for the demolition team to arrive and then offers to remove the best materials from the site – usually for next to nothing. The demolishers are happy – they have saved tipping and transport fees – and Markus ends up with materials like Victorian sash windows for $30 a pop, or kauri floorboards for $1 a metre. “I have a sixth sense about these houses. I see that the grass is growing long and it looks a bit neglected and then, boom, the fence goes up and the demolisher hangs his sign out the front,” he explains. “Then you go in and you can do deals with them to take the stuff you want.” Lambert and his wife Dai Le have successfully built and renovated several houses using a mix of recycled and new materials. “I am one of those people who can’t stand stuff being chucked out when it should be recycled,” he says. “I have seen truck loads of Kauri being dumped at the tip and that’s $4000 or $5000 of material going into landfill – it’s criminal.” Lambert says he built a first storey addition to his Victorian house in Dulwich Hill for $110,000 in 2000, which was $30,000 cheaper than the best builders’ estimate. “I rang up one of the timber companies to get quotes for the windows and it would have cost me $20,000 to buy all 17 of them new – but I spent $1800 on windows and 100 square metres of floorboards by using recycled stuff,” he says. “You have to be committed and you have to treat it like a hobby, like it’s something you can enjoy.” Lambert – who works in local government – says it should be mandatory to recycle at least 20 or 30 per cent of every house that is demolished. “So much is going to waste because labour costs are so high that it’s more efficient to just bulldoze everything down and take it in a truck to the tip instead of take some time to remove things carefully so they can be re-used.” Lambert says he goes through different hunting and gathering phases, depending on his own renovation and building needs. “I go through the gatherer period, then the use-it period, then the I-don’t-need-it-anymore-and-my-wife-wants-me-to-get-rid-of-it period,” he says. “At one stage I had 11 stoves in my backyard.” Hints for buying second hand Know the materials you want – and the specific sizes you are after. You may have to be patient to get what you want. Visit recycling yards with a tape measure and some tough negotiating skills. Most of the deals are done for cash, and the more you buy the more you can save. Most recyclers and demolishers won’t guarantee the quality of the materials, but many are happy to refund your money if something fails to work once it is installed. Try to deal directly with demolishers to get the best prices. Most can organise delivery. Regularly check the newspaper classifieds for materials that are available – sometime things are free if you can remove the material on the same day. LIST OF SYDNEY SUPPLIERS Chippendale Restorations Cnr Parsons St & Crescent Sts, Rozelle 26 Parsons St Tel: 9810 6066 Large range of restored and unrestored windows, doors, fireplaces, iron fencing, . Also stocks reproduction materials. The Home Recycling Centre 12a Parramatta Rd, Lidcombe Tel: 1300 739 888 A yard with garage doors, old stoves from $100, hot water heaters from $150, timber doors from $100, aluminium and timber windows, cleaned bricks, de-nailed timber, basins, sinks and taps. Architectural and Antique elements 124 James St, Leichhardt Tel: 9560 3067 A range of restored and unrestored windows, fireplaces, iron work, timber doors and imported antique materials such as timber or iron doors. Second hand Building Centre Rear 432B West Botany St, Rockdale Tel: 9567 1322 Sydney’s largest recycling yard with everything imaginable, including special French doors salvaged from Argentina and hardwoods. Terrace House Factory 304-308 Harris St, Ultimo Tel: 9660 6768 One of the cheapest yards with restored kooka stoves, leadlight and Federation windows, timber doors, fireplaces, tiles and light fittings. Prices start at $2 for a tile or handle and go up to more than $1000 for rare cedar doors. Riverside Secondhand Building Supplies 66 Riverside Rd, Chipping Norton Tel: 9755 3984 A yard part-owned by demolishers which sells a range of salvaged material like bricks, fencing, roofing, doors and windows. Quality Recycled Building Materials 34 Woodfield Blvd, Caringbah Tel: 9542 7203 A yard with a range of salvaged materials, including timber, doors and windows. Ironwood Antique Timbers 88-90 Lilyfield Rd Rozelle Tel: 9818 1166 The biggest range of recycled hardwood, salvaged from bridges and wharves as well as reclaimed timber from dead trees. As Good As Used Building Material House Recycling 89 Dunheved Cct St Marys Tel: 9673 5398 A big yard with timber and aluminium doors and windows, roof material, combustion heaters, ovens, stoves, blinds and pool fencing. Brookvale Recycled Second Hand Building Materials Unit 12 Meatworks Ave Oxford Falls Tel: 9451 5566 A large yard which sells bricks for .50 cents, roof tiles for $1.10 each and a range of floor tiles, toilets, doors, windows, iron, sinks and vanity units. Andre’s Demolition and Building Recycling Harbord 9938 1980 There is no public yard, but this demolisher will take orders and sells sinks for $50, second hand stoves, timber, doors and windows, and recycled sandstone for $300 a load.