Unbuilding - Not Just For Alice in Wonderland!
Here are a couple of things I bet you didn’t know about architectural salvage. For starters, when you recycle something that is in an old house in another house, did you know that you are actually ‘un-building’, in a Mad Hatter twist on renovation?! It is also known as Deconstruction, although I think the Deconstructivists might have something to say about that. Around 85% of materials in old homes can be re-used, according to a non-profit association in Pennsylvania in the States. So here we are looking at some of the ways you can use unbuilt houses in building or decorating your new one!
Major structural components of houses are often not approved by councils for building with - you probably won’t find any stumps or overhead beams in salvage yards. However, most of the vital components of houses like doors, windows, and floors, can actually be sourced easily and safely through salvage. Salvage isn’t only for decorative items and bits and pieces after your house is built - check out the salvage yards before you ring the carpenter. It is quite common to find a whole home’s worth of matching doors or windows, enough floorboards to make a really nice feature room at a fraction of the price of new ones, tiles that can be used above your sinks or around the bottom wall of your bathroom, as well as outdoor items like fences.
There are also tonnes of unexpected ways to use things - like this door knob which has found a second lease of life as a toilet paper holder! Why not?! They are also great as hat and coat hooks, or even paperweights.
Stained glass windows can be used as beautiful kitchen cupboard fronts, and stone items from houses’ facades can be used in the back garden as plant holders or ornaments … the sky is the limit!
Photo credits: Victorian kitchen by Mark Fiorenza
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Totally, I think the term RE-construction would be much more appropriate. De-construction would be the oppsoite of construction. Reconstruction would be building again. Makes much more sense.