Buying Second-Hand Building Materials

By Alex May

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.

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 older style solid timber doors and windows are also popular, as well as materials like old bricks, some types of roof tiles, old iron work.
Avid recycler and collector Markus Lambert (see breakout) says houses built before 1950 are the best to raid and recycle.
"The older houses have timber, doors, windows, floorboards and fireplaces - things that can be re-used but you can't really buy today," he says.
"The point is, those old houses used all the hardwood out of the forests and now we should be mining those houses for the timber because you can't get it any more."
Sustainable building consultant Michael Mobbs says there are two huge benefits of buying recycled materials - firstly, you are reducing the demand for new products and secondly reducing 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 PRICING

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.
"It's hard to price things accurately because they are second hand and the condition varies," says Chris Barber, the owner of Sydney's biggest recyclers, Seond Hand Building Centre.
Barber imports timber doors and windows that are salvaged from old South American buildings to add to sell in his yard "and they can be dearer than something new".
"We have some great front door sets that are magnificent and they start at $2750 - but that's not much to spend if you want a magnificent front door," he says.
"All those new doors are absolute rubbish compared to the quality of the second hand stuff I have - most new materials are particle board crap that belongs in those brick venereal houses."

DEMOLITION MANIA

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 only thing we couldn't re-use from the cottage was the old decking which split when I took it up."
"We even found a use for the old bath which I half buried in a hill and the plan is to put timber capping around it to make a water garden."
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 DIFFERENCE

Using second hand building materials is nothing new - it's been going on for centuries. There is a wide array of recycled materials available in Sydney, with most of it is sold through recycling yards or newspaper classifieds.
Heritage building designer Ray Pecotich says there is an abundance of potential recycled building materials in Sydney, but they are not used as often as they could be because many builders don't like to use the materials.
"The builders generally don't like working with second hand stuff because it's slower and not as convenient and might not be straight or whatever," he says.
"It's more for the do-it-yourselfers who are keen to go to the trouble of sourcing materials or taking out an old window carefully and then restoring it before handing it back to the builder to re-use."
Architect Christopher Gillett says recycled materials are perfect to create something that looks unique or adds drama to a property.
"I think its perfectly right that some recycled materials are more expensive than new materials because they often look far superior and are extremely rare," he says.
Ironwood Australia's managing director Keith McKenzie says his recycled timbers cost two or three times the price of new timbers, because they are rare and more durable than new timber.
Gillett and Pecotich agree there is a misconception that using recycled materials gives a country look, which may be a bit pass.
"It doesn't have to have that rustic look - you can dress recycled timbers to look like joinery or you can do something quite contemporary," he says.

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."