Call it a builder's revolution, but after the sub-prime mortgage collapse of 2008, it became more difficult for contractors and consumers alike to swallow the idea of justifying egregious construction waste. The growing need for long-term socio-economic and environmental solutions has strengthened a societal shift toward the support of local businesses, local food production and distribution, and sustainable building and living practices. With this evolution of thinking, a creative and no-nonsense solution has entered into the demolition and construction industry.
It happens often in Hawai'i, on nearly every street across the state. One morning you notice a large yellow excavator sitting like a misplaced elephant in your neighbor's driveway. Later that day, you'd be lucky to catch the final moments of that wooden house being stuffed into a dented and scratched metal roll-off garbage bin. That house, once upon a time, was made out of the highest quality materials available. Now it is garbage headed for a landfill.
The majority of building material waste still ends up in O'ahu's only construction and demolition solid waste landfillÜPVT Landfill, in Nanakuli. O'ahu's population generates 1.8 million tons of garbage annually, with approximately 35 percent of that coming from construction and demolition. The large amount of waste handled by the private land company generates a handsome profit for its handlers.
Homeowners preparing for a remodel or complete rebuild now have two choices of contractors: demolition or deconstruction. In the past, the contractor building your home would subcontract with a demolition company to "scrape" the existing house. The scraping would begin by obtaining the necessary demolition permits, then the delivery of very large machinery and a roll-off trash bin. The demolition starts with tearing off the roof, then the process goes quickly, lasting a full day. The splintered wood, broken windows, chunks of concrete and twisted metal are referred to as construction and demolition (C&D) waste. The C&D waste is trucked to the PVT Landfill and dumped at a cost of $35 per ton for non-asbestos material.
Once a house is ripped apart, only a few types of materials can be recycled, mainly metals, which are shipped off island to be melted down and recast to live another life. However, most waste still ends up buried in plastic lined beds and covered with dirt.
PVT's site has grown to tower over adjacent residential neighborhoods. With an estimated six to ten years before the current Nanakuli site reaches maximum capacity, Leeward Land Company, PVT's sister company, recently sued the City and County of Honolulu to prevent land it has slated for future landfill expansion from becoming a community park. Choosing a deconstruction contractor instead of demolition contractor means more parks and fewer landfills; in other words, using your consumer dollar to support the conservation of building resources and the businesses practicing deconstruction.
As the name implies, deconstruction is the exact opposite of construction. Just like a contractor doesn't pile up building materials in random fashion and calls it a house, the house is deconstructed in a careful process that reflects the skill with which the house was built. A growing consortium of contractors and homeowners are choosing to hire a deconstruction professional to take away their houses piece by piece.
After the contractor obtains a deconstruction permit, a crew arrives on the site to set up and prepare for deconstruction of the structure. For safety reasons, all power and water is shut off, allowing the deconstruction crew to rely on technique and their own power source to get the job done effectively. Curious neighbors often enjoy peeking over the bushes to observe the careful dismantling, which is a slow and strategic process taking about a week depending on the magnitude and scope of the project.
As the house is deconstructed piece by piece, the materials are sorted. Aluminum shingles go into an aluminum bin, redwood siding goes in with the dimensional fir rafters and valuable fixtures, including cabinets and lighting, are taken away as they come out of the house. All this deconstructed and reusable material is then hauled to a warehouse. Non-profit entities across the country are cropping up to process and resell deconstructed and donated materials and Re-Use Hawai'i, the sole deconstruction provider in the state, is filling that vital role on O'ahu. Once at their Kaka'ako warehouse, the material is processed and inventoried for tax purposes, then made available to the public and contractors who utilize the reclaimed materials.
"As an island community, managing both our consumption and our waste is critical to creating a sustainable future," says Selina Tarantino, co-founder and co-executive director of Re-Use Hawai'i. "Construction waste from demolition projects is the largest contributor to O'ahu's landfill and makes up more than one third of O'ahu's waste. Using traditional demolition methods, 100 percent of a structure becomes construction waste, which is then dumped into the PVT Landfill. Much of the material that gets thrown away is reusable and valuable. Diverting reusable material through the process of deconstruction, and redistributing it to the community, offers a solution to our island's waste problem and creates a valuable resource."
In increasing numbers, homeowners are choosing to have their homes deconstructed, thereby salvaging valuable woods and other materials and receiving a nice tax break in the process. The tax break is given for the donation of the deconstructed materials to a non-profit organization. To assist in this process many people hire a qualified deconstruction appraiser, who helps the homeowner quantify the value of the deconstructed materials and qualify for donations that exceed $5,000. Once the report is finalized, the homeowner receives a copy of the report and IRS forms to help them claim their deductions for that year or over a five-year period. Most people would cringe at the thought of demolition if they realized they were literally throwing away thousands of dollars, burying it in the landfill.
For the homeowner, both methodologies reach the same end: the homeowner is left with a clean slate to build a new house. The difference, however, is in what happened to the material that made up the old house. With demolition, perfectly good and usable material is thrown away, laid to waste unnecessarily in a landfill. With deconstruction, the materials return to into the building supply stream and can be used to build another home or repair and existing one. The reused material kept in the building cycle supplies more affordable materials for woodworkers, jobs in the building industry, beautifies the next home and keeps the restoration of classic Hawaiian houses affordable and easy.
Reusing and recycling building materials has great advantages over treating these resources as landfill debris. It's simple, smart and efficient management of our building resources. There is superiority in the old-growth lumber that was often used decades ago, but is now scarce and very expensive. Some types of lumber, such as insect-resistant redwood, are much more affordable in their re-used state.
"Deconstruction offers the opportunity to recover thousands of board feet of old-growth redwood lumber, a material that is commonly found in local homes and is increasingly more expensive to replace," Tarantino explains. "Old-growth redwood tongue and groove in particular is either extremely expensive, or unavailable, because it's no longer available from forests. The only way to capture this material is to recover it at its source, where it's already in use in structures on island. Deconstruction allows access to this rare and valuable material, and creates a resource from what would otherwise be considered waste."
Kaimuki resident Mark Arioshi chose to have his house deconstructed and then rebuilt using reclaimed material from his old house and additional materials from Re-Use Hawai'i. "We had a very small budget," says Arioshi, "and being able to use reclaimed materials, both from the house we deconstructed and from Re-Use Hawai'i's warehouse allowed us to create a beautiful, unique modern space within that budget."
Remember, the first step to making any decision is education. There are a lot of contractors available, but it is important to work with one who understands deconstruction and the benefits to the homeowner. After that, contact Re-Use Hawai'i, the only local deconstruction contractor, and have them write up a proposal and inform you of the costs that the project will incur. If the project looks like it will generate a good amount of reclaimed material, it is advisable to get an appraisal of your material as well. This gives an idea on what to expect as a tax deduction, which can offset a good portion of the initial deconstruction cost. Finally, after the decision to deconstruct is made, revel in the fact that you are part of the solution, diverting construction debris from the landfill, supplying materials that drive a green workforce and making decisions that care for the land.