Not only does Habitat for Humanity build affordable houses for people, since 1998 Denver’s Habitat has been building LEED certified homes that save the homeowners more each year that energy costs increase. Habitat has a lot of experience with recycling materials, using donated materials and providing that service to others through their ReStores. However, some ReStores also use their volunteers to gather donated materials including taking them out of the house for you!
Call for a review of your donation and possible deconstruction services.
I made up this sample sign thinking it would be cool to get one to put out in my yard. However our house is not on a thoroughfare so would not get much drive by traffic.
I had emailed Corey Biechele who is the deconstruction manager for ReStore and he agreed to meet me at the house to review the donations that we could make as a first step towards removing the inside of the house so we can take out the slab. Although the cabinets were quite old and would only be purchased for garage storage, he was so supportive of our plans to build a LEED home and recycle all that we could of the deconstruction, he agreed to bring a team of volunteers over if I would clean all the cabinets and appliances that they would remove.
I was almost sorry I had agreed to clean the cabinets, they were not in the best shape and I kept thinking it was time I could have been playing with the grandkids, but I persevered, and as I cleaned them I reattached some of the fronts correctly and generally improved their resale value all I could.
Clean Cabinets
Corey’s crew removed the oven, dishwasher, stove top, surrounding cabinets and the bathroom vanities, the tub and the shower to recycle the aluminum. He couldn’t take the sink cabinet in the kitchen because the bottom was water damaged. He left us a donation receipt so that we can document that these cabinets were recycled. Actually we have to use their weight for LEED to show they were construction debris that was kept out of the landfill!
Thanks so much to Corey and the Denver Metro Habitat for Humanity!