Local family gives back by tearing down

Date: 8/24/2009

By Kaitlyn Schroyer

Staff Intern



WILBRAHAM - You want to knock down your house and build something new, but the looming image of a large dump or landfill chock full of your building materials does not appeal to you.

Instead of throwing away materials, businesses have been sprouting up to help reuse them. Recently, ReStore Home Improvement teamed up with Dave Giese, a deconstruction supervisor, to deconstruct a whole house in Wilbraham.

"The house was in good shape and the homeowners had a lot of nostalgia about the house, but they wanted a new one. They could either throw away the materials or reuse them," John Grossman, manager at ReStore, said.

There are many benefits to reusing. One is the environmental impact. The materials that are thrown away get put in landfills, which are not only expensive, but are hazards. Another is the community aspect. If you take materials and just throw them away, no one can ever use it again. However, if you reuse the materials, you make them available for others to buy at a low cost and use on their own homes.

"People can now afford to do projects and improve their homes that they didn't think they'd be able to afford before," Grossman commented, "and improving the homes drives up value."

The homeowners in Wilbraham decided to reuse the materials. ReStore and Giese received four flatbeds of lumber and two box trucks with furnishings including trim, hardwood flooring and insulation.

"It seeds the area with low cost building materials and really improves the values of homes and the community," Grossman said.