Thoughts on salvaging lumber from a demo'd house?

[Dan]

A friend of mine is tearing down his 100+ year-old house and building a new house on his lot. Houses of that age in Portland have a lot of great old-growth fir and pine as studs, joists, beams, subfloor, etc. Of course, they also have lead paint, asbestos, and other nasty stuff, but most of the things I want will be unfinished and therefore non toxic.

The demolition is going to be handled by the construction company that's building the house. He has a local non-profit (The Rebuilding Center) coming in first to salvage the easy stuff: trim, windows, doors, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, etc., and then the demolition will be done with heavy equipment. He's all for me taking home whatever lumber looks appealing to me (and that my wife agrees we have room to store :)), but bearing in mind that a lot of what I'd like to get my hands on is weight-bearing (joists, beams), and that the construction company will probably take a dim view of some jacka$$ wandering around their demolition site, what's the best way for me to get my hands on some of this lumber? Priorities are not bringing the house down on top of myself and not slowing down the demolition, in that order.

I'm thinking about making a dining table or two and possibly an exterior staircase if I can get enough of the right kind of lumber, so I don't need to get all that much of what's there. Any thoughts?

[big mario]

Hey Dan,

Some potentially beautiful lumber in there, it will more than likely be rough sawn, so after your glue ups are done, a trip to a local mill maybe in order for an hour of their time saver, which runs about 80 bucks. but first, check with the general to see how the house is going to be taken down, more than likely with a track hoe, so he may not be interested in your desire to recycle any of the framing lumber, though he may let you pull a stick or 2 out of the dumpster. You could try bribery with a case of good beer. Or you could show up at you friends after the abatement is done, after hours and go nuts with a sawzall and get what you need. Find a big room, and take out every other joist, making sure there are no bearing walls or point loads above, and you wont need to worry about anything falling on your head. Bring a BFH and a wrecking bar to faciitlate removal. Be safe and have fun.

mario

[Beckmann AG]

Get with the demolition contractor and see if he is amenable to helping you salvage. A skilled operator should be able to remove a lot of the larger beams without too much collateral damage. Bear in mind that this will take more doing than the usual smash and grab, and you may be asked to offset the cost of machine time. Most likely he will be paying for disposal either by ton or volume, so if you take some of the big/heavy stuff, that might be to his advantage.

If you can go this route, the dollars spent will be cheaper than making a mistake and doing damage to yourself, and you may well realize greater value for your recovery efforts.

Otherwise, turn both feet sideways and think like an Egyptian.

[OhD]

Dan

Have you ever worked with old fir? In my experience it is much harder and more brittle than many woods, but still has the strength differentials between early/latewood characteristic of younger fir. Prone to splintering, too. If you find some really tight grain, though, it can be worth the trouble. Finding larger timbers that haven't checked and stored up stress as they have tried to twist while drying in a constrained state is tough - expect some instability when you thickness your material unless it's quarter sawn (rare in structural parts). It will require lots of weather protection outdoors as it is not as hard as, say, ipe, and it is not very resistant to rot, fungus or water staining, so it's easily dented enough to break a finish and let moisture in to wreak ugly havoc. It is traditionally used on NW fish boat hulls and decks, oiled and sometimes tarred in the latter use, but more for cost (when the boats were built), strength and weight than because of durability. Old wooden fish boats tend to consume a lot of replacement parts, even when built with all the best methods.

It does make a beautiful cabinet wood - take care to design so it doesn't tend to get dented by shoes, or gouged by fingernails, and don't make any working surfaces too precious. My brother did his whole kitchen and some furniture out of salvaged CVG gym bleachers. It's gorgeous, but not as tolerant of abuse as one might like.

Be sure to bring your own power and make sure the house distribution is dead, or use cords off one well-known circuit. Sparks and dry old wood are bad enough. Damaged tools and toasted friends can really put a damper on the salvage party. De-nail timbers as early as you can to reduce handling hazards and try to sweep your messes into areas where you won't be stepping on them. Good luck - it's kind of like mining.

[lowrider]

Pay a few bucks and have the machine do the heavy lifting. Years later you will be thankful for sparing your body the wear and tear. Take this from someone who has bricked my house with 100 year old salvaged brick and built my shop from a salvaged barn. Was that ever fun cutting all the cross bracing and pulling it down with a tractor. With the steel roofing still on it came down like a giant parachute. Later in life you learn just because you can do it. Doesn't mean you should do it ! Have fun and play safe.

[Dan]

Hi everyone, thanks for the good advice. Talking with the GC / demolition contractor and asking them to help me out, either by grabbing some stuff/setting it aside as they demo, or by letting me go through the pile afterwards sounds like the safe and easy way to go. I may also consider a little freebooting if there's a point at which I can get in there safely, but I'm guessing that's not very likely.

Ohd, thanks for the cautions on using fir outside. You're definitely right about that, as I know from experience: our house is 100 years old this year, and has the same kind of construction / materials as the one that's coming down. Last year, we removed about 4 layers of flooring and tar (tested and cleared for asbestos, fortunately) from the fir subfloor in our kitchen and then had the fir sanded and finished. It looks great, and has tons of character, but it dents from a stern look or harsh word. ;-) I would use material like that for a table, but definitely not for exterior steps. I will have to find something more robust for that -- the studs in my house (pine?) are so hard it's a challenge to drill a hole in them, so hoping there's material like that to be salvaged from my friend's house.

The power and other utilities will be turned off before the demo begins / before I try to salvage anything, so no concerns on that front. Mario, thanks much for the suggestion of going to a mill -- the material is definitely rough cut (I just checked out the attic), and that would be a huge time saver.

Beckman, I'm not sure I understand the advice to "think like an Egyptian"?

Get ready to hold up the roof with my hands??

My friend is trying to work out a weather-protected spot where he can set up a camera for timelapse photos of the demo and rebuild - if he gets anything good, I'll post 'em up.

[Beckmann AG]

Dan,

Admittedly, that was somewhat obscure.

I've moved a fair bit of heavy machinery/materials by myself with simple tools. My stock response to 'how do you do that?' is "Well, first I turn my feet sideways, and then I think like an Egyptian."

Which is another way of saying that, in the absence of cranes, et al, you take your time, and plan out all of the angles.

Especially those that can maim or kill.

Of course, there was a lot of slave labor in Egypt, and casualties were expected, but that's another story.

Lots of good demo stories here: http://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/forumdisplay.php?86-Demolition

Some industrial, some residential. Food for thought.