I posted a Deconstruction blog entry back on July 28th where I discussed how we took apart our former house for recycling and reuse versus just bulldozing it.
A question that I get asked is “how much does it cost to deconstruct versus demolish?” I’ve got the answer. Our house was roughly a 1450 square foot brick house. Typically to demo a house that size it costs about $5,000, and it’s about a week process to set up, demo, clean up (although it can be done more quickly than that). Ours took about 3 weeks, and here’s the reconciliation:
Cost – $15,000
- Received from selling the brick – $1200
- Received from selling the metal – $300
- Received from selling items on Craigs List (details? see my 7/28 blog entry) – $2,000
- Cost avoidance for mulch that we’re creating from the bare wood in the house – $1,500
Actual net cost – $10,000
So about twice as expensive, but not outrageously so. The income from recycling the metal could have been more (and we’re still looking into it), but we didn’t separate our metal prior to sending it to be recycled (note to self: separate your metals before sending for recycling!).
What reaction do you have? Still too expensive? Worth it or not?