Staci Matlock
The New Mexican
Solid oak flooring, carved pine doors, handmade ceramic lighting fixtures, flagstone and plumbing pipe.
What one builder or home renovator doesn’t need becomes another’s treasures at places like Habitat Restore and Rio’s Salvage in Santa Fe.
And seasoned wood recovered from old barns and cabins is prized for new home construction.
Recycling useable old materials or excess building materials is an important aspect of “green” building. New “green building” standards are increasingly giving higher marks to builders who reuse existing materials or reduce waste at construction sites. Santa Fe’s new proposed green building code and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification both award points for reduced construction waste.
Habitat Restore, now located on 2414 Cerrillos Road, benefits from a constant stream of both new and old building materials. The store’s revenue supports Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit group that helps low-income families build homes.
Simone Ward, Santa Fe’s Habitat Restore director, said a lot of small-scale remodelers donate unused grout and paint, used doors and windows, and other materials from construction sites. Tile stores regularly bring her new boxes of tile. “Doors, windows, furniture and appliances are our best selling items,” Ward said.
She thinks the Restore is attracting a few more clients as people realize they can find good deals and save money compared to even big box stores such as Home Depot or Lowes.
Douglas Maahs, owner of Honey Do Repair in Santa Fe and chairman of the Santa Fe Home Builders remodelers committee, said he takes a lot of reusable materials to Habitat Restore. The materials get a second life and his clients get a tax deduction.
Maahs brings old appliances, carpet lining, and other recyclable materials to Capital Scrap Metals on Cooks Lane. The company accepts scrap aluminum, brass, steel cardboard and auto parts as well. Untreated lumber is often used by his workers as kindling for wood stoves.
“We’re trying to figure out with our own company how to minimize or recycle leftover building material,” Maahs said.
The National Home Builders Association will release new green building standards for remodelers at the end of this year or in January. Maahs said remodeling and renovations make up more than 90 percent of building projects, so it makes sense to encourage remodelers to reduce waste and recycle materials.
Reducing waste during construction lessens the impact on local landfills and saves clients money, he said. He said some builders are figuring out ways to reduce excess building materials such as drywall and plumbing pipe by more than 50 percent. “Green building is not just what goes into the house when putting it up, but what is taken away,” Maahs said.
Santa Fe builder Faren Dancer said he used to take apart old buildings and chicken coops to build structures from scratch. He’s moved up now to building custom, energy-efficient homes. His latest project, the Emerald Home south of the Santa Fe Opera, is designed to produce all its own energy needs. As part of the home, he tracked down 200-year-old hand-carved wood beams from Midwest farms to use as vigas. All the hardwood for the interior doors, cabinets and flooring are reclaimed from old farm buildings. He’s still having to haul the material, but he’s not cutting any new trees for the materials. “Whenever you can reuse materials, then you’re addressing embodied energy,” Dancer said.
He said he’s trying to buy as many materials as possible for the home from within a 500-mile radius of Santa Fe.
