Buffalo ReUse to Perform Second Green Demolition for ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

Contact: Michael Gainer, 716–949–0900; michael@buffaloreuse.org; www.buffaloreuse.org

Contact: Kevin Hayes, 716–308–7399; kevin@buffaloreuse.org; www.buffaloreuse.org

Buffalo, NY Friday morning, November 13, 2009: Buffalo ReUse will begin Green Demolition and salvage of another West Side property at 369 Normal.  The house is already slated for demolition.  “It made sense to go ahead and continue with further improvements to the street since the rest of the block is getting a facelift.  The neighborhood is getting a real morale boost,” said Michael Gainer, Founder and Director of Programs, at Buffalo ReUse. “All of Buffalo should be proud that there will be such a huge spotlight on the City, the grassroots efforts and the generosity that has resulted from this opportunity.”

The Normal Avenue demo project won’t be another all-nighter like the Powell house, but the majority of debris will be still be diverted from the landfill and reclaimed for use in other properties.  Buffalo ReUse sees green demolition as another way to reduce housing costs by using reclaimed lumber and other building materials from Buffalo’s large surplus of vacant houses, rather than crunch it up and throw it away at great expense.  By employing state-of-the-art green demolition techniques, Buffalo ReUse can harvest lumber efficiently and sell it to the public at costs averaging half of new material.  Much of the material is available for the public if they visit The ReSource at 298 Northampton Street. 

David Stapleton of David Homes and his team of builders welcomed the opportunity to build a new house for the Powell family of 228 Massachusetts Ave on Buffalo’s West Side; however, there was one major obstacle in the way—the 2.5 story woodframe house the family had been living in for four years.  Buffalo ReUse got the call when the Project Manager was looking for a local contractor that could help them achieve an LEED Emerald Award for material reclamation, recycling and landfill diversion.  Buffalo ReUse is WNY’s first and only nonprofit Green Demolition and Salvage Crew.  They have been developing green demolition in Buffalo for over two years now.  Buffalo ReUse consulted with deconstruction guru, David Bennink.

David Bennink, of Reuse Consulting, has been perfecting hybrid deconstruction for over 15 years and he has managed hundreds of green demolition projects across the country.  The biggest challenge of taking down the house was the time deadline.  “… but once I walked the building, I knew that Buffalo Reuse and I could pull off this project and my focus turned to doing it safely and finding the best way to represent the building deconstruction industry in this national spotlight.  It is likely that the building weighed about 80–100 tons not including the foundation or porch stone, or 150–175 tons with it, and of that we diverted an estimated 75% including a large volume of foundation stone hauled offsite for processing and reuse.”

Buffalo ReUse’s rapid green demolition of the Powell’s old house was ademonstration of the practicality and economic feasibility of the technique—the house was deconstructed in under 17 hours! Our hope is that green demolition will soon be the mainstream method of demolition and the first choice for builders and municipalities in need of demolition.

Beyond reducing building costs, Buffalo’s “problem” of vacant houses can be turned into an opportunity to create jobs, train young people, fund community improvement programs and offer low-cost building materials to the public.

Volunteers from the public and Americorps WNY were directed on-site by ReUse staff and shown how to pull up flooring, prep wall panels and cut the joists in the attic so that the house could be taken apart efficiently and safely.  Hundreds of volunteers swarmed the house and salvaged interior finishes like window and door trim, baseboards, the stairwell and even piled six pallets of brick and four pallets of rock-faced block.  The Show chose select pieces from within the house to incorporate into its new furnishings and honor the history of the house and the family’s experiences.  Other house parts were carted off for use in adjacent houses and improvement projects in the neighborhood.

Buffalo ReUse Deconstruction Technician (DTech) Carrie Nader commented, “It was great, if I needed a tool or something, I shouted for it and suddenly it appeared.  So many people were processing panels and loading trucks—all the material just disappeared.” DTech Amanda Alessandra operated the 10K telescopic forklift all night.  She has been a Green Demolition Crew Leader for more than a year, “It was really a different experience to have an audience cheering for our progress as we separated each panel of the house and dropped it to the ground.”

Board Members of Buffalo ReUse were on hand to get dirty, perform safety checks, assist with cutting up the house, sorting materials, loading the trucks or spur the crowd to cheer on the Deconstruction Crew and Volunteers. 

Everyone at Buffalo ReUse is proud to be a part of making a clear path of progress for the Powell family and all of Buffalo’s neighborhoods.