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Levco is always looking for opportunities to live up to our core values, one of which is sustainability. The word conjures up all sorts of things in my mind.

If you are going to build and remodel in a sustainable way, which we do. One must also take into consideration deconstructing in a sustainable way, often before the project really starts.

We accomplish this on a small scale on everyday projects, but have recently turned it up a few notches.

Deconstruction anyone?

After successfully deconstructing a two car garage several months ago, we were recommended to the local Neighborhood Housing Services for deconstructing several homes.

The site was cleared in preparation for some substantial urban renewal, in the form of a new, small housing development.

The three homes were exhausted and there were not sensible to remodel or reconstruct. The buildings had become a boarded up blight on the neighborhood.

Making a positive impact on the community

To ensure we were living up to our core values, we decided to look for opportunities to make a positive impact on the local community. In doing so we made every effort to keep our potential, “mountain of rubbish”, out of the landfill.

Here is how we accomplished our task:

• We offered the houses to the fire department for cold smoke drills.
• We offered them to the local police departments for narcotic dog training and to the sheriff’s swat teams for breaching and explosive training.
• I gave a lawnmower we found to an old neighbor that had been making due with a three wheeled unit for a season.
• We had a trailer stair set re-welded and powder-coated, then gave it to law enforcement to donate to a needy family.
• We offered reusable items and building materials to a local company willing to salvage and resell it.
  
• We also relocated some cool landscaping rocks to our construction yard.

What was the difference between this deconstructing and typical demolition

Our Results:

• 5000 pounds of repurposed building materials and usable items
• 700 pounds of rocks and stones

  

  The grinder at work

• 80 cubic yards of firewood
• 54,000 pounds of brush and shredded material for reuse
• 588,000 pounds of concrete crushed for compact ready fill
• 6000 pounds of metal recycled
• 112.5 tons did make it to the landfills

Grand Total: 329 Tons of material diverted from the landfill.

What this means to you

Our landfill will last longer, lots of useful items were saved and shared, and our deconstruction techniques worked wonderfully. We actually manged to divert almost 75% of what could have ended up in the landfill back into the community.

This experiment proved that our sustainable process is a local community conscious success. We checked, even the Ada County Landfill who turns a profit on dumping fees, approves of our process.

In the coming months we will be presenting our case study to several cities in our area. Our goal is to have every structure slated for demolition go through our deconstruction process prior to meeting the proverbial wrecking ball.

Keep an eye out, as a phoenix rises from the barren lot. As NHS (Neighborhood Housing Services) creates some cool new small affordable homes on the site.

Bonus Round Questions?

1. Tell me a story about how deconstruction in an environmentally sustainable way affects you?
2. Who else is doing this sort of deconstruction techniques in the country?

Your comments are welcome. To ask questions or get more information about remodeling, click here to email me directly, or call 208-947-7261

If you or someone you know is considering remodeling, deconstructing, or just wants to speak to a trustworthy remodeling contractor please contact me, you’ll be glad you did.

Disclaimer: one of these images came from the WEB. If they are yours, and you object to them being used, please claim it and I will gladly remove and replace it at once.