Salvaging materials from demolishing a Californian bungalow?

We have recently bought a Californian bungalow in Wembley (WA) and a friend of ours has worded us up to stuff from it that could be salvaged. I'd already thought of the jarrah floorboards, which (ideally) we would reuse in the new build, but my friend also mentioned the leadlight windows and even things like the original internal door handles etc.

I guess this post really is about two things: is there anything else that we should consider saving for salvage, and are there any companies out there that we could contact which could go through and identify all these items? Apart from the items listed above, I have very little idea about what could or should be saved, and either repurposed in our new build, given to our friend (who has already laid claim to any window leadlights we have) or sold to others who are interested?

Also if anyone has done this before, I'd love to hear your feedback on the process, how you did it, what was of interest to others, any info really!

Thanks all

 

Around five years, so there's no rush, by any means!

 

an easy way is to take a heap of photos of the house as is and put an ad on gumtree and let people come and collect what they want. saves you taking everything apart too but the price will be a lot less for each item.

you may find someone comes along and takes a heap. it helps if you run a tape measeure over windows and doors etc so people know what they are looking at

i guess there is more money if you take out items and advertise individually but its also a lot more work

have a search on gumtree (oz wide) for ads like what your wanting to do

 

Sometimes even things like ceilings and cornices can be salvaged if they have any particular decoration. Pressed tin etc.

 

And the deep window sills. And door frames.

 

Sell the items on Ebay - there is generally strong demand for these items - doors, locks, handles, windows (leadlight/stained), flooring, cornices etc - all do well (in Sydney anyway - mileage may vary for other cities)

 

Thanks for all the responses guys!

Wylie, I'm not sure. We may strip it ourselves or we may just outsource that as part of the demolition process.... I still have to look into it a bit more to work out if it's something we'd be able to do ourselves. Not so much in terms of capability, but more in terms of the time it would take us!

 

I know this is from a month or two ago but you mentioned you won't demolish for a while.
my advice is that some of the demolition companies will factor in what they can salvage to their price. i.e.. the red bricks / windows/ floors/ jarrah beams/ clay tiles/ headlights / fittings EVERYTHING. they love these old bungalows. If you then try to source that stuff for a renovation you will be paying top dollar.
I'd be shopping around for a knock-down price (bad pun intended).

 

This is something I have thought about as well. Personally I think you may get best value stripping the place and then getting a plumber to block off the pipes, a Sparkey to disconnect the wiring and then pay a bulldozer to level the place and remove the trash ( as opposed to getting an "all up" quote from a demo crew). Just watch for asbestos.

A lot of upmarket character places like to incorporate salvaged items- esp wood. The old wood is often in larger/wider pieces not easily obtainable. I knew a truckie who spent 20 years building his dream home- much of it - at least the wood bits- was acquired for the cost of a case of beer. It was necessary to have your own transport and commonly there was only a small window of time to retrieve it. I suppose you need to be in with the demo crews- or maybe just watch demolition permits being issued from the local Council.

I'm not sure how hard it is to get the floorboards up though. Must be a machine you can use. Would like to hear of anyone's experience in this area.

 

I demolished an old weatherboard place, couldn't afford the cost of the demolition, hired a guy to cut the joists and stuff, advertised on Gumtree, ie, a guy took all the weather boards, he removed them, someone took the garage, etc, I took the floorboards up, just crow barred them up and reused them in two rooms in the new house, but they have to be docked both ends and I hired a guy to do that to, with. Drop saw I think it was. There was asbestos, in the sleep out, so I followed all the procedures and took it to Red Hill for correct disposal. i cleaned all the bricks from the hearth and used them in the brick wall to the new house. It was only lime mortar so cleaned up easily. Any rubbish timber people took for firewood, a friend took the Oregon doors. Mind you, this was a crappy house so there is a lot more value in a bungalow and a lot more care required removing items. I hope that helps, the cost of skips is high for the stuff you have to bin but still saved thousands. As has been said, a company will want to keep everything. Ps, you have to get a permit from council and bait the house prior, they do specify a time limit but it took me ages longer and they turned a blind eye.

 

Great info guys - thank you

 

We demolished a bungalow in Sydney 15+ years ago.

Our salvage/resaleable materials included:

• Roof & floor framing timber
• Bricks (all cleaned of lime mortar & relaid as internal walls)
• Leadlight & pictureframed windows
• Front double doors & sidelights/fanlights
• All internal paneled doors complete with door furniture
• Skirtings/architraves/picture rails
• Bathtub (claw bathtub was sandblasted, reglazed & new brass feet)
• Kitchen cabinets
• Shower tapware (rest went to metal merchants)
• Fencing panels
• Electrical wiring & other copper piping (to scrap metal)

 

Did you do it yourselves Scott, or get some kind of assistance to do it?