After purchasing the property we took a look at the existing structure & overall floor plate of the house. We quickly determined that the base structure of the house was not ideal to work from for our infill. We had considered using the existing foundation; however, we would have needed to connect a new foundation with a settled existing foundation giving us concern for the potential long term issues that could arise.
Dismantling a House
Although we had decided to start from scratch, we wanted to make sure we salvaged and repurposed every item we could. In June of 2019, our contractor began the task of dismantling the existing house and garage!
The process began with removing all working fixtures (plumbing, lighting, appliances, cabinets, etc.). We are quite proud to say that most of these items found homes through Buy and sell sites, Upcycling, Kijiji, Friends/family and neighbours.
See below some of the gems we were able to find future homes for:
Cabinets, appliances, sunshine ceiling all reused.
Bathroom vanity was reused.
Toilet, bathtub & all fixtures were reused.
Some really interesting light figures throughout the house all found new homes:
Hot water tank & furnace too!
Once these items were carefully removed, all of the base materials were pulled and separated – even down to the nails! Metal was recycled. Wood was partially recycled, partially re-homed and partially set aside to reuse on the project for some feature areas if all goes well. Older homes really were made with some beautiful wood. Doors, windows, hardwood, roof trusses… you name it, we tried to give it all a second life.
See below some photos of the dismantling process:
Some questions we were asked about the dismantling process:
Q: What was not able to be reused or recycled?
A: The items we didn’t recycle or reuse were drywall (Yes, there is a location in Calgary that can recycle it, however, when weighing the benefits of recycling against the fuel and transportation, we chose not to), fibreglass insulation, shingles, and the chimney. We were very impressed at how much was taken by people completing DIY projects around the city, including the most surprising to us – wood chip attic insulation!
Q: Did this add a lot of time to the project?
A: Honestly, yes. We knew at the onset of the project that environmental impact would be a priority. With the expectation in mind that we wouldn’t cut corners to simplify or speed up construction, we were able to view this process as the only way to achieve our goals. By adjusting our expectations we were not deterred by the time. That being said, our total time to dismantle was approximately 16 weeks for the interior, 3 weeks for the exterior/structure, and 3 days for the foundation.