The Going Green Home - Part 3: Reclaimed Materials

(Part 1: Introduction)

(Part 2: Insulation)

Reclaimed material--or pile of junk?

Tiny houses could be seen as inherently eco-friendly because they use less stuff than a larger house. Obviously; they're smaller! Less stuff means fewer acres of forest logged, less metal ore mined, and less energy used producing stuff, fewer gallons of fuel burned shipping stuff, and (normally) less wasted stuff clogging landfills after the project is done.

But wait, there's more! With each piece of new stuff that you replace with reclaimed and reused stuff, it's like eliminating (nearly) all of the negative impacts of that stuff!

So, what exactly are reclaimed materials (stuff)? I define them as any materials that were saved from the landfill and put to use instead. Most often, they are materials removed from a building that is being demolished or renovated. They could also be surplus materials from a construction job. They could be old wooden beams or logs that have been milled afresh into lumber or flooring or another product. They could be materials that a building supply store or construction firm has had languishing out back for ages and it's time for them to go. They could even be city street or yard trees that had to be removed, and someone milled them into useful wood rather than relegate them to the wood chipper.

But whatever their origin, the basic idea of reclaimed materials is: Use the stuff that already exists, rather than throw it away and waste resources on producing the same stuff new. Good idea, no?

I would love to incorporate reclaimed materials into my house, but I'm thinking they will only go toward the non-structural, exterior and interior finish and details. But I'm still weighing my options. I see a lot of pros and cons to using reclaimed materials.

Pros:

Obviously, the resource conservation and eco-friendly angle is a big one. There is so much wastage of resources in the world, I hate to contribute to it when I could make such a simple choice not to.

Reclaimed materials can also be an inexpensive option, at least if you only need a little bit of a given material. In my county, there are at least two places to buy salvaged and second-hand building materials at discounted rates compared to the same materials purchased new. There is also a lumber mill with a branch nearby that takes old wood and re-mills it into as-new materials.

Old wood can actually be sturdier than newly bought stuff. We're now sourcing a lot of our wood from younger trees harvested from plantations or managed forests, rather than virgin old-growth timber. Old trees are full of harder, stronger, more slowly-grown wood than young, fast-growing plantation trees.

There's sort of a spiritual aspect to it, too--giving those grand old trees a last hurrah, the respect they deserve.

And houses built with reclaimed materials can be really aesthetically cool, if done correctly--ranging from whimsical to ultra-modern. A few of the houses in this Flavorwire article strike me as aesthetically pleasing; same with this WebEcoist listicle. And there's a company in Austin, Texas called Reclaimed Space whose thing is to build small houses from reclaimed materials, and they look pretty nifty to me.

But... Cons:

It takes some skill and experience to recognize which materials are really salvageable, and what needs to be done to them to preserve, restore, or incorporate them into plans that call for more commonly-used new materials. That is one reason why I personally shy away from using reclaimed material for structural purposes; I don't want to risk a major failure because I failed to choose quality materials and/or use them correctly! You can research new materials and their manufacturers; reclaimed materials are purely case-by-case and don't come with a spec sheet or instructions.

And the timber products from places like I mentioned that re-mill old wood... their stuff is pricey, oooo-iie! Same with wood salvaged from city trees. The quality is much more assured, but the supply is scarce and opportunistic. Quality + rarity = $$$$.

Another reason I shy away from using reclaimed materials for the core structure of my house is that they can be hard to find. You have to visit the salvage yard regularly to have a chance of finding something you actually need, and if it's the basic structural components you're looking for, then your house will end up taking a long time.

Plus, with all those trips to the salvage yard, it's really easy to end up buying a lot of random stuff that you'll never find a use for... something for which I am definitely at risk. I have a terrible habit of spending money (and/or storage space) on something that "...is so cool, and maybe someday I'll use it!" And there's always the risk of buying something one week, then coming back next week and finding something better that you should have bought, instead. Reclaimed materials require some self control. 

And finally, that aesthetic I talked about in the Pros section? There's a fine line between "rustic chic" or "eco-modern" and... well... "pile of junk." See: the exact same links I provided above! And I am not a designer or architect; I'll be honest, I don't 100% trust myself to make good aesthetic choices. At least, not without a lot of trial and error. And the last thing a tiny house on wheels needs to gain mainstream acceptance is a trashy, falling-apart appearance.
 
 So--I'm undecided how, and how much, I'll be using reclaimed materials. At least I have some time before I need to make up my mind about those non-structural elements.