Gail’s personal campaign was to minimize construction waste by making the best use of materials and salvaging and repurposing as many used building materials as possible. Before construction even began, they started collecting used building materials for their project. Their primary source was buy-and-sell websites like Craigslist, but they also visited re-used supply stores such as the Habitat for Humanity Restore, and kept an eye out for reusable materials on the curb or in the swap shed at the local dump!

The construction team took care to make the best use of the building materials on-site and minimize waste. Wood off-cuts and other leftover building materials were kept around until they could be used for other smaller projects, like building a pergola by the garden shed. Bent nails, used screws and other metal leftovers were taken to recycling. Small pieces of scrap wood were stored and used for home heating in their thermal mass fireplace.

Throughout the project, they only had to take two pickup truck loads to the landfill! This was mostly scrapped drywall, treated wood, and glue tubes.

Gail says, “It is never easier to use reclaimed materials. You have to seek them out, clean and store them, strip old paint, de-nail, repair, fill, sand and re-finish them and be flexible enough to design around the salvaged material.” But there is a payoff – you have a direct relationship with the stories of the materials, it is a great feeling to divert products from the landfill, and the results are unique to your home. A bonus is that most used materials come without new packaging, further reducing waste. Inspired by this, they even asked their local window supplier not to wrap the windows and to re-use the wooden skids that they used for shipping. Recycling at its finest!