House deconstruction
Conventional methods of building demolition are giving way to more sophisticated methods that cut disposal costs and increase revenue, such as house deconstruction. House deconstruction involves the removal and separation of building materials to maximise the recovery of materials and to minimise the increasingly expensive costs of disposal.
The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (now known as the Office of Environment and Heritage) has produced a series of fact sheets that compares the benefits and costs of deconstructing buildings against old-fashioned wrecking ball demolition. Due to the rising costs of landfill disposal and the re-sale values of many recovered building materials, house deconstruction can be more cost-effective than demolition across a range of building types.
These fact sheets look in detail at the stages of house deconstruction and offer tips and advice on how to plan and carry out house deconstruction successfully. They show the income generated and costs avoided by deconstructing buildings in comparison with the costs associated with demolition and landfill disposal.
Resources
Fact sheets
House deconstruction information booklet (1080HouseDeconstruction.pdf, 1,532KB)
Plan and conduct a house deconstruction (1085PlanConductDecon.pdf, 753KB)
Costs of house deconstruction (1086CostofDecon.pdf, 757KB)
Stripping out: fixtures and fittings (1081StrippingOut.pdf, 822KB)
Roof surface removal (1083RoofSurfaceRemoval.pdf, 764KB)
Plasterboard removal (1084PlasterboardRemoval.pdf, 653KB)
Roof beams and timber removal (1082RoofTimberRemoval.pdf, 764KB)
Bricks and concrete removal (1087BrickConcreteRemoval.pdf, 670KB)
If you are interested in printing bulk quantities, please contact DECCW for higher resolution copies
DVD
'How to Deconstruct a House - The dollars and sense of minimising demolition waste' DVD available on request.
For further information
Sustainability Programs Division contact: (02) 8837 6000 or email: sustainability@environment.nsw.gov.au
Page last updated: 21 July 2011
