If you’re thinking about renovating or remodeling your home, you’re probably more focused on the building and designing elements of the project than you are about what comes before it. A lot of the time, remodeling contractors will have a demolition day (or two), in which they come in and knock out all the old materials, fixtures and furnishings. The materials they pull out of the area being remodeled then get taken to landfills.
But consider this—approximately 40 percent of all solid waste put into landfills each year comes from construction projects, which puts a massive strain on the environment and results in a whole lot of wasted material. For this reason, deconstruction rather than demolition is becoming a more common option. Deconstruction involves carefully disassembling building materials, furnishings and fixtures to allow them to be reused or recycled for other projects. While this can take a bit more time than demolition because it requires much more care, it also has a variety of benefits.
Here are just a few examples of some of the main benefits of deconstruction services in Maryland:
- Environmentally friendly: As we already mentioned, deconstruction helps keep construction materials out of the landfill. This goes beyond preventing waste, and also helps prevent chemical runoff from decomposing construction materials from running into the groundwater. It also results in less pollution from transporting or burning those materials, and means fewer new materials will need to be manufactured and shipped.
- Great for charities: Charities have benefitted in a big way from deconstruction. Perhaps the most well-known example of such a charity is Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes in impoverished communities, oftentimes using salvaged materials. There are many charitable organizations that also specialize in distributing these deconstructed furnishings, materials and electronics, some of which operate locally while others are more national in scope.
- Financial benefits: You can work with an appraiser to get a sense of the value of the deconstructed items, which you can then donate to charities and get a significant tax deduction for that year. When you combine that major deduction with the increased equity you get out of your remodeling project, this presents a significant financial benefit that you simply can’t get out of the demolition process, which is essentially an empty expenditure.
- Good for the community: Beyond the charitable aspect of deconstruction and donation, there are other potential benefits for your immediate community. Many deconstruction contractors have connections within the community to give these materials away or sell them at low cost to low-income homeowners or owners of buildings that would otherwise be in disrepair. Local schools also benefit from discarded materials, furnishings and electronics, as their budgets typically do not provide nearly enough wiggle room to make the upgrades they truly need.
Interested in learning more about how deconstruction works and the ways it can benefit both you and other people in your community? Contact the team at Jane Campbell-Chambliss & Associates, LLC today and we’ll be happy to tell you more about our deconstruction services in Maryland.