Deconstruction Follow-up with the Evanston ReBuilding Workforce

A month after receiving their collection of deconstruction tools, ToolMade met on site with the Evanston ReBuilding Warehouse’s workforce trainees. They were dismantling the interior of a home that would have otherwise been smashed to bits, carefully taking up floorboards, denailing trim, and removing whatever interior elements were able to be resold at the warehouse.

In just three years, through deconstruction and donations, the warehouse has helped to divert tens of thousands of tons of demolition debris from the waste stream, and has then resold all of that material at incredibly low prices so that everyone, regardless of income level, can fix up their home.

: Eugene and Red pulling up floorboards. Old hardwood sells like crazy.

: It’s laborious, but worth the effort.

: Checking out the condition and efficiency of mechanical systems to see if they are resalable.

: Kevin and Nelson loading up kitchen cabinets. Huge numbers of kitchen and bathroom cabinets are sold at the warehouse for a steal. The trick is just measuring them properly.

: The tool bag, full of free goodies. Showing up on a job site after this training been completed with one’s own stash of tools is critical.

: Brett denailing boards.

: The deconstruction workers have to measure, document, bundle, and label all of the materials (along with put their initials on them in case of missing parts, etc.)

: Dave removoing trim.

: Volunteers and staff bringing in donated materials.

: Cabinets for days!

: This is a very small sampling of the lighting fixtures that available. I’ve never seen so many chandeliers in my life.

: Yup.

: Vinyl windows aren’t accepted – they get to be picky at the warehouse. For the most part, only historic wood windows and Marvin windows are accepted (they have excellent hiring practices)