Buffalo Rising Online

Jan 14th 2008, 2:31pm By queenseyes

I took a drive down Lafayette today to see what sort of progress Buffalo ReUse was making on Johnson and Sons’ Lafayette Townhomes. After one week of deconstruction, the house looks to be pretty well deconstructed. Frank Crowe, the Project Manager, told me that working with Buffalo ReUse was an excellent experience and plans on working on more projects in the future. “So far so good,” Frank told me. “They've been there when they're supposed to be and have done a good job. Of course this way of bringing down a building takes longer. This is the first project that we've worked on with Buffalo Re-Use. Next we're going to work with them on the two West Utica properties. Depending on the situation (what can be salvaged) we might save a little more money, but more importantly we know that we are doing our part in recycling. We don't have a date yet for construction. I believe that we have a unit sold already, so we’re looking forward to getting the townhomes built. Buffalo ReUse will be done in the next couple of days. They've been on the job for a little over a week, so that's pretty good. I would like to have the project completed within nine months from the building start date.”

Buffalo ReUse’s Michael Gainer was also pleased with the partnership and the house. “We salvaged 2000 sq.’ of oak hardwood flooring,” he said. “Then there were fifteen doors, cabinets, tubs, nice mirrors, old tin ceiling in the basement, marble tile in the bathrooms, old timbers, hand hewn structural timbers, a lot of windows, doorknobs, and hinges. The house had been renovated a couple of times in the past, so some of the character was missing. All in all this was a good house… I’m pleased with the amount that we saved. Even though we saved six to eight tons of materials, we still have to throw a lot away. We’re doing research to find out how to recycle more. Roofing can be a problem. Asphalt recycling is complicated in Buffalo… the asphalt must be 100% pure, which is not always the case. Plaster and lathe (precursor to drywall) are also being thrown away. I have not seen practical reuses for plaster or lathe. We also have an issue with stucco. We are trying to save as much as possible at this point and are always looking for more ways to recycle more.”

For more information on the project, see West Coast’s post detailing the project. For more information on Buffalo ReUse, see Cynnie's post on their new home.