Benefit Calculator
Economics
Consider your 2,000 square foot house.
At $25 per ton disposal costs, deconstruction saves 2,540 dollars in disposal costs over demolition.
If deconstructed, it could provide enough lumber for the construction of 660 square feet of affordable housing.
Opting for deconstruction will provide 37.80 more worker days at a living wage than would demolition.
The demolition of a typical 2,000 square foot home can be expected to produce 127 tons of debris. While disposal fees can vary widely depending upon local conditions, at an average rate of 25 dollars per ton, disposal costs for a residential demolition would come to $3,175.
With an 80% diversion of waste, deconstruction could save $2,540 in disposal costs over demolition.
When dismantled carefully, older buildings can provide a significant quantity of reusable lumber.
Careful demolition can serve as a source of affordable materials for the renovation of existing structures
or the construction of new ones.
We can estimate that for every 3 square feet of deconstruction, enough lumber can be salvaged to build 1 square foot of new construction. At this rate, if deconstruction replaced residential demolition, the US could generate enough recovered wood to construct 120,000 new affordable homes each year.
Deconstruction is more labor intensive than demolition. Consequently, more time and money is spent on hand labor than on the operation of heavy equipment. Through cooperation with job training programs, deconstruction has the potential to create well-paid entry-level jobs to the construction trades.
For an average residential deconstruction project, labor costs are around $3.64 per square foot of building. Equipment and operation costs for a comparable demolition are around $1.74 per square foot; a difference of $1.90 more per square foot that is paid to deconstruction laborers. At this rate, the deconstruction of a 2,000 square foot home will create 38 more worker-days at a living wage than would demolition.
