> before another renovation or a demolition happens and it gets smashed up and thrown away.
That's sort of material has a high resale value and usually is sold for reuse in other applications.
That's sort of material has a high resale value and usually is sold for reuse in other applications.
Like, if I want to put in new stone counters, in general I'm picking a kind of stone I like, and the firm measures or makes a template of my use, and cuts from a slab, right? If I have a really small job, perhaps it's possible to get a deal from the offcuts of some prior installation. I don't think it's generally an available option to e.g. get measurements and then peruse a list of countertops removed from recent local renovations where the dimensions are strictly larger than mine, and have my counter cut by trimming their 11' linear counter to my 10' space. But given that widths/depths are often determined by (standard) cabinet or vanity measurements, I feel like this ought to be doable, and these materials could have a straight-forward series of multiple uses.
If there's an architectural design up front then there's a need to source materials that fit the plan, as you describe.
The opposite approach was taken by a friend of mine who was, for a decade, a prolific builder here in Australia .. he continuously had two or three houses on the go in staggered completion (clean builds and|or significant rennovation) that all sold well for their design, uniqueness and craftsmanship.
His starting point was salvage yards, looking for cheap big statement pieces; bay windows, big wall cabinets, doors, window sets, impressive looking ketchen sets, big counter tops, etc.
The next step would be to design a house plan that fitted around quality salvage and well suited the site for views, access, etc.
His arc in life was art school in Victoria followed by | interleaved with a salvage job that dismantled entire (small) towns ahead of dams, flooding, other projects - they prepped wooden houses for moving elsewhere, disassembled structures to "flats", reclaimed historic bridges, etc.
Then came the building that built up his cash reserves, then a big rural property with sheds, glassblowing studios, metal work, etc.
https://www.google.com/search?q=reclaimed+marble+slabs&oq=re...
I'd imagine this stuff is pretty local though because shipping heavy stuff like marble too far wouldn't make much sense.
But more importantly there are a lot of kitchen and bathroom renovations (and I _think_ renovations outnumber new construction by a lot ...) so one might think that almost as many countertops being removed as installed, and that a large portion of these could be serviced by recycled ones. The comment from danans asserted that these materials are "usually" reused -- which I am doubtful of.
It's like a Home Depot for used building materials/kitchens/toilets/plumbing/electrical etc. Think of carefully deconstructing a 50s ranch built to GI bill specs and carting it off somewhere to sell it.
It's part of "recycling row" where they have a single stream recycling plant and drop off, "CHARM" for hard to recycle stuff like computers and a hazardous waste place for paint / lead / solvent etc.
https://ecocycle.org/services-and-facilities/zero-waste-faci...
A lot of stone countertops though are actually cheap composites where the slab is mass produced. Like how you can walk into an apartment complex and they all have granite countertops with nearly identical patterns.
That still call themselves granite? Quartz is the well known man-made composite, but it tends to be a little more expensive than granite, not less.
For starters, Travertine is highly popular in jewelry. When a rockhound passed away here where I live, his custom house was being demolished by the new owners and they invited the community to come rescue any thing they could. I rescued a bunch of the travertine slabs to use as teaching material for new rock cutters.