
Much more accomplished as Hoeheim House transforms into stock for new houses.
I hear of all the houses around the world that get torn down for new bigger houses that will consume more energy, and they throw away all of the materials from the old house they replace. People can earn the equivalent of $500 per hour getting the materials by doing the salvage, yet none seem to want to do the work. Why not save it? Labor and cost to store it, to find people who will pay for the products that are taken out, and to get the support of the government or building industry are all issues. Not for me at this point as I know what can be done and have built 80 examples of what we could be doing anywhere to put the materials back into use and create houses that would not only be sustainable, but relatively toxin free, import free, and will last far longer than any of the new houses being built to replace the old ones.
So why does it not change? No one comes to the Salvage Bootcamps to learn how to do this and make and incredible living from the salvage, the building of houses out of them, or any other aspect that is an opportunity unlike any out there, especially for people without college educations. Why does no one come? It is not too expensive, at $200 per week to learn and get the chance to take away more than that in value of materials in this last Bootcamp for example. Still, 3-6 people show up and that is not enough to justify even having the opportunity in most cases, but I keep offering the chance again and again. Next year maybe not. I can not imagine what else someone can do to earn as much money as these materials are worth as fast as you can take them down and denail them. In some cases it is the equivalent of $500-$1,000 pr hour in value for the boards in this case that will become flooring for a house, or walls, ceilings, and siding, all cost over $4.50 per square foot in the store, if you can find them. Taking out and denailing a hundred square feet of walls or other such material takes less than an hour, in fact on this house. sometimes a half hour. So it goes, I can only show and tell, not force people to consider this instead of being unemployed or working at a job they hate.
Here are some images of the great booty we are getting, the fun we are having doing the work, and the results that could be happening in cities all over the USA, Canada, and elsewhere.
The truck shows the stuff from yesterday but it was too dark to show the incredible 600 sf of wood over 18′ long in todays booty. You can see what is coming off in the pictures though.

Some of the lengths are 18′ long and in nearly perfect shape. Heavier than you can imagine, some weigh over 30 lbs each.

Found a stack of nearly 50 Cypress fence pickets under the house. Only work to get them was pull them out and stack them. Normally they would cost you $15 a piece as they are old growth Cypress and hand cut.

This is the amount of protection you should wear to be completely safe. Admittedly she has allergies so the mask is even more important.

Had to peel some linoleum Yuck off the wood floors but the roofing removal tool did a great job on this.

See the 4×4’s that hold up the place. I have never had a house with less nails in the wood, and easy to remove square nails no less.

Carrying out the big boards is no small task as some weigh 30 lbs each at only 3/4″ thick by 5 1/2″ wide.