How to score on Craigslist
Just so there's no confusion, this post is about building materials, not internet dating.
When we were still in design mode we decided which elements we wanted new and which ones we wanted to reclaim, at least as much as we could. We get really excited about taking things out of the waste stream and giving them new life. Craigslist has by far been the biggest source of reused materials on this build and reusing stuff has already saved us thousands of dollars. How have we done this?
Demolitions
Vancouver's full of houses that have been recently renovated but are being torn down, and while this is horribly wasteful and gross, it's a great opportunity to get materials that are nearly new and would otherwise end up in the landfill. Inspired by the rezoning in our neighbourhood, we started cruising the demolition sales on Craigstlist.
Taking materials out of houses yourself is a great way to bring the costs down even further and gives you a chance to get the knack of some tools you're going to use later on in your build. So far we've scored 7 of our 8 windows and almost all of our cedar siding from demolitions.
We've also had advice that if you hang about demolition sites at the start of the process, armed with boots and tools, you can sometimes gain access or have materials set aside, although we have not been able to do this.
Top Tips for Demolition:
Demolitions are usually advertised a week or so before the house goes down so check the ads midweek
Go check out the goods to make sure they're what you want, plus there can be other parts of the house that you can take that didn't make it into the ad
Find out if there will be power in the house when you schedule your removal and make sure any asbesdos work is already complete
Because you're removing the goods, you can bargain a little harder and consider whether or not anyone else is likely to want what you're taking, it can give you more leverage. For example, because there was already a demolition company scheduled to come in, we knew it was unlikely that anyone else would come for the windows we wanted. Having no competition, we could offer a price and stick with it, getting the windows for a steal.
Used Materials
You can find just about anything on Craigslist, from shabby treasures to gold-covered turds. Finding the treasures can be tricky but a good place to start is by
filtering your search by owner, rather than dealer. Dealers more often sell new materials and don't always offer a good bargain. That said, if you want new, sometimes you can get good deals on ends leftover from jobs or odd lots that dealers need to offload.
Usually materials from renos have already been removed but sometimes you get a better deal removing them yourself. We called after seeing an ad for an oak hardwood floor and the dude had already promised the floor to someone else, but when that guy bailed, the floor went to us, and for free! Normally these floors sell for a few hundred bucks, even when you do the work yourself, so this was a major score. Dude just wanted it removed so he could get on with his renos. With a few hours of elbow grease, we had over 300sf of it back in our garage by the end of the day.
We also managed to get the bulk of our framing lumber from a contractor who'd just finished building and had loads of lumber from scaffolding left over.
New and Used shops also offer some great bargains. We got our 8th window from the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Vancouver (www.vancouverrestores.ca) and there are a couple of expansive new and used shops around the lower mainland.
If you have the cash to spend, there are loads of companies around Vancouver that take materials out of all kinds of old buildings and refinish them beautifully.
Top tips for finding good used materials:
When opportunities come up, you have to be ready to move on them, but it's also a waiting game: resist jumping on the first thing, go with your gut and wait until the right opportunity presents itself
Some materials are difficult to find used for a reason: they're difficult to remove in good enough condition to reuse
Filter your Craigslist search by 'owner' instead of 'dealer' if you want used goods or more room for negotiation
Offer less than what you're prepared to pay- almost everyone expects negotiation on Craigslist so if you go in low you still have room to move up in price without breaking the bank
If you get something but change your mind about it later, you can always sell it again on Craigslist
Always check over what you're buying thoroughly to make sure you know what you're paying for
Using Reclaimed Materials in your Build
While refinishing materials can be exciting, the work can be very time consuming and using them can be challenging. You need to pick your battles here.
At the start of our build, we got excited about using pallet wood as our inside panelling. It only took one day of chasing down pallets all over the lower mainland, arriving too late to get decent ones, to realise that this was a bad idea for us. Not only was finding all the pallets going to take ages, but a lot more time would be required to get all the planks into good panelling condition.
Since then, we've chosen which materials to reclaim by weighing up the condition of the materials, the money we can save and the energy we'd have to put in to get the finished quality we want.
We took our cedar siding from a demolition and realised right away that the reason it's not available used is because it's really hard to remove without splitting the wood. When you do remove them, the planks are brittle and bowed on the outfacing side and there are holes and splits to mend as you go. The amount of usable linear feet also drops because all the split bits have to be cut off of the ends of the planks. For us, it was worth it.
The point is that reclaiming materials can be difficult and you have to consider what is worth doing and what isn't.
