Construction Junction - Building Material Reuse

September 15- September 21, 2008

Executive Director held hostage

The Steel City Big Pour was a huge success and great fun!  A big Thank You to everyone who made it possible including: the Big Pour committee, CJ staff and board members, sponsors, volunteers, brewers, restaurants, artists and YOU!

But now, life as normal has returned to CJ and we need to get back to the matter at hand... saving the world one 2x4 at a time.  As you'll notice from the less than usual number of recent arrival pictures below, our post Big Pour inventory is a bit "thin".  So we staffers got together and decided to implement a new donation strategy... we're holding, Mike, our Executive Director hostage until our inventory comes back up to its normal "bursting at the seams" level.

The fate of Mike Gable is in your hands.  We encourage you to donate all of the used and surplus building materials you possibly can.  For awhile it seemed like his family was enjoying the break but now it seems as though they're starting to miss him.  We thank you, his family thanks you, and since Mike can't say it himself, we'll say it for him... he thanks you!

The CJ Buzz

CJ has a new product we're very excited about... once used "blue board" insulation and in very large quantities.  Check out the picture in the "Featured Items" below.  If this product sells well, we'll likely be initiating a long standing relationship with the supplier who specializes in salvaging insulation for reuse.  We're excited to bring this product to Pittsburgh and we hope you're happy to have the option to buy even more reused goods.

And more exciting news... starting next week, in association with Dave Bennick of RE-USE Consulting, CJ is embarking on a pilot deconstion project using a technique called Hybrid Deconstruction.  Hybrid Deconstruction is a term Mr. Bennick came up with to describe the use of people and machines to efficiently deconstruct buildings, with the goal of maximizing reuse and recycling.  It refers to the hybrid of demolition and manual deconstruction.  The entire project house will be panelized and stacked on the ground for disassembly in five days!

Project partners include East Liberty Development Inc., Senator Jim Ferlo, Mayor Luke Ravenstal, Urban Redevelopment Authority and Iron City Excavating.

With this project, Construction Junction will begin to learn the techniques associated with Hyrid Deconstruction.  Certainly our goal is to become proficient in this deconstruction method and have the ability to offer the Pittsburgh region an economically viable alternative to traditional "crunch and munch" demolition.

We'll be onsite taking pictures and will share them with you next week.  We'll also keep you posted as to "inventory side" of this project.  Piece by piece, we'll be receiving this deconstructed house into our inventory.  Most of the pieces will be lumber as this house had been abandoned for awhile and as such, "stripped" pretty clean already.

And last, but not least... we have some old growth redwood planking and paneling.  We'd like to sell it as a lot.  The planks are 1" x 11" x 18' and we have about 25 pieces.  The T&G paneling is 1" x 8" x 8' and we have about 45 pieces.  If you'd be interested in purchasing the entire lot, please contact Shannon, our Operations Director, at sclover@constructionjunction.org.    

Featured Items

Blue board insulation

CJ's new office department

Recent Arrivals

Aluminum chairs	Bowling alley	Conference table	File cabinets #1	File cabinets #2
Kitchen set	Metal lockers	Oak lockers	Pickwick paneling	Sink & toilet
Slate	Square tables	Trex lumber	Whirlpool	Wooden cabinet
Wooden chairs	Wooden stools

Great & Gone

Commercial bar sink	Dining room table
Kegerator in the making	Porch furniture

CJ Q&A

View More

Cozmo’s Message of the Week

Free Mike Now!