Salvaging drywall, insulation and lumber
				The general contractor for the project, Greenbuilt Construction, began work on November 1st. Their first tasks involved erecting a barricade around the construction zone and removing the material around the framing and electrical wires.
		The drywall and insulation from the walls came down steadily. Once the fiberglass bats were removed, they were wrapped up into rolls. The ReUse Center sold these rolls of insulation within two days! An important priority for the project was to remove materials in such a way that they can either be used again in the En-House or sold at the ReUse Center.
				This careful disassembly of a building is known as "deconstruction" as opposed to "demolition." The key to deconstruction is careful and planned handling of materials. For instance, pieces of solid drywall were removed by pulling out the nails carefully with a claw. The contractors then stacked the sheets neatly against the barricade so that they can be used again when needed.
		Of course, half the fun of pulling out a building is knocking out drywall with a sledge hammer! This Ecology Center volunteer is doing just that. Many of the sheets of drywall had holes in them, were irregular shapes or were painted and could not be used again. Some of these sheets fell to the hammer.
				Other Ecology Center volunteers removed nails from lumber that was once used for shelving in the back room. After the nails were removed, the lumber was stacked neatly so that warps and bends could be straightened out instead of worsened. Much of this lumber will either be used for the En-House or sold at the ReUse Center.
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