The Deconstructed House

TDH - Sponsor of The Next Cool Event!

2012-01-04T00:40:00.000-05:00

Join us at The Next Cool Event, a showcase of local talent and resources for building the infrastructure of the growing television an movie industry in Georgia! The Deconstructed House will be featuring primitives and vintage house parts in a scene from The Grapes of Wrath!

http://www.thenextcoolevent.com/

Dressing up this dresser!

2011-12-27T12:47:00.000-05:00

Oh, I'm inspired now! I love this dresser!http://emilymacleoud.blogspot.com/2011/10/grey-is-new-white.html

Granite really does ROCK!

2011-12-17T01:15:00.000-05:00

These cut granite rocks were reclaimed from a mighty foundation off of a home recently demolished off of Peachtree Battle. Each rock is roughly 50-60 lbs. There is appoximately 4-5 tons available. Some mortar still evident on a few stones. Let me know if you are interested - they are located in metro Atlanta. These would be great for so many different applications - retaining wall, baseball

bat proof mailbox, firepit, landscaping.........toe-stubber doorstop?

$2/Ea + Tax

Time for Starburst!

2011-12-17T00:53:00.000-05:00

Need a door to fit an odd sized doorway?

2011-12-01T14:48:00.002-05:00

Renovating an older house with odd sized doorways? Need to replace a worn-out, wrong sized or ugly door and can't find a new door to fit?

Check out the doors we have on hand that may fit these spaces and give your home a new look! We have an inventory of interior doors and doors to open up to outside. This interior door with glass panes might be just what you're looking for...

Glass knob close-up

Sustainable Homebuilding Good for Business

2011-11-23T14:50:00.001-05:00

In this age of a growing "green" economy, it seems that everyone is looking to add a recycling angle to their business. A number of homebuilding and renovation companies in the Atlanta area have begun to use the green concept in their day to day business. And this is not going unnoticed.

In the October 28th issue of Atlanta Business Chronicle, the weekly paper recognizes some of these companies and their strategies. According to the article, 60 to 80 percent of materials in houses can be repurposed in some way.

For the article and its recycling resources, visit http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/

Salvaging Everyday Items

2011-11-18T12:00:00.000-05:00

Salvage: noun /'sal-vij/

something extracted (as from rubbish) as valuable or useful

We see value in reclaimed materials everyday in this business. Items that were originally intended for a certain use are disposed of constantly as they don't serve their intended function. However, this does not mean that these items are useless, and inspiration for re-use is everywhere.

Here is an example of an interesting use of recycled materials:

This Old House lending advice for salvage projects

2011-10-06T11:35:00.000-04:00

Get ideas and step-by-step guides for projects turning salvaged materials into new treasures. The book, published in September, features 22 ideas for reusing everyday items in a fashionable and functional way.

Use this for ideas for your next project!

Check out the book at www.thisoldhouse.com/books.

Vintage Bricks Back in Use!

2011-08-09T15:54:00.000-04:00

At many of the houses our company deconstructs, we are floored by what people will throw away. Whether it's a rush to get on to the latest, greatest building product, a complete lack of creativity or just not enough information on how to recycle architectural elements we don't know, but it doesn't have to be that way!

Keep all of the beautiful old brick from these places in sight and in use! Save them from adding to the ever-growing landfill piles and use them somewhere in your next project.

We have thousands of salvaged bricks for sale, $0.25 a piece, you pick them, you haul them! Most of these are from the late 1800s/early 1900s and have a vintage/antique look to them.

Visit us at http://www.vintagebricks.com/ or call us to see what we have: 678-793-2773

New Reycling Drop-Off Site for DeKalb County

2011-08-09T12:03:00.000-04:00

A new recycling center for DeKalb residents recently opened at 3643 Camp Circle in Decatur. This is the county's second permanent site to recycle old electronic items.

They will accept any number of electronic items, including stereos, microwaves, fax machines, CDs, cameras and cell phones just to name a few.

Put your old electronics to good re-use and keep them out of the landfill!

For more information, visit http://www.keepdekalbbeautiful.org/ or call 404-371-2654.

One of our neighbhood's very own! Featured in "This Old House"!

2011-07-05T08:47:00.000-04:00

Best Old House Neighborhoods 2011: The South

By: Keith Pandolfi, Gillian Barth, Carole Braden, Amanda Keiser, Eric Hagerman, Sal Vaglica, and Danielle Blundell, Source: This Old House online

Read the article here: Whittier Mill House Featured in "This Old House"

Photo Credit: Chris Hannah

Last Chance Sale!!

2011-06-12T20:08:00.000-04:00

You might have missed the Pre-Demolition Salvage Pickin and Porch Party, but you haven't missed all the deals just yet - visit the LAST CHANCE SALE link for last chance deals on period doors, antique hardware, antique doorknobs, 12' Church Pews from the Lioneheart Theatre, cabinets, glass light globes, barn wood, flagstones and more!

http://thedeconstructedhouse.com/uploads/Last_Chance_Sale_FINAL.pdf

Better hurry though - pickup is Saturday June 18th at 155 North Cemetery Street, Norcross, Georgia from 10am - 12pm.

Pre-Demolition Salvage Picking and Porch Party

2011-06-07T17:12:00.000-04:00

The party is over now, but look for our "LAST CHANCE" sale before the wrecking occurs! Here are photos from the Pre-Demolition Salvage Picking, and Porch Party hosted in conjunction with Sustainable Norcross and The City of Norcross!

http://spotted.gwinnettdailypost.com/photos/index.php?id=10248

Thanks to all who supported and the great volunteers!

More Good News For Southern Demolition and Environmental!

2011-05-18T12:26:00.000-04:00

Our President and company founder Gina Ragsdale was featured in the Business Section of the Sunday, May 1st edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution!

As a woman-owned business in a male dominated field, Gina and Southern Demolition face many challenges. As this article demonstrates, Gina has implemented worthwhile and profitable ideas in her business, and continues to succeed in a challenging economy.

Here is the article:

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

May 1, 2011

Nell Merlino

I speak all over the country encouraging women to stand on their own and take control of their financial potential.

I've been doing this for a long time, but I still meet women who don't believe they need to grow their businesses, who think staying at $50,000 or $100,000 in revenues is good enough.

As much as I can try to convince them otherwise, they still don't get it. So I want to introduce them to some of these incredible women.

Gina Cambardella Ragsdale, the founder and president of Southern Demolition and Environmental, is right here in Atlanta. Not only is she a woman in a male-dominated industry -- her company provides green services in demolition, asbestos inspections, asbestos abatement and removal, deconstruction, brick salvage, architectural salvage and recycling -- she's also a wife and mother of a toddler (baby No. 2 is due in June).

Shortly after launching in March 2007, her husband quit his job to work with his wife full-time. Since its inception, the company has been profitable every year, and revenues continue to increase annually.

They have to.

"Insurance companies base the credibility of your company on revenues and revenue growth -- maybe more so than on profitability," explains Ragsdale, 36, who was selling real estate and teaching special education before starting her company.

And, of course, there is also this: "We won't eat if we don't make money," she says bluntly. "We have to maintain a certain level of income, which is directly tied to profitability. A lot of people go to work and get a paycheck and it doesn't matter if their company is being profitable that week or not. I have to be profitable every week, or I'm borrowing money to live."

Ragsdale is just one of an estimated 8.1 million women who are business owners in this country, who generate nearly $1.3 trillion in revenues and employ 7.7 million Americans, according to the recently released American Express OPEN State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, which is based on the latest U.S. census data.

Georgia, it turns out, has had the fastest growth in the number of women-owned firms during the past 14 years, at 97.5 percent.

What's more, the American Express report found women-owned businesses continue to diversify in all industries, with the fastest growth coming in construction (up 41 percent), administrative and waste services (up 47 percent), and education services (up 54 percent).

On the face of it, that's pretty amazing. But if you delve deeper, the numbers become a little less impressive. Although most women-owned businesses initially surpass those owned by men in growth rate in revenue and employment, the bulk of them burn out when they reach 100 employees and $1 million in revenues mark. Then they drop below national averages in both revenues and employees.

There are still too many women out there who approach those thresholds and suddenly think "I shouldn't" or "I can't," doubting their professional capacity or their ability to balance work and family.

Women need to embrace having a mindset of success fueled by personal and professional growth. We need to look to role models like Victoria Campos, who had a strong desire to grow her immigration and family law practice in Long Island, N.Y., but couldn't envision doing so while raising four children.

Instead of continuing to drive herself crazy, Campos sought help.

"I learned I could be both an active mother and a successful head of a company," she says. In two years, her revenues have grown from $191,000 to nearly $500,000.

We also need to recognize that just 25 percent of all women-owned businesses in the U.S. have annual revenues of more than $50,000.

Let's face it: If that's your annual take-home pay, chances are you're going to have a pretty tough time surviving.

Recent statistics from Wider Opportunities for Women, a national organization that works to achieve economic independence for women and their families, found that single workers need $30,012 a year -- nearly twice the federal minimum wage -- to cover basic expenses. Single parents require nearly twice the income ($57,756) to support two children (an hourly wage of $27.35), while dual-income households with children require $67,920.

Failure to access affordable capital, failure to access markets, and segregation from mainstream business development and leadership contribute to the failure of women's businesses to achieve acceptable market share growth, says the U.S. Women's Chamber of Commerce.

But there's also something deeper going on: Women don't believe they can do it themselves.

Sure, women may have come a long way, but they're still slow to believe that they alone can provide for their safety and security. They usually only believe it when disaster strikes in the form of, say, an unexpected divorce or death and suddenly they're forced to be breadwinner.

Leah Brown started her pharmaceutical testing company, A10 Clinical Solutions in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., after she was laid off from her job at a health care consulting firm.

"I had spent my whole life trying to be the best employee," she says. "I started my own business so that I would have control over my destiny. I didn't want to rely on anyone else. Period."

This year, Brown said she expects to reach $30 million in annual revenues.

The candor of these women is dead-on: Female business owners must work toward revenue growth. They have to. It is, quite literally, a matter of survival.

(Nell Merlino is the founder and president of Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence.)

The Randolph Street Tub Recovery

2011-03-03T22:06:00.000-05:00

This claw footed cast iron tub was harnessed and brought down to safety (while saving our backs).

Massive Pocket Doors - Circa 1920

2011-02-13T08:29:00.000-05:00

These are massive! Dimensions to be posted later, as I am still recovering from the removal. They are from a house that is estimated to have been built between 1910-1920 in Greensboro, Georgia. These are incredible (and heavy), and the rollers are still operable!

One Man's Trash.....

2010-12-13T10:06:00.001-05:00

NPR recently ran a story on Paul Burns, owner of FireClay Tile in northern California. Burns, a self described “scavenger,” is doing his part to recycle and help the environment, one toilet bowl at a time.

After working for years with recycled granite dust from California’s oldest granite quarry located next door to his tile business, Burns was contacted in regard to recycling porcelain toilets and other bathroom fixtures by a landfill outside San Jose.

After one year, the landfill had located 150 tons of porcelain toilets for Burns. These have been crushed down and incorporated into the clay mixture for creating new tiles.

Although he pays about the same per ton for this porcelain as he would for new clay, he says that working with new materials always provides a welcome challenge.

Please visit http://www.fireclaytile.com/products/list/category/debris/overview for more information on this ultimate scavenger!

Demolition vs. Deconstruction

2010-10-11T09:03:00.000-04:00

Demolition vs. Deconstruction:

Demolish – verb - \di-ˈmä-lish\
1. a : tear down, raze
b : to break to pieces : smash
2. a : to do away with : destroy
b : to strip of any pretense of merit or credence

Deconstruct – verb - \dee-kuh n-struhkt\
1. to break down into constituent parts; dissect; dismantle.

At The Deconstructed House, we are working to make a distinction between demolishing and deconstructing the houses we encounter. As the definition indicates, to demolish something is to destroy it completely. In contrast, to deconstruct something is to break it down carefully in order to see the individual parts of the whole.

As a practice, the construction industry has viewed their job as demolishing the old to make way for the new. We are trying to reverse that trend and deconstruct the houses we encounter with the intent to reuse what we can.

We take the three Rs of conservation – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – and apply them to our everyday practice.

We hope to find like-minded people, both in the construction industry and without, who share in our mission. There are treasures buried in every house we enter, and something we find might just fit your vision or plan for a new use.

Keep checking in with us as we find these treasures every day and will have new products listed as they are found.

Solid Wood Single Panel Doors

2010-09-15T13:25:00.000-04:00

Check out the cool single panel, solid wood door. Took these off of a house built in 1954. The doors are solid and should mak for a nice detail in any home!

Shutters, Shutters, Everywhere, Shutters!

2010-09-07T11:25:00.000-04:00

Here's a great example of turn of the century shutters currently living on a house slated for demolition. Hopefully these will be available soon for purchase at The Deconstructed House.Com!

Blog, I love you......

2010-08-15T07:58:00.001-04:00

This is one of my favorite blogs - what talent! http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

Here are photos of one of her before and after projects that she features on her blog:

Clean Recycling

2010-07-21T10:00:00.003-04:00

Rub-A-Dub......

At the recycling yard, I found a perfectly good tub....and a nice resting spot.

Just imagine the things you can find. And what you can use them for.

The possibilities are endless.

2010-07-19T12:21:00.000-04:00

This is a cool idea. It can be a DIY project for you....made from one of the many vintage windows we will have in our shop. Grand opening coming ASAP. We have gotten alot of positive feedback on this venture and we are looking forward to opening our doors.

Hope to see you all there!!!

Recycled Houses! Would City of Atlanta Bureau of Buildings ever entertain??

2010-07-07T22:57:00.001-04:00

Oh my gosh, the man featured in this article is not only offering practical solutions for housing, but his work is very beautiful and more akin to art...........

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/09/02/garden/20090903-recycled-slideshow_index.html

Photo from Article From New York Times, posted above

Special Wallpaper

2010-06-29T23:57:00.000-04:00

This was another gem found on the original plaster walls in a house located in College Park, Georgia. Drywall was removed and it revealed this bucolic scene - of certainly another place, from another time. The wallpaper is very ornate and colorful, but also very peaceful.

Restroom Break - In Historic, College Park, Georgia

2010-06-29T23:44:00.000-04:00

This bathroom toilet was installed in the barn-bathroom in a turn of the century home in College Park, Georgia. This relic of restroom history has been successfully secured and saved from the landfill. It is available for sale - but not guaranteed to meet current building codes calling for low-flow!

Not necessarily deconstructed.........

2010-06-29T22:57:00.001-04:00

I wanted to share a site I stumbled upon: "http://weburbanist.com/2009/10/12/adaptive-reuse-15-creative-house-home-conversions/

These homes are truly "repurposed". But I really can't imagine hauling groceries up all the stairs in a "billboard house"........

A 1930's Restroom Break...........

2010-05-14T00:52:00.000-04:00

This is at the same restaurant in Houston, mentioned above.....I need to do more research on these doors (as The Deconstructed House currently has a great selection of these doors currently for sale - ranging from $25-$50). I've haven't yet seen these doors as individual, stall doors, and if I do, I will be careful photographing in a public restroom setting......promise! I think that would be a great use for them. From my experience working with single family residential houses in Atlanta, I believe they were commonly installed in the 1930's. They are incredibly heavy, durable, and often found with multiple layers of paint (sometimes lead). Our services can include the safe removal and legal disposal of lead paint, prior to purchase. This is important, particularly if young children will be in proximity to the pieces.

Love it, love it, love it......

2010-05-14T00:21:00.001-04:00

Why do old things look so cool? On a recent visit to Houston, I couldn't help but take photos of the decor at the Pappacito's. I thought it was limited to the exterior, which was lovingly clad in recovered and repurposed sheet metals and recycled wood sidings. However, the interior featured solid, five-panel doors and a number of other architectural salvage pieces on walls, ceilings, etc. The patio was nothing other than fabulous (and so were the margs). The space that was created from the solid bricks and the other exterior pieces created the most comfortable, warm, and inviting space. I just know I spent more money because we stayed so long there, enjoying the atmosphere.

I contend that these classic spaces, with re-use of classic materials and lines will withstand time. I hope that they will be recognized as not only as sustainable practices of recycling "good old stuff", but as wise business decisions in which greater economies are created in spaces where people spend more money!

Clockwise from left - solid brick patio entrance, old rail install and example of exterior siding at Pappacito's in Houston.

Deconstructing.....constructively

2010-04-08T04:17:00.000-04:00

Another brick skimming project - but we left the bricks for the owners onsite. They have plans to build a garden on the site where the house was located, and plan on using the bricks in the landscape. I got to use a pink excavator! Very fitting for a woman owned business.......

The Deconstructed House - Bricks Bricks Bricks.......

2010-04-08T04:10:00.001-04:00

The Deconstructed House highlights the efforts of repurposing and reusing building materials encountered in typical demolition projects. The following brick ranch, built in the early 1950's in Sandy Springs, was originally constructed from recycled bricks! We continue the tradition, despite being a true labor of love:

Here is the "before":

an "after-brick-strip":

the "load-out":

and "bricks' new life":

This small patio was constructed in the backyard of another house in Sandy Springs. If you are interested in purchasing bricks, they are currently available. Please contact gina at 404-931-1173 if you are interested.