Just because you don’t want the structure, that doesn’t mean that no one else would. I have been working in this industry for the better part of 30 years now and it never ceases to amaze me at the people that just don’t want anyone else to have “that old house, or shed, or barn.”
With a minimal amount of time, an owner can call or e-mail me and find out if there is any future for that old ugly building. Perhaps you used to love it and you think that the only option is to demo that old structure. Not necessarily so… all that I need is to be told about it and, with a trained eye, can tell if the building is worth the time to take it down by hand, or with an excavator or any combination! I love the old buildings. The character of the construction, the wood, or metal, or stone and how it works in concert with its environment. Back to a simpler time when all that we tried to do was to try to survive from one season to the next and so forth.
Q: Ahhhhhhhh but what is the cost of this and/or what are the benefits?
A: It can and does depend on what is there and how much there is.
Most old woods have some value and the key is in finding an “old wood guy” that can identify and find the appropriate outlet for the old wood. Can it be done; where it is financially feasible for the contractor and is there enough of it? The truth is most structures are average and have an average amount of old wood there to give only a marginal break to the owner. but as I love to tell everyone that I come in contact with, “every job that I do is custom”. Some want to save that beam for their brother for a mantel or they wish to use that old floor of the house and put it into the new house or I need to save that stone for another stone wall that I need to build.
The reasons are endless, as are the possibilities.
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