Architectural salvage recycles best features of doomed buildings

Jennifer Hiller, EXPRESS-NEWS BUSINESS WRITER

Tuesday was Earth Day.

Do you know what happened to the latest teardown in Terrell Hills? Or what became of your great-grandmother's old home?

There's a chance -- albeit smaller than a crystal from a vintage chandelier -- that bits and pieces of those homes escaped the landfill, instead landing in an architectural salvage shop.

The businesses rescue old doors, windows, flooring, iron tubs, sinks and the like from ending up in a trash heap when a house or commercial building is headed for demolition.

"It's the ultimate recycling," said Barry Rusler, who owns Architectural Antiques just outside of downtown.

Some customers go in search of architectural pieces to decorate a room. Others want to build a new home using bits of history. And some do-it-yourselfers and homeowners go in search of doors to match existing ones, the hardware for a window transom or a chandelier appropriate for the age of their home.

Whatever the reason driving an architectural treasure hunt, salvage shops house decades of home-building trends, starting from the late 1800s and moving forward to about the 1940s.

Barry and wife Lindsay Rusler say their passion for old homes and what's inside them makes it worth the effort and expense to salvage and to store stained glass, chandeliers, doorknobs, doors and ironwork in hopes that someone, someday will give them a new life.

But architectural salvage companies rescue just a small slice of the old construction materials. Most demolished homes, regardless of architectural pedigree, end up in the landfill.

"Think of all of the time and energy that went into those buildings that we just throw away," said Suzanne Kittel, co-owner of Discovery Architectural Antiques in Gonzales, about an hour outside San Antonio. "We'd like to think we're green. As a country, we're talking the talk and not walking the walk. There's so much that goes to the landfill."

Where do they find it?

But how do architectural salvage places find all of those old doors, shutters, windows and wrought iron gates?

The Ruslers say many people bring them items that have been sitting in their garage or attic for years. An old window that they meant to use and haven't. A nice set of shutters that never made its way onto a house.

When Barry reluctantly brings items to the landfill -- an occurrence that's as uncommon as free beer at a Spurs game -- he sometimes rescues things from the beds of other people's pickup trucks. He usually comes home with a full load.

"People throw amazing stuff at the dump," he said. "Your trash is my treasure."

Occasionally, people stop by when they're on the way to the landfill, in case the Ruslers see anything they'd like.

Demolition companies may call when they're tearing down an old house that they think has some value.

"Stuff is always coming my way," Barry said. "For a few years, we had to go out and look, but not anymore."

Kittel, too, said that vintage materials find their own way to her shop.

"You meet contacts in the demolition business. They call us when they find things," she said. "It doesn't always work out. Sometimes people don't want you to salvage anything because they think you'll make money off of it." Kittel finds it strange that people would rather pay to have material hauled to a dump than let a salvager's crew lighten the load, making the hauling costs cheaper for the owner.

Often, there just isn't time to save anything in a house. People sometimes call and give the architectural salvage companies just a few days to get in and out.

Some customers ask if the architectural salvage shops have dismantled perfectly good homes, thinking that they might be like a chop shop for houses. Not so.

Some old homes are in such terrible structural shape that they must come down. Others are torn down by homeowners who want to build another home in the same spot.

Both Architectural Antiques and Discovery Architectural Antiques get a lot of their material from teardown homes in Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills.

If some of the material can be saved and reused by someone else later, so much the better, Kittel says.

Popular materials

Among the most coveted material salvaged from old buildings is the wood.

Old-growth wood, so-called because it was taken from trees that had sometimes grown for hundreds of years, is harder, denser, more finely grained and more water-and humidity-resistant than new lumber.

Two of the most sought-after old-growth woods are cypress and longleaf pine.

But by the late 1800s and early 1900s, old-growth cypress was gone, milled to build homes and businesses. Today, "sinker cypress," so called because the wood sank to the bottom of rivers, bayous or lakes after it was felled, is being pulled up and sold for use in homes and as furniture.

By about 1930, longleaf pine, common in early 1900s construction in Texas and across the South, had disappeared. Heart pine, which came from the center of the tree, doesn't warp, split or have knots. "It's absolutely nonexistent today," Lindsay said.

Other popular salvaged items include doors, chandeliers, stained glass windows and iron sinks or bathtubs.

Cabinets are difficult to salvage because they don't come out of a house easily, Kittel said. And most homeowners would rather have larger, new cabinets installed in a home.

Although buyers expect to find lots of Mexican-influenced architectural antiques in the San Antonio area, Germans had a bigger influence on the architectural styles popular in homes here in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Lindsay said.

Most of the antique Mexican-style doors carried in Texas architectural salvage businesses actually come from Mexico, not South Texas.

The customers

Many customers search for old home parts to put into a new home they're designing and building.

"People put old doors or old molding in a new house," Lindsay said. "They might be looking for old doorknobs and hardware. It can go a long way in making a new house feel old."

Custom-home builders, too, often hunt for architectural treasures.

Custom builder Andrew Hartnett of Chad Powell Homes goes to the antiques shows in Roundtop every year to search for unique pieces for his high-end homes. It's never in the official floor plan, but Hartnett's clients have yet to turn down a special mantle, doors or a leaded glass window he fits into their home.

"We just find something we think will go in their homes and hope that they like it," he said. "I haven't had anybody say no."

Hartnett also has had his crews work with demolition companies to salvage pine from old buildings. "You can't beat some of that old-growth pine," he said.

Most of the do-it-yourselfers the Ruslers meet are working on Arts and Crafts homes. "That's what getting restored now," Lindsay said. "There's not much Victorian left to restore."

Some people use decorative tin salvaged from the ceilings of commercial buildings to make wainscoting or detailing for mantels.

"You have to see what it can be," said Barry, who turns old doors into wainscoting or kitchen cabinets and broke apart a parquet floor to create a kitchen countertop in a herringbone pattern.

New materials

It isn't just older homes that can be salvaged for their materials.

Newer homes, too, can offer up a treasure trove of appliances, flooring, lighting or lumber.

At the Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio's three Habitat Home Centers, a variety of construction materials can be found on the cheap. The money is used to benefit the nonprofit.

The stores have stocked, at various times, everything from grand pianos or antique phone booths to gently used carpeting, barely used appliances or outdoor spas.

Lumber, sheetrock, paint, furnishings, tile, cabinets, sinks and various home improvement items are the most common things found in the stores.

Home builders with leftover construction material donate to the stores. So do people who are having a house demolished or liquidators who purchase discontinued items. Stores often will give floor model appliances that have been scratched or dented.

"People come here and expect to see that kind of thing," said Don Griffith, vice president of sales and facilities.

The store also receives donations from recent home buyers who have just purchased all new appliances for their home (even though, in many cases, they've just purchased a new home).

Between 130,000 and 140,000 customers visit the Home Centers each year to see what they might discover.

"It's a service. You can buy things at a great discount, and it's nice to give something a second life," Griffith said. "The alternative is the landfill."

jhiller@express-news.net