TRP Partners with Habitat in Metro Denver

TRP decided to close its reclaimed building material warehouse in Lafayette, Colorado, last fall because of a diminishing stream of materials coming in from  deconstruction projects. Just another ripple in the constriction of the building industry, where deconstruction normally precedes new construction and new home “starts” are becoming “stops.” But we still needed a place to take materials from the jobs that did occur, and we wanted to have a good conduit for future materials.  

In looking to the future, we consulted the past. TRP has had relationships of one sort or another with Habitat for Humanity outlet stores in all of its regions. In Southern California, the Los Angeles Habitat restore accepted all of our materials until they could no longer accommodate them, prompting us to open our own warehouse in Pacoima. In Northern California, TRP is co-located with the Oakland restore on San Leandro Street. In Chicago, our materials were going to various Habitat stores until we secured a beautiful facility in a more central location with the Delta Institute. In Kansas City we have a direct working relationship with Habitat, where they have had a strong deconstruction program for many years.

So it seemed only natural that TRP should talk to the folks at Denver Metro’s two outlets (one just off I-25 at Alameda and the other in Wheat Ridge). Roger Krapfl is director for both operations and was gracious enough to meet with TRP president Ted Reiff and me on several occasions. Roger explained that Habitat crews were capable of “soft stripping” prior to remodeling projects, but didn’t have the means to approach whole house deconstruction. Their stores occasionally received lumber and other wood products from distributors, but lacked a regular pipeline for materials such as framing lumber and beams, which whole house deconstruction yields in abundance. (All of the materials from a 1903 homestead farmhouse deconstruction in Thornton went to the Denver store earlier this year, and all of the old growth Douglas fir lumber and beams sold within a matter of days.)

A simple agreement between TRP and Denver Metro Habitat provides TRP some compensation for supplying materials to the Habitat outlets. The Denver store alone can move more material in a matter of weeks than TRP was able to do at its Lafayette warehouse in a year. We’re happy to have Habitat for a partner here in Colorado and hope that they are equally happy securing this stream of reclaimed materials to supplement their other used and new surplus items. Roger explained, “We’re excited about being able to receive these materials. We have a lot of remodeling contractors who are trying to match existing materials in older buildings, so this will certainly be beneficial for them. And I’m sure our other customers will also be happy for having more to choose from.” To visit their website, go to www.habitatoutlet.org

In other Colorado news, TRP recently certified another deconstruction contractor. Van Matre Construction has been salvaging and reusing materials from their own projects whenever they could, but has decided to take the next step and provide deconstruction services to the general public and other builders. For more information, see www.shivadeconstruction.com

A manager in the Colorado reuse and recycling industry for 15 years, Kurt Buss is TRP Regional Manager, Denver/Boulder.