Reuse Construction Materials

Much is lost when homes are demolished in the name of speed. With careful disassembly, high-quality materials could be used to make something new.

- Meredith Moore

EVER SINCE I STUDIED interior design in grad school, I've been intrigued by the idea of a circular economy, one in which materials are used and reused through remanufacturing and reclaiming. When it comes to homes and buildings, this practice is known as "deconstruction," which describes the careful dismantling of existing structures in order to give their parts-foundation, framing, roofing and finishes-a new purpose somewhere else.

I didn't realize how rare (and sometimes controversial) deconstruction was, however, until I moved from New York to Toronto with my husband in 2019. At that time, I was working as a designer with a condo-focused firm on renovations and new builds and saw firsthand how much waste there was. After COVID kicked off a countrywide reno blitz, I'd see piles of old-growth lumber, trim and heritage doors (all of them in usable shape) piled up in dumpsters on people's front lawns.

A tipping point came in 2021 with my own reno on our family's 1920s-era semi. When I explained-to 10 different contractors-that I wanted to reuse as much of my home's old material as possible, they replied, "It's all trash. That would take too long. That's not how it's done." But I knew better. I decided then to put together my own deconstruction team. By 2022, it was an official business with clients, several employees and a name: Ouroboros Deconstruction, after the ancient symbol of a snake eating its own tail, which represents the never-ending cycle of creation and destruction.