by MarkJ » Sun 16 Nov 2008, 10:50:57
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'A')nyhow, said solution might work for a person who just owns one extra house, but what of the Landlord who say owns half a dozen 2 Family hoses he rents out? How is he going to dissassemble them all and carry them all off to the doomstead in any kind of economic fashion? If he is locked down in the Doostead 409 miles away, how is he going to go collect rent from whatever tenants he might have, who probably are no longer employed and have no rent money for him to collect?
There's really very little worth salvaging in many rental properties here in the Northeast, unless you want to salvage lead, asbestos, plaster, lath, rotted fasteners, rotted bricks, rotted chimneys, mold, rotted boards, fire damaged lumber, fuse boxes, light gauge wiring, antique furnaces and boilers etc. Most of the older clay piping, iron piping, galvanized piping, copper piping, valves and fittings are worthless from a re-use perspective.
Since most multi-family homes are in cities, they're harder to demolish due to tougher codes/enforcement, small lots, no driveways, shared driveways, shared walls, multiple close neighbors, limited parking and limited room for vehicles, dumpsters, equipment etc. The cost of lead/asbestos abatement, demolition permits, safety compliance, labor, hauling, landfill fees and working in difficult conditions would often outweigh the value of salvaged materials.
Many landlords that own multiple rental properties are out-of-town no-show landlords. The cities often have a difficult time getting them to maintain their properties. Since many don't have construction skills and don't perform their own maintenance & repairs, they'd likely wash their hands of the property if they weren't receiving rents for an extended period of time. Even if they don't have a mortgage payment, they won't continue to pay property taxes, insurance, water/sewer, natural gas, electric, heating oil, propane, dumpster rental, garbage pick-up, property managers, maintenance people & legal fees if the cities don't prevent squatters, vandalism etc. I imagine you'd see a lot of fire sale prices and/or convenient fires long before things got real bad.
All the good salvage materials are in recent and new construction town, village, suburban and rural homes. Many of the materials are difficult to salvage due to adhesives, fasteners, amount/type of fasteners, brackets, hardware, floor coverings etc, but it's well worth the prying and cutting, hauling and storage. We salvage all sorts of valuable recent/new construction materials when we disassemble or move modern structures.
As far as hauling, you can carry a heck of a lot of lumber with a truck, ladder racks and a trailer. Trucks and SUVs can tow very large multi axle trailers capable of hauling tons of materials. Trailers are also much easier to load and unload. Many of the heavy materials in housing like drywall and multiple layers of shingles aren't worth salvaging.
