Government reuse campaign

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has recently launched a radio and print advert campaign aimed at promoting the three Rs - waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

The £800,000 initiative, entitled ‘Remember. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle', is being delivered as part of the government's Act On CO2 campaign. Environment secretary Hilary Mr Benn said, "Making better use of everything around us will really help us to tackle the impact our waste has on climate change, and save us money too. That's why our campaign is encouraging everyone to rethink what they might think of as ‘waste' and ‘recycling' - we can all do things like put our old sofa on Freecycle rather than taking it to the dump, or recycle our old mobile if we get a new one."

Although the scheme has been likened to WRAP's long-running Recycle Now campaign, a Defra spokeswoman said, ""It's quite different to Recycle Now which is quite a broad campaign. This is about making better use of everything. We are trying to look at all three Rs - moving it up the waste hierarchy. It complements Recycle Now and is not intended to replace that but moves the debate on."


Letsrecycle

Trainspotters team-up with Damien Hirst

Trainspotters, Gloucestershire, UK

Trainspotters collection of industrial and vintage clocks was used in this latest video 'Big Black Hole' by The Hours, directed by Tony Kaye and art directed by Damien Hirst.

The tallest reclaimed treehouse

Tennessee Cumberland County, USA

Horace Burgess has built the worlds tallest treehouse which stands at 97 feet. Now in his 14th year of construction, he is still not finished! He has never measured its size but estimates it to be about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet. "I did count the nails which I hammered into the wood — 258,000, give or take a few hundred," said Mr Burgess.

The treehouse is supported by an 80-foot-tall white oak 12 feet in diameter at its base. Most of his materials are reused pieces of lumber from garages, storage sheds and barns.


USA today

Derwentside reuse

Derwentside Antiques, Derbyshire UK


Above: An internal stained glass door. The timber is reclaimed and the glass is original.


Above Cupboard made from reclaimed wood.


Above: A settle made from old internals doors.


Above: A pine table with a reclaimed timber top.

Derwentside

Profit in diversity at Gaze

Gaze, Diss UK

Auctioneer Carl Willows said, the sale of Architectural Salvage on October 31, "Was probably our most diverse sale for some time, bidding was dominated by the trade. This was probably a reflection of the number of quality items that had come fresh to the market from recent house moves and some demolitions.

"Naturally old favourites returned. Another fine run of selected York flags, this time from the Swan Hunter shipyard in Sunderland worked out at over £110 per sq. yard (including premium) but I still maintain is good value as against Axminster carpet.

"Flooring was generally mixed with a good variety on offer. Good oak parquet fortunately was bought, locally, as flooring rather than firewood. Oak boards did less well but worm free elm was o.k.

"A superb run of six cupboards in oak sold to Canadian trade for an acceptable £1950. Doors were as usual for us very variable. An interesting aspect of the sale was pronounced lack of enthusiasm for reproduction cast iron and concrete ‘decorative’ items. This may have been a reflection of the absence of private buyers and the dismal rainy weather but I believe it is a sign for the future . . .Has it had its day? Despite my hopes a modern bronze of ‘Jack Frost’ made £1100!!"

"Among the ‘house clearance’ items that come to mind were two clam shells selling to trade at £1200 and £1100 (+ buyers premium), a modern Carrara marble chimney piece at £1800 (+ buyers premium), four Blanchard columns and capitals at £650 (+ buyers premium) and a lead fountain at £580 (+ buyers premium). Not many phone buyers, but we appreciate seeing such a good crowd on the floor."

The next sale at Gaze is Rural and Domestic Bygones on 21 November. Despite it only being early days for consignments Mr Willows is optimistic," We have a nice horse drawn cart and a good collection of packaging and enamel signs," said Mr Willows.


Above: A run of cupboards and pigeon Loles in six sections, each with a pair of oak six panelled doors each section approx 52 1/2" wide x 87" high x 16 1/2 deep, sold for £1950.


Above: A bronze study of jack Frost - torso and out stretched hand, sold for £1100 (+ buyers premium)


Above: A lead fountain, the base 62" diameter, two tier with fluted outlet, sold for £580 (+ buyers premium).


Above: A set of four 19th Century terracotta sugar twist columns with elaborate Corinthian capitals, stamped M.H. Blanchard & Co., Blackfriars Road, London, 54" tall, sold for £650 (+ buyers premium).

Gaze

Clothes hanger chandeliers

Unbelievably nearly 8 billion clothes hangers are being sent to landfill sites per year. Industrial designers Alex Witko and Courtney Hunt have devised an ingenious way to reuse unwanted coat hangers, they call them 'Hangeliers'. These are chandeliers made from off-the-shelf plastic and wood hangers.



inhabit

Neptune at Christie's

New York, USA



Christie's, New York Rockefella Plaza, USA

An important French over-life-size cast-iron figure of Neptune recently came up for auction at Christie's New York. Cast by Val D'Osne, from the model by Gabriel Vital-Dubray, in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The edge of the conch-shell signed and dated V. DUBRAY/1856, the base stamped VAL D'OSNE. The piece is 210cm high to the top of its head and 275cm high to the end of the trident. The piece was estimated at $100,000 - $200,000 and realised $110,500 including buyers premium.


Christie's

Mystery object

Rich Ellis blogger for Architectural Salvage & Antique Lumber is appealing to anyone who might shed some light on the object above. He has been told it is a ceramic coal heater but is clueless as to if it is American or European and which period it is from.


Architectural Salvage and Antique Lumber blog

Medieval stained glass photographic archive

The medieval stained glass photographic archive contains over 10,000 photographs of medieval stained glass listed by place and subject matter. The website was created over three years with a focus on glass before c.1320 but photographs of later windows that have already been taken are also displayed.

The purpose of the archive is only to display windows and panels together with an identification of the subject matter and to give some dates. However, as the project evolves it is hoped that more basic information and bibliographic references on each window will also be given.

Stained glass archive

Chicago Botanic Gardens

Chicago Botanic Gardens, Glencoe USA

Following the absence of the fair in 2009 Chicago Botanical Gardens Antiques and Garden Fair will return in 2010. The preview night is to be held on Thursday 15 April and the fair will run from Friday 16 April until Sunday 18 April.


Chicago Botanical Gardens

Bunny boiling for biofuel

Stockholm, Sweden

Authorities in Stockholm are giving bunny boiling a whole new meaning. The annual cull of the animals has started already in an aim to control their numbers in the cities parks. However, this year the carcasses are being incinerated to generate heat and power which has sparked outrage in some Swedes.

edie

Loos can leave you feeling flush

Above: Private collection: Simon Kirby owns more than 200 toilets as well as the historic Thomas Crapper and Co [pict. Mail Online]

If you own a Victorian toilet you could quite literally be sitting on a goldmine!

Victorian toilets are very much in vogue for any bourgeois home and are currently commanding thousands of pounds on the market.

Sir John Harington is usually credited as the inventor of the first flushing water closet. Two were made in 1594, one for Harington and the other for his godmother, Queen Elizabeth I. Although the 'John' had flushing mechanisms, it was emptied only once a week and consisted of little more than a box below the seat. The first flushing toilet of the type we know today was not patented until 1775 by Alexander Cummings. Three years later Joseph Bramah refined this with a mechanism allowing the toilet to be flushed more easily through the use of a set of gears.

The cistern-driven pans that started to be made in the mid-1880s are the most collectible, as they are the earliest toilets that are readily adaptable to modern bathrooms. Of these, the most valuable are decorated with prints such as flower arrangements. The golden era of their manufacture came between 1880 and the First World War. The older pans in good condition are becoming increasingly rare and this helps to push up their value. Later pans tend to fetch less because mass production flooded the market, explains Salvo Code dealer Simon Kirby. Simon has been collecting toilets since the age of seventeen and bought the historic toilet company Thomas Crapper and Co in 1997.

He says, "There are some fantastic-looking early pans, but to be fit for use they must be in excellent condition and watertight. It is vital to study any potential purchase carefully for cracks."

Mail Online

Trader Gray passed away

Images from This is Cornwall


TERRY Gray, known familiarly as Trader Gray, ran the Shiver Me Timbers salvage yard in Penzance, Cornwall UK. His ramshackle yard in Long Rock, where he lived and worked, featured a large mock pirate's galleon built from reclaimed wood. A YouTube video shows him heating bricks by a woodburning stove which he placed in his bed and night to keep warm.

His business was open to all comers, not necessarily people wishing to buy, as he also provided a friendly welcome and informal social service to truants and miscreants who needed warming up and a cup of tea. Appreciative comments can be seen on YouTube such as 'Trader Gray Rest in Peace. This man was a legend....... the world will be a duller place without him. So pleased to have been part of his tribe if only for a passing period in time. Big Love and Respect Steve & Jayne' and 'Really sad news of Trader.... he paid for me to get a taxi when I'd missed the last bus home as a kid. Bless im. What a character to loose.'

Trader Gray died and was buried in Marazion cemetery, along with his favourite pies and cakes, on 11 September 2009 after a service in St Mary's Church packed with family and friends. His poker-worked reclaimed timber coffin had been carried to the church in his old pickup, decorated for the occasion with Indian rice sacks and sunflowers. It was then piped into the church while a jazz band inside the church played When The Saints Go Marching In. Some dealers from the salvage trade were in attendance.

His sister Jean, now living in Canada, said, "Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere".











There is another reclaimed timber salvage yard called 'Shiver Me Timbers' in Williamstown Australia. It is not known whether they knew of each other.

2 houses demolished in 10 minutes

Following the decision in 2006 to demolish the Dudley North Priory estate due to its deterioration the final two houses have been demolished in just 10 minutes.

Andy Cook, from Humphries Demolition Ltd said, "The remains of the last two properties will be painstakingly sorted by hand – allowing reclaimed bricks to be added to the 500,000 which are already being shipped to other building projects." Mr Cook added that up to 97 per cent of the debris created during the demolition will be reclaimed and reused.

"The first stage of the demolition was to go into the houses and carry out a soft-strip where all the fixtures and fittings are removed. This allowed us to carefully extract floorboards and plasterboard to be recycled. Once the buildings themselves are pulled down workmen go through the bricks and chip render off whole ones before they are stacked on pallets and sold on," he explained.

If planning permission is granted the Bromford Group will go ahead with a 314-home development including apartments, bungalows and houses and will be a combination of rented, privately owned and shared ownership properties.

expressandstar.com

Salvo calls for architectural salvage trade to lobby their MPs by 30 Oct 09 about a proposed new undemocratic law/rule

Above: Not the right way to save old materials. Reusable bricks, roof slates, wood floorboards, and more, are destroyed by thoughtless and rapid demolition. Careful dismantling saves materials for reuse. [Photo taken from Vale of White Horse District Council demolition page *** - see more about this below

FROM 1987 to 1994 the UK government required local authorities to consider placing a 'salvage clause' on all planning applications and listed building consents where reusable material was likely to arise, requiring that it was reused on site, or sold to a local salvage contractor. This clause in PPG15 (Planning Policy Guidance Note 15) came about partly as a result of my relationship with Chris Patten, the then Tory cabinet minister, who was also my constituency MP.

In 1994 policymakers in the higher echelons of English Heritage rewrote PPG15, which is the bible used by UK local authorities, their listed buildings officers and planning officers, when making decisions about historic buildings. The salvage clause was dropped in the rewrite despite objections from Salvo on behalf of the trade.

The government is now set to produce a new version of PPG15, now called PPS15 (Planning Policy Statement 15) which is out for consultation until 30 October 2009. It can be seen here
PPS15 Consultation

I have drafted my comments (see below) which now need trade support. I would like every salvage dealer to put these points to their local MP so that they can have a voice in the decision. An important issue is that PPS15 is not a law debated in parliament.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Response from the UK reclaimed building materials industry on the consultation for PPS15
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A. Reusable materials arising from demolition and refurbishment need to be saved.

The most valuable material reclaimed from demolished buildings is removed from historic buildings dating from before 1920, and most of these are listed buildings or are in a conservation area, both of which are governed by the Planning Act but in reality controlled by guidance notes for local authorities written by English Heritage.

The old PPG15 prior to 1994 included a recommendation to place salvage conditions on planning consent to alter or demolish historic buildings which would result in the disposal of reusable building material. The salvage condition recommended either reuse of such material on site, or its sale to a specialist reclaimed building materials salvage business.

This clause was deleted when the revised PPG 15 was produced in 1994. Salvo's objection at the time was met with a verbal response by telephone from an employee of English Heritage that there was 'not room' for the clause about salvage conditions in the new PPG 15.

This change in government policy has led to hundreds of millions of tons of old but historic and reusable bricks, stone, ironwork and timber being sent to landfill, or recycled by being melted down, crushed and burned from 1994 to 2009.

The EU 2008 Waste Framework Directive has now been passed in the European Parliament, and must become law in the UK by 2013. It requires member states to reuse as a 'priority order' over recycling, waste to energy and landfill.

The new PPS 15 must reflect the requirements of the EU 2008 Waste Framework Directive by containing positive guidance to planning authorities requiring them to ensure the reclaiming of reusable material for reuse when demolition, alterations, refurbishment or restoration occurs.


B. Confusion of listed building and planning officers is increasing global warming.

Most reclaimed building material is used in the historic environment by private consumers working outside mainstream construction. Much reclaimed material is reused without planning consent being sought or given. When applications for consent are made which include reuse of reclaimed material, planning officers refuse on the basis of their informal opinion, outside any legal or formal structure. We estimate that in half UK applications, or sometimes in every instance in certain authorities, planning officers reject reuse of reclaimed material in historic buildings.

These refused applications, to our knowledge, have never been legally challenged because in order to achieve an overall scheme for a building on a site, applicants have in every case acquiesced and dropped the reuse of reclaimed materials as part of the application.

So government policy to reduce global warming by reuse has not been implemented at a local level, and this has resulted in increased carbon emissions due to new materials having to be manufactured to substitute for reusable old ones. For example, the major brick manufacturers now produce new bricks that look like reclaimed bricks, which can be used in those areas and for those applications where reuse is not allowed by planning officers and listed building officers.

The new PPS 15 must give clear guidance to planning departments which encourages the reuse of reclaimed building material.

The scale of the problem can be seen with bricks. Every year the UK demolishes brick buildings which contain a total of around three billion bricks. Every year the UK currently (2008 BigREc Survey comissioned by Defra) reuses around 300 million old bricks. Every year around 2,700 million bricks are landfilled or crushed.

Significant fossil energy is used to crush the old bricks. Every 12 bricks embodies the energy of a gallon of petrol which is destroyed when bricks are crushed.

The failure to reuse results in additional carbon emissions from new brick manufacture, added to which are increased carbon emissions from the crushing of old bricks.

Similar examples of energy and resource inefficiency exist across the reclaimed building material sector covering a large range of material, for example, from dressed walling stone, to tropical hardwood woodblock flooring, to fine Victorian joinery and staircases.

From Thornton Kay of Salvo Llp
and on behalf of 129 reclamation businesses of the UK salvage trade to whom this has been circulated and approved

PPS15 Consultation

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please contact your MP about this as soon as possible. The end of the consultation period is 30 October 2009.

Thanks for your attention


*** The following statement is taken from the Vale of White Horse District Council website:
In March 2007 the Vale of White Horse District Council signed up to the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change. By doing this it pledged to reduce its own carbon emissions and to encourage others to do the same. The declaration sets out that the Council 'acknowledges the increasing impact that climate change will have on our community during the 21st century and commits to tackling the causes and effects of a changing climate on our district'. The document also commits the Council to reducing its own greenhouse gases and to encouraging other businesses and individuals in the Vale to do the same.
The Vale of White Horse District Council is typical of every local authority in the UK. All have signed up to policies which pledge to encourage reuse, but none of them actually do. This is why the government must act.

Hoffman Kilns

KRIS DE DECKER writes about the development of the technology of continuous brick firing in the late 1800s, in the latest online article in Low Tech Magazine. For salvage enthusiasts this mag is great antidote with articles like 'Cargo ships, then and now' and '12 small wind turbines put to the test' or 'How to make everything yourself: online low tech resources'.

Low Tech Magazine: Hoffmann Kilns by Kris De Decker

Only five commit to waste reduction push

Despite Wrap specifically targeting architects since June, only five architectural practices — Boyes Rees, Simons Design, Aedas Architects, RPS and Atkins — have so far pledged to reduce waste sent to landfill from their projects, prompting Wrap to launch a series of new architect-focused initiatives.

It is now working with the RIBA, which has signed up to the commitments, to create a series of 10 workshops across the UK towards the end of this year.

bd

Australian pilot wins award for sustainability

Above: An Australian building used as a pilot by the Green Building Council of Australia has won an international award for sustainability. [photo from Architecture & Design]

Bond University’s Mirvac School, Australia

Bond University’s Mirvac School of Sustainable Development building won the 2009 Sustainability Award from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the world’s premiere property and construction institute. The building was the brainchild of Professor George Earl, head of the school of Sustainable Development at Bond University.

“When I started the school all the programs were developed by myself and my team from the ground up. So I believed it was important that the new building of the school should reflect the vision of the school. We also wanted it to be a teaching tool, so a lot of the features are not hidden- they are exposed- so students can actually see how it is built and see sustainable design in action.

"The state of the art building has reduced emissions by 80 per cent for a building of its size (2,500 sqm), and produces 60 per cent of its power through solar energy. The building’s windows are also orientated to reduce the amount of energy needed for lighting and climate control. Even the lift is environmentally friendly, generating enough power for its up trip on the way down," said Mr Earl


Architecture & Design

Belgium's Tongeren Antiques Market

Above: More than 350 vendors bring their wares to Tongeren each week.

Tongeren , Belgium

Each Sunday from 6am-noon, thousands of antiques lovers peruse the offerings of more than 350 dealers arrayed beside the ancient city walls in Tongeren. Tongeren is the oldest town in the country and has more attractions than just the market. It was fortified by Julius Caesar as a Roman army camp and ongoing excavations in the 13th- century basilica still continue today. Tongeren may be only an hour's drive south from Brussels but the town is not a tourist magnet like Paris or Rome, and so the competition and the prices are reduced.

"I see carved Belgian cabinets, French Provincial armoires, myriad trunks and chests, a sturgeon writhing on a platter, a stuffed fox in one booth, a foxhunter's hat in another. Crackled Flemish paintings; a $10,000 Picasso print; insect collections; Frisian cowbells; Meissen figurines; bronze Greek gods and rusting cherubim; architectural salvage; handwrought niblicks (golf clubs); a collection of scales; and enough chandeliers, candelabra, china, crystal, and silverware to host a stadium-size dinner party. Things here tend to be well vetted, sorted, and of a high quality," said Tom Conrad, owner of Heart of Europe Tours.

Forbes.com

Reconditioning for jars

Above: Examples of Kilner jars on Mr Denyer's website.

Peter Denyer Services in Epsom provides a one stop shop for everything you want for jars, from recycled jars and lids to screw bands.

Mr Denyer hopes to encourage people to embrace the traditional way of preserving fruit and vegetables. He also provides a metal screw ring reconditioning service, "This will work where your rings are tarnished and discoloured and you will get back clean brass coloured metal rings. If your rings have been left in the damp and are red rusty and pitted" said Mr Denyer.


Above: Typical rings which will give good results.

Kilner Jars Uk