Deconstruction is the careful, “board-by-board” take-apart of a structure so the lumber, fixtures, and hardware can be reused or recycled.

Traditional demolition focuses on speed and sends most material straight to the landfill. Deconstruction typically diverts 50-90 % of a building’s weight from disposal and preserves high-value old-growth wood, hardware, windows, and more.

• Lower disposal fees – less debris going to the transfer station.

• Material value – salvageable items can offset your project cost or be donated for a potential tax deduction (talk to your CPA).

• Environmental impact – every ton we divert avoids ~1.3 tons of CO₂e created by manufacturing new materials.

• Community benefit – quality items stay local and affordable through Eastside Rebuild’s reuse store

While labor time can be more expensive than typical demo, we save money on tipping fees, equipment rentals, and offset the costs with material sales allowing us to charge less than a typical contractor. Often Deconstruction is cheaper, and we provide official estimates before work is done.

Single-family homes, garages, agricultural out-buildings, and remodel interiors built after 1900. We perform a no-cost walk-through to analyze salvage potential. Extremely water-damaged or mold-infested structures are usually better suited to mechanical demo.

We will only take a job if we think we can divert at least 50% of the material from the landfill.

Deconstruction, by nature, takes longer than traditional demo. We hope that owners and contractors can work with our schedule as we send crews out to work quickly and keep projects on time.

While a soft kitchen strip may only take an afternoon, a full home deconstruction may take around a month.

Old-growth dimensional lumber, timbers, flooring, cabinets, doors, windows, plumbing & lighting fixtures, bricks, sheet metal roofing, and even landscaping stone. Anything unsalvageable is sorted for recycling and lastly unsavable materials are disposed of..

We (or you) arrange third-party testing in line with WA L&I rules. If hazardous materials are present, licensed abatement crews remediate them before our salvage team starts.

We will ask to see negative results on most jobs built pre-1990.

Once a contract is signed, ESR gains salvage rights for the materials in the building and most of them end up in our re-use store, or sold directly off the job site. If you would like to retain some of the material for your projects, please make that known before work commences and we can work it into the contract.

Soft Strips start at $100+ and range depending on the quality of the materials and amount of labor to get them out.

Full Deconstruction costs anywhere from $5-$15/sqft

We will not go into buildings with hazardous materials present, we cannot remove concrete slabs, and we are currently restricted to buildings 1000sqft or smaller.