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House Parts with a Pedigree
The opportunities for acquiring architectural salvage have never been better, but
old-house owners can expect stiff competition for those materials. By Catherine Siskos
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| From columns and cornices to a wide variety of hardware, architectural salvage is diverse. While high-end dealers are making salvage shopping more convenient, nonprofit stores, whose proceeds typically benefit local preservation efforts, often have the best prices.
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Photo Courtesy of Paul Rocheleau
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For nearly three decades, the customers at Steve Drobinsky’s architectural salvage store consisted primarily of dyed-in-the-wool preservationists intent on restoring a period home down to its authentic 19th-century shutter dogs. Then, in recent years, along came an entirely new breed of customer: suburbanites looking to replace hollow-core doors, aluminum windows, and bland cookie-cutter light fixtures in their new houses with something more solid, something with pizzazz. “There was just this huge shift in appeal,” says Drobinsky, owner of Ohmega Salvage in Berkeley, California.
The architectural salvage marketplace, once the sole province of old-house owners and a curiosity to nearly everyone else, is going mainstream in a big way.
Today’s salvage and antique lumber dealers (more than 300 strong in the United States and Canada) are just as likely to sell to architects and owners of new houses as they are to those with period homes. For old-house owners, that has implications for everything from inventory to pricing as the industry responds to the demands of its newest patrons. Whether you find bargains or heavy markups when shopping for salvage depends a great deal on the era and style of your old house. In some ways, the eccentric nature of old houses, with their nonstandard sizes for doors, fixtures, and hardware, works in your favor as you’ll have less competition for some merchandise and more bargaining power over the price. Best of all, though, fixing up old houses has given you the skills to capitalize on another growing trend, that of do-it-yourself salvage, by harvesting architectural elements directly from the source, often houses that are the latest victims of the teardown or remodeling craze. Bob Falk, co-author of Unbuilding: Salvaging the Architectural Treasures of Unwanted Houses, calls this trend “preservation in pieces,” the next best alternative when the building itself can’t be saved.
Shop Smart
Although preservationists bemoan the loss of the distinctive buildings that supply the inventory for salvage yards, the greatest appeal of architectural salvage for consumers is the chance to acquire house parts with a pedigree. “People like to point to an antique mantelpiece or flooring and say that it came from an old shoe factory,” says Rich Ellis, the founder and publisher of Architectural Salvage News. “They like the stories behind the piece.”
While you’ll have to take the salvage dealer’s word for where the piece came from (see sidebar on this page), you can be more discerning about other matters, particularly the item’s suitability and condition. Falk likens shopping for salvage to buying a used car. “You want to walk around and kick the tires a little,” he says. Given that most salvaged house parts are made of wood, consider if the species, patina, and finish are a good match for your own home. Any painted wood probably contains at least some lead-based paint and all the health hazards that accompany it. In fact, many salvage dealers won’t carry painted wood for that reason. As for condition, if you’re buying, say, exterior doors and windows, check how weathered they are and that all parts move easily. “With doors and flooring, see how many nail holes have been pounded into the wood,” says Falk. “Have the floorboards been re-sanded, and if so, how many times?” One more sanding may leave you with nothing but the tongue and groove underneath. Look for any breaks, splits, or signs of rotting wood, and consider if the sizes, especially the thicknesses of older floorboards, fit your space. Most importantly, check for missing pieces. For instance, “you can always find parts for the interior workings of an antique light fixture, but the ornamental bits are hard to match,” says Falk.
Once you find what you want, try negotiating a better price. “Some people will say bargaining isn’t done, but our goal is to sell the item,” says Scott Anderson, owner of Architectural Antiques in Minneapolis, which has semiannual sales to move merchandise. Salvage dealers loathe items that hang around too long, occupying valuable space in warehouses and on storeroom floors. Consequently, you’ll have the most sway over stock in architectural styles that are out of favor or in unusual sizes that won’t fit a new home. These days, Art Deco is a good buy, as is “anything from the 1940s, which you can’t even give away,” says Drobinsky. And as tough as it is to track down a door 42 by 75 inches that fits, say, an 18th-century house, consider how much harder it is for the salvage dealer to find a customer who wants it. “The likelihood that you’ll find doors in nonstandard sizes is great,” says Jona Harvey, a personal salvage shopper and the owner of Salvage Search and Management. “The salvage guys are just sitting on that inventory because new-house owners, whose houses have to meet modern building codes, can’t really use those doors.” On the other hand, expect to pay top dollar for anything Arts & Crafts, Queen Anne, or Tudor, all hot architectural styles right now. Antique brick and lumber, the fastest growing areas of the salvage industry, are also in great demand and fetch steep prices.
The Home Depot Effect
One consequence of architectural salvage’s broader consumer appeal, particularly at high-end stores, has been to make shopping easier and more convenient for everyone, regardless of a house’s age or style. Some upscale salvage dealers now sell merchandise in complete sets, instead of everything à la carte, saving you the trouble of hunting down each piece individually. Anderson, for instance, only sells salvaged doors with the jambs. “Home Depot has spoiled a lot of people because you’ll get a door in the jamb,” he says. The same practice applies to antique doorknobs, which Anderson sells with the matching hinges and mortise locks.
Perhaps the biggest change in salvage is the sale of entire rooms—from the wood paneling to the French doors to the marble fireplaces—that have been dismantled from old houses and come with detailed blueprints for reassembly. Anderson sold a walnut-paneled Georgian room from the Morton Salt estate for $75,000. Although architects often buy the rooms and incorporate them into the design for a new house, they also have potential as one-stop shopping for anyone enlarging an old house with a period-sensitive addition.
No More Middleman
At the other extreme from high-end stores lies a different kind of one-stop shopping—laying claim to architectural elements in houses slated for demolition or remodeling. Salvage dealers do it all the time, but on a much larger scale, by buying the salvage rights to a building, a practice that is prohibitively expensive for the average person who wants to acquire only one or two pieces. An individual, however, can approach a homeowner, contractor, or a demolition company and come to some arrangement about removing only the items desired for hundreds of dollars, even for free, says Falk. For a quality mantelpiece, which can retail at a salvage store for $1,500 or more, the savings can be significant because you eliminate the middleman. Instead, you dismantle the item and haul it away yourself, often on short notice.
To spot opportunities for “deconstruction,” as it’s known in the industry, keep an eye on redevelopment in your community, where the houses are likely to be of a similar age and style as your own and a good match for salvaged material. Find out from neighbors about upcoming or ongoing remodeling projects, or make friends with the staff in your local building department. “When permits for demolition come up, contact the contractors, who can save money if you do some of the work for them,” says Falk. Then get everything in writing. Specify on paper what you will and won’t do and by when, and make sure all
parties sign it.
In a handful of cities, some companies secure the rights to salvaging properties, some of which are old homes, and then hold public auctions on site for buyers to bid on the architectural features. The winning bidder removes and takes away the piece that day, and “the buyer can get some real deals, too,” says Falk. Chicago-based Murco Recycling helped pioneer the concept more than a decade ago and is considering expanding the business nationally. Whichever approach you choose, extracting the items yourself assures you of pieces whose provenance you know, as well as the stories of what it took to save them for reuse in your own home.
The Seamy Side of Salvage
Architectural salvage is often haunted by the spectre of architectural theft. While most salvage dealers come by their inventory legitimately, typically by obtaining it directly from buildings slated for demolition, no
national laws regulate the industry. Unlike pawnbrokers, salvage dealers are not required by federal law
to keep records, such as driver’s license numbers and addresses, about the people from whom they obtain merchandise.
That infuriates old-house owners such as Laurie Klinger, whose Indianapolis neighborhood of Craftsman and Foursquare houses has been targeted by thieves who stole porch lights, doorknobs, and wood trim from several historic homes. “I believe these architectural elements are sold to stores all the time,” says Klinger, “but the police can’t track it.” Fed up with the crime spree, Klinger lobbied for a state bill introduced in January that, if passed, would require Indiana salvage dealers to keep detailed records, including thumbprints, of anyone who sells them architectural materials, and to hold on to suspected stolen goods for up to 20 days, while the case is investigated. Critics contend that local laws only drive criminals to sell stolen goods out of state and that to be effective, laws regulating architectural salvage must be national in scope.
While a national law has yet to be proposed, consumers who are concerned about stolen goods should buy only from reputable dealers that local historic preservation groups recommend. In addition, ask the dealer about an item’s origins. While the lack of a response doesn’t mean the item is hot merchandise, salvage dealers who work closely with demolition crews to replenish inventory should be able to tell you the location and the type of building the materials came from.
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SUPPLIERS
Salvage
Adkins Architectural Antiques
3515 Fannin St.
Houston, TX 77004
(800) 522-6547
www.adkins
antiques.com
American Salvage
7001 N.W. 27 Ave.
Miami, FL 33147
(305) 691-7001
www.american
salvage.com
Architectural Accents
2711 Piedmont Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30305
(404) 266-8700
www.architectural
accents.com
Architectural Antiques
1330 Quincy St. NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(612) 332-8344
www.archantiques.com
Architectural Antiques Exchange
715 N. Second St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123
(215) 922-3669
www.architectural
antiques.com
Architectural Antiquities
52 Indian Point Lane
Harborside, ME
(207) 326-4938
www.arch
antiquities.com
Architectural Heritage
2807 Second Avenue, S.
Birmingham, AL 35233
(205) 322-3538
www.architectural
heritage.com
Architectural Salvage
5001 N. Colorado Blvd.
Denver, CO 80216-3117
(303) 321-0200
www.salvagelady.com
Architectural Salvage of Greensboro
PO Box 13136
Greensboro, NC 27415
(336) 389-9118
www.blandwood.org/
archsalvage.html
Architectural Salvage Warehouse
53 Main St.
Burlington, VT 05401
(802) 658-5011
www.great
salvage.com
Brass Knob Architectural Antiques
2311 18th St. NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-3370
www.thebrassknob.com
Building Materials Resource Center
100 Terrace St.
Boston, MA 02120
(617) 442-8917
www.bostonbmrc.org
Caravati’s Architectural Salvage
104 E. 2nd St.
Richmond, VA 23224
(804) 232-4175
www.recentruins.com
Country Road Associates
63 Front St.
Millbrook, NY 12545
(845) 677-6041
www.country
roadassociates.com
Historic Houseparts
540 S. Ave.
Rochester, NY 14620
(888) 558-2329
www.historic
houseparts.com
Materials Unlimited
2 W. Michigan Ave.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
(800) 299-9462
www.materials
unlimited.com
Ohmega Salvage
2407 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94702
(510) 204-0767
www.ohmega
salvage.com
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