Iqaluit company first to recycle a house

LEEVEDE ATAGOYUK

A local contracting company in Iqaluit has done a first in construction.

They’ve “deconstructed” a 1970’s house, and plan to use parts of the demolished house to help build an apartment complex in Cape Dorset next year.

Alain Carriere, president of True North Properties Group, collaborated with design consultants out of Ottawa who are specialists in construction and demolition waste.

Carriere says the project is an alternative to traditional demolition. He says the process involves re-using some of the materials that were taken apart, recycling materials whenever possible, and disposing whatever is not usable.

“It went very well. It took us three days to deconstruct. There was a team of 10 men. We were able to salvage 150 pieces of two-by-foures, 75 two-by-sixes, 40 two-by-eights, 15 bags of insulation, 150 sheets of plywood, some plumbing components, and various other stuff,” Carriere said.

He said “the preliminary report seems to be positive in that respect.”

This also means that the wages that were paid out are equivalent to the amount of material salvaged.

Carriere says the bottom line is that with the cost of materials up north, transporting and storing them is very expensive, so it’s useful to be able to re-use materials.

“We will be able to use the equivalent of about $3,500 worth of materials, and the cost of deconstructing was about $2,700. Therefore we are $500 over. The project was worth it,” Carriere said.

Report to Ottawa and Yellowknife

Carriere also said he plans to do a report for Industry Canada on the feasibility of the idea.

“After we do the feasibility study, it will enable us to see whether this type of project should be promoted,” Carriere said

This is not the first time Carriere has used this method of reusing materials.

“Actually, I have been using this process for many years, but not as extensive as this. But in many cases in the past we’ve done renovations, we were able to use many parts of the materials.”

Carriere says this is something that has to be emphasized in the future to minimize waste. He says it’s something that could eventually be built into construction procedures.

“I think it was a very interesting project. I think what we did we set out to do. We achieved our goals and created employment. It enables us to salvage material and limit wastage to the dump.” said Carriere.