Fact Sheets on Designing for the Disassembly and Deconstruction of Buildings

EPA initiated a series of innovative pilot projects to test ideas and strategies for improved environmental and public health results. This series of fact sheets highlights the innovative approaches, results, and environmental and economic benefits from pilot projects that may be replicated across various sectors, industries, communities and regions.

• Innovation Project Success Story: Design for Disassembly in the Built Environment (pdf) (810.1 KB, November 2009 )
  As America advances toward a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future in terms of reducing and recycling all manner of waste products, EPA’s Innovations Pilots have helped to stimulate creative ideas in support of deconstruction.
• Design for Disassembly in the Built Environment (pdf) (222.49 KB)
  EPA awarded an Innovation grant to the Community Housing Resource Center (CHRC) to extend the design for disassembly (DfD) concept to the construction of residential housing. The Pilot formulated design for disassembly (DfD) principles to design and build the first known residential DfD case study home, demonstrating that residential homes can be designed both for increased longevity and for future disassembly and building material reuse.
• Deconstruction for Urban Revitalization (pdf) (304.16 KB, August 2010)
  EPA awarded an Innovation grant to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) to develop an innovative and cost effective deconstruction technique for dismantling structurally unsound row houses to recover the maximum amount of roof and floor lumber. The project demonstrated that mechanized deconstruction can be cost-competitive with hand demolition when there are sufficient recoverable materials with market value to offset higher labor costs.
• Building Deconstruction and Design for Reuse Fact Sheet (pdf) (279.17 KB)
  EPA awarded an Innovation grant to the University of Florida’s Powell Center for Construction and the Environment to demonstrate the environmental and economic value of deconstruction and design for reuse principles in construction projects. Deconstruction of the Wesley House proved five percent less expensive than the conventional demolition estimate.