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Building Material Reuse

After completing a building, or tearing one down, there are often collections of small left-over materials, as well as entire pieces that do not qualify for a refund at the lumber yard for some reason. When faced with the high cost of having the items moved to the landfill for disposal or having a salvage company come in that may be able to sell these materials to their own customers, the smart company will go with the latter. Not only does it reduce the amount of trash that goes into the landfill, it also allows some of these building materials available to people who may not have been able to afford them otherwise.

The service is a beneficial one to everybody, from the company who no longer is concerned about the fee to dump these materials to the customer who may not have to pay full retail price for something of which he did not need a full sheet.

What skills or training is needed to get started?

It would be beneficial to have a construction background to get started, especially for those jobs where the materials must be taken from the site yourself. It is also necessary to understand the characteristics of certain products and materials so that it is known which can be safely removed and possibly reused and which are probably dangerous in their current condition and must be safely removed from the area completely.

Who is the targeted audience?

The target audience is the site that needs to remove their leftover materials will be the first customers who need this service. Following that, there would be the small builders who would be appreciative of having seconds, imperfect or slightly damaged materials at a fraction of the cost they would elsewhere.

Identify the competitors: Competition could come from the construction sites themselves if they are inclined to try to sell some of their used materials. Others could include the small operator that goes from site to site with his truck picking up anything that he might be able to sell at a later time. The advantage here would be that green techniques would be practiced as the only items to be sold would be the ones are reasonably safe.

Start up costs: The cost of the business would depend on from where you will be storing and selling these items. Additionally, the start up costs would include the truck and other equipment needed to pick up these items from site to site and the tools that will be used as well.

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