Once More, With Savings

"I would say about 85 percent is donated," said Desiree Carter, general manager of the Loading Dock. In addition, "We get some materials from landfills" and buy some from places going out of business, such as plumbing supply shops.

Often, about 80 percent of a disassembled home can be salvaged or recycled, experts say. In that case, donating the materials is a boon for everyone, recycling advocates say. Homeowners get a tax write-off by donating the disassembled materials to the nonprofit stores and save on trash fees at the landfill. The environment benefits, as do the people who bought the products.

"Some homeowners can't stand good material -- hardwood floors, kitchen cabinets, and on and on -- just being dumped in a landfill," said Paul Hughes, president of DeConstruction Services of Fairfax, which tears apart homes and donates the materials to nonprofit organizations. "Many builders are starting to feel the same way."

For many people, such as Gregory Cavanaugh, the savings are attractive, but more important is "the durability of the product."

Cavanaugh, a contractor, said he saved more than $1,000 recently by buying six used doors -- five from Community Forklift and one from Second Chance -- for a restoration job at a Capitol Hill home built in the 1800s.

He said he paid $58 for an entrance door instead of about $300 new; $260 for a walnut Victorian-style door that "you'd probably pay upwards of $1,000" for; and $25 each for the interior doors that would run "upwards of $150" each at a lumber store.

On top of that, he said, he got a good deal on used yellow pine, a couple of hundred years old, that he used for door and window frames and windowsills. He said the quality was superior to that of lumber sold today.

"Basically, what you buy in the stores today is white pine, and it's junk," he said. "In two to three years, it can start to rot."

Still, not all reusable material is cheap.

Mountain Lumber in Ruckersville, Va., which manufactures products from reclaimed wood, charges an average of about $3,000 for flooring for a 300-square-foot kitchen and about $8,000 for an 800-square-foot one. And that's just for the product -- the company does not do installation.

Willie Drake, president and founder, said the wood averages 100 to 600 years old and comes from barns, ancient temples, buildings and schools around the world, including countries as far away as China. Recently, he said, the company bought 25-by-25-foot wooden Guinness beer vats from Ireland to convert to flooring.

Drake said most customers are from the United States, particularly the mid-Atlantic, but he "just shipped an order to Moscow and just sent an order to Italy."