Enjoy DIY Today

When you're ready for your next flat refurbishment project, avoid skiphire costs and the expense of hiring a waste lorry to take away the debris from your flat refurbishment. Instead, consider a more basic recycling technique. Modern waste disposal methods still only deal with the storage of the debris. Instead of filling a waste lorry with materials that will just end up in a waste disposal site, why not use those materials to build something new, or recycle them in your current flat refurbishment?

You can build a retaining wall for your garden or a rustic patio with bricks salvaged from a refurbishing project. Leftover wood beams can be used to construct a planter or a sandbox for the kids. Stone walls can be turned into gravel or used in landscaping a rock garden.

Be creative. The more materials you reuse, the less you will have to pay to have a waste lorry haul away, and the less useful material will end up in a waste disposal site. If you can't think of a practical use around your own house, perhaps a local park would welcome the materials. Lumber and beams in good condition are especially welcome.

One of our neighbours recently remodeled his home. With the materials salvaged from his project, along with a few other people he knew, they were able to build a garden gazebo for the local park, and to get a good start on a playhouse for the children of the neighbourhood.

One thing to keep in mind is the condition of the materials. Are there nail points sticking out of the lumber? Are the bricks still solid enough to hold up in a load-bearing wall? Make sure that the materials you are using don't constitute a safety hazard. Remove any nails from the lumber, and make sure that all of your recycled building material is solid and in good enough shape to reuse.

It may seem like a lot of work to collect, recondition, and reuse building materials that otherwise might end up in a landfill. But when your recycling project is done, you'll have the warm feeling of accomplishment for having done something not only for the environment, but for others.