Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Building construction and the recycling ethic

[Rob Sandelin (Exchange) (Robsan]

Fred fholson Wrote about waste stream management and offered some ideas 
about how to choose contractors based on how they handle this.  I would add 
that separating materials, site clean up, nail scrounging are all great 
sweat equity activities which can and should be done by the membership. 
 You are paying workers $20/hr + and so they are very expensive to use as 
clean up crew.  If you sort scrap materials into piles that are all the 
same stuff, the workers can then take advantage of the smaller pieces.

Also you might want to spec out storage for extra materials.  Wood that is 
too small for walls can still be used later for benches, planters, kids 
blocks, etc.  At Sharingwood the kids all scrounge for nails around the job 
site and we have several piles of like type materials which the carpenters 
then use. There is a pile of material which will someday be a playhouse for 
the kids.  The wood scraps which have been too small to use we have had 
several very nice fire circles, sitting around the burn pit (With benches 
made from scraps).

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood