RDC Fine Homes staff have been working on a new project in Squamish, British Columbia. The Valkyries is a four unit townhome complex that is being developed at 40126 Government Road. RDC has been working with the developer since mid-2012.
The Valkyries site started with a small, single-family home and a detached two car garage that was sitting on the building site. The home was about a 900 square foot, two bedroom single level rancher that was built prior to 1980, and renovated numerous times over the years. The out buildings consisted of the detached two car garage, and a small garden shed. In the first phase of the project, we were looking at removing the home, garage and shed from the property.
Rather than demolish the buildings and see all the waste go into the local landfill, RDC identified that either having the home moved or deconstructed by hand, would be most beneficial both economically and environmentally.
We identified early on that the existing structure was quite solid, and that there would be a number of benefits to finding someone who might be interested in moving the structure to another lot within the area, including:
After advertising extensively, and the corresponding weeks of follow-up emails and phone calls, it appeared the cost of moving the structure ($25,000 plus), would prove to be too prohibitive. We instead ended up signing a contract with two individuals to dismantle the home and garage by hand, thereby getting the next best thing to having the home moved, and still receiving many of the benefits mentioned above. The garage was to be moved to 100 Mile House, BC and become a stand alone cabin while the home was to be dismantled to re-purpose materials for use in a number of other projects. This was a great compromise and would see over 85% of the building reused.
Stay tuned for a follow-up to this post as we build the Valkyries multi-family construction project on this site!
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We specialize in building custom homes and renovations in the picturesque Sea-to-Sky Corridor, including Whistler, Squamish, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and Pemberton.
