Western New York's Largest Supplier of Reclaimed & Surplus Building Material

ReUse Action Staff

Salvaging at the Lafayette Hotel

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We’ve hinted at our current big salvage project, and some of you may have seen activity downtown at Washington and Clinton. Here’s the scoop on what ReUse Action’s salvage team is up to: The Lafayette, Buffalo’s Most Palatial Hotel . . . Absolutely Fireproof . . . European Plan . . . 300 Rooms . . . Designed by the first female professional architect in the US, Louise Blanchard Bethune. Opened in 1904, every room featured hot and cold water and a telephone. Built in the French Renaissance style, befitting its name, Lafayette, after the French general who fought in … Read more

Empowering Neighbor

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Michael was interviewed by Megan Callahan for Merge’s Empowering Neighbors feature. Read the whole interview at The Good Neighborhood: You have a passion for helping young people, for equipping them with concrete job skills and readiness in the “green collar” class and finding them job placement, as you mentioned. How is that going? Is this a model you plan to continue? Well, I have a commitment at ReUse Action to support: A) employment opportunities in our community; and B) young adults in our community who are out of school and out of work. So that’s long been my commitment in … Read more

Do not wait…

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“Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” ~Mother Teresa Though my formal schooling is long behind me, I’m grateful that my hunger for new information, ideas, and skills is still rumbling.  I learn best from doing, so if I were to spend the next year in learning mode, I’d design my year to learn directly from some of my friends that are experts in their respective fields.  I can think of many of this fine folks…friends that are overflowing with information and skills, people whose talent I envy and admire, and individuals that have so much … Read more

It takes OUR village…

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I’m sure you’re heard the proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.”  Today, we’re asking our friends, colleagues, family members, acquaintances, and folks we’re now meeting for the first time, to help us in supporting some youth in our village, right here in Buffalo, NY.    Four weeks ago, ReUse Action, took on the responsibility of apprenticing nine young adults from the Outsource Training Center on the East Side of Buffalo.  They all arrived for their first day of work at the Hotel Lafayette downtown, eager, ready for work, willing to make a change in their lives.  When we … Read more

why recycle building parts and materials?

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Last Fall, ReUse Action staff deconstructed a barn in Syracuse in collaboration with a new company called D-Build.  We were on site for three days, salvaged tons of antique beams and planks, and almost all of it was distributed to customers in the Syracuse area. D-build created an awesome video of that green demolition…you should check it out if you want to learn more about hybrid deconstruction…i.e. green demolition.  Check it out here… ReUse Action staff can consult with architects, homeowners, companies, and municipalities on how to best reuse building materials, source reused materials for building projects, and remove buildings without adding … Read more

Super Insulate Your Home…

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It’s amazing to me that it is still acceptable in the building code to insulate homes with fiberglass batt insulation in colder climates.  With cold temperatures for close to half the year and steadily increasing energy costs, there is certainly a need to be more creative about how we design, build, and insulate our living and working spaces. ReUse Action just finished a project on the lower west side using reclaimed rigid foam insulation.  We were hired to insulate the attic space in a standard Buffalo double.  The attic space will be utilized in the future, so we chose to … Read more

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