Recycling Older Buildings

The past can be seen in many cities and towns by walking down almost any street. New buildings may be clustered in a few areas, yet older homes and commercial structures can often be found. The original function of these buildings may no longer be needed, but tearing them down completely is not always worthwhile. Recycling older buildings to create something new has become a big part of the development business. Their new use will generally be guided by current zoning laws. While that is a restriction in some ways, it can be a wonderful challenge for designers to use their imagination in new and exciting ways.

Stone warehouses

The use of stone in building materials was often to keep out animals rather than people. Food storage has come a long way over the last few centuries, but stones were a good protector years ago. Those old stone warehouses were difficult to heat in cold weather, and they were often difficult to maintain. Abandoning them was often an economic move in the past. Those stone buildings today can be turned into new offices, manufacturing plants, and they may even become modern homes with a bit of historical significance.

Maintaining exteriors

One of the many ways developers have saved costs on a project of this nature is to keep as much of the existing building as they can. Maintaining exteriors after decades or centuries of weathering may not be easy, but it can often be done with less cost. Stone buildings can be sandblasted, and they can then be inspected to determine what needs to be repaired. Old mortar can be chipped out and replaced where necessary to ensure functionality and safety. This is just one of the ways these buildings can be recycled out of the past and into the modern world.

New interiors

Whatever the final project will look like, it is generally essential to gut the interior of the building. Old fixtures that may exist are often unsafe or not able to be used in a modern setting. New interiors are generally a large part of the budget, but they can make a good impression when the work is complete. Building new and painting can be done by using modern materials from Minerals Marketing. They can provide calcined kaolin to ensure integrity in the new paint, and their hydrous clay can provide an interesting matte finish to paints used in some areas. Even their recycled glass media can be part of a new project. It can be used in place of silica sand to create decorative flooring that is environmentally friendly.

Recycling has become an important part of modern life, and that concept can include old buildings. Their former use may not be applicable to modern buyers, yet their history can be a way to draw clients in to consider purchasing them. Developers have found there are many ways to use and reuse older buildings to create something new and vital to what people want today. It simply takes a good imagination and a lot of work and investment to create a new use for an old or even ancient building.