When an Old Building Comes Down: What Gets Salvaged, and What Doesn't

On a Sunday in late October, the corner of Sheridan and Irving Park Roads in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood was mostly rubble. A pile of broken masonry sat where a longtime nightclub had stood, with little more than its front wall still upright. Somewhere in that mess were whole bricks worth saving. Some had already been saved. What happens to them next is a question that comes up every time an old building comes down.

Salvage is the step people see, but it is only the first one. A brick that has been pulled from a demolition site is not yet a brick in a new wall. Between the two lie cleaning, sorting, storage, transport and, above all, a decision about where it will go.

Maybe you are a building owner with an old brick structure that will soon come down. You might be an architect who wants something of an old building to live on in the new one. Or maybe you are a contractor who has watched good brick go into a dumpster and wondered what else could have happened. This guide breaks down what is happening in Uptown, the difference between salvage and reuse, what decides whether salvaged brick is used again, and what you can plan for on your own project.

Table of Contents

• Salvage vs. Reuse at a Glance
• What Is Happening in Uptown
• Salvaged Is Not the Same as Reused
• What Decides Whether Salvaged Brick Is Used Again
• Bringing an Old Building Into a New One
• How Salvaged Brick Becomes Ready to Use
• If Your Building Is Coming Down
• Is Saving the Bricks Worth It?

Salvage vs. Reuse at a Glance

The two words are often used as if they meant the same thing. They describe different steps.

Note: every site is different. This table describes the steps in general, not any one project.

What Is Happening in Uptown

The former Holiday Club, at 4000 N. Sheridan Road in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, is being demolished along with an adjacent apartment building and a row of storefronts at the northwest corner of North Sheridan and West Irving Park Roads. A local news report described the club as a neighborhood staple for 25 years.

The site will become a seven-story building with 91 apartments, 38 parking spaces and about 2,000 square feet of retail, according to local reports.

A few details in those reports stand out for anyone who cares about old brick:

• Bricks were saved. One report says: "Thousands of bricks have been salvaged from the demolished buildings so far."
• Some were moved on. Another report, citing people on site, says nearly 300 pallets of bricks had already been hauled off for re-use.
• The new design is still open on brick. The first report says "it is unclear if any of the original building's masonry will be incorporated into the design." The second reads the new renderings as re-using terra cotta from the former building on a two-story part of the east facade.

Neither report says where the bricks went, or whether any of them will end up in a new wall. It is a clear, real example of the steps between salvage and reuse: the bricks have been saved and moved on, and where they end up has not been reported.

Salvaged Is Not the Same as Reused

Our guide to what happens to the bricks when an old wall comes down explains how the way a wall comes down decides how many bricks survive. Our guide to how deconstruction works walks through taking a building apart for reuse. Both are about getting bricks out whole. This guide is about what comes after.

A salvaged brick has survived the take-down. That is an achievement, but it is not the end of the story. A pile of salvaged brick on a site still has:

• Old mortar on it. Until it is cleaned, it cannot be laid again.
• Mixed sizes, colors and conditions. Until it is sorted and checked, nobody knows how much of it is usable, or what it will look like on a wall.
• Nowhere to go. Until someone decides where it will be stored and who will use it, it is in the way of the next job on the site.

Each of those steps takes work, space and time. When any one of them is missing, saved brick can end up waiting, or being thrown out after all.

What Decides Whether Salvaged Brick Is Used Again

There is no single answer, but a few questions decide most cases.

• Is there a plan for the bricks before the work starts? Bricks with a destination (a new building on the same site, a reuse yard or another project) are more likely to move on. Bricks without one are more likely to sit.
• Does the new design want them? A new building can use old brick on its own walls, as a feature or not at all. That decision belongs to the owner and the architect, and it is often made long before demolition.
• Are they worth the cleaning? Sound, whole bricks in a mortar that lets go are worth the work. Soft, cracked or heavily coated ones may not be.
• Is there room and time? Cleaning and sorting take space and labor. On a tight urban site, bricks may have to leave quickly to make room for the new building.

When those questions have good answers, salvaged brick is more likely to be used again. When they do not, even saved brick can be lost.

Bringing an Old Building Into a New One

Owners and architects who want an old building to live on in a new one have several ways to do it. They are not mutually exclusive.

• Reuse the original masonry. Bricks from the old building go back into the new one, on a facade, a lobby wall or a courtyard. This takes planning, because the bricks have to be cleaned, sorted and kept until the new walls go up.
• Save signature pieces. Decorative elements, such as carved stone, terra-cotta or a sign, are kept and set into the new building as features.
• Echo the old design with new material. The new building uses new elements that recall the old one.

In Uptown, both reports mention terra cotta on the new building: one describes terra-cotta facade elements in homage to the club, and the other reads the renderings as re-using terra cotta from the former building, which is the second path. Neither says the bricks will go back in.

Each path keeps something of the old building's character. Only the first keeps the bricks themselves in use on the same site; when that is not part of the plan, the next best outcome is for salvaged brick to go somewhere it will be used.

How Salvaged Brick Becomes Ready to Use

For brick that leaves the site, the next stop is a yard. Here is what that step looks like at Chief Bricks:

• Cleaned by hand. Old mortar and dirt come off with hammers, chisels and sometimes wire brushes. We do not use chemical treatments.
• Checked by hand. Every brick is checked by hand, about a million a year, and cracked or damaged pieces are set aside.
• Sorted. Bricks are sorted by type, size and color, so each pallet holds brick that works together.

Only then is salvaged brick something a mason can order and lay. Our guide to how we source, sort and clean reclaimed bricks covers each step in detail.

If Your Building Is Coming Down

The Uptown story is a reminder that the best time to decide what happens to the bricks is before the first one comes down. A few practical steps:

• Decide early whether any bricks will go back into the new design. If they will, plan for cleaning, sorting and storage until the new walls go up.
• If they will not, line up where they will go. A reuse yard can take sound brick off your hands and put it back into circulation.
• Take photos before the work starts. Clear photos of the brick faces and joints make it easier to judge what is worth saving.

If you are taking down old brick in our area, our brick reuse and pickup page explains how we buy and pick up bricks.

Is Saving the Bricks Worth It?

For a building with sound brick, yes, as long as saving them leads somewhere. Salvage is worth the effort when there is a plan for the bricks: back into the new building, or on to a yard that will clean, sort and pass them to a new project. That is how an old building's brick becomes someone's new wall, patio or fireplace.

The trade-offs are real. Salvage takes time on site, cleaning takes labor, and not every brick is worth it. Saved brick without a destination can still end up as waste. The way to avoid that is to plan the bricks' next step before the demolition starts.

To see what salvaged brick looks like once it is ready to lay, start with our reclaimed bricks guide, or visit our yard in Nanuet, NY. No appointment is needed, but if you call ahead at (718) 379-1232, we will make sure you get our full attention.