The impressive sweep of Nick and Alicia Loiotile’s do-it-yourself brick driveway did not come easy. But because the Loiotiles bought the pavers at a house demolition auction, it did come dirt cheap.
By digging up used brick pavers–which cost the couple $850–from behind a doomed dwelling and then re-laying the bricks at their Morton Grove home themselves, the Loiotiles figure they saved tens of thousands of dollars over a new contractor-installed drive.
“It was a steal,” Nick Loiotile said, not even trying to mask his glee. “And the only reason we paid that much was because there was another bidder–the bids started at $200.”
During the past 10 years, the Loiotiles have improved their 1945 brick Cape Cod with energy-efficient windows, like-new kitchen appliances, a wrought-iron gate, a garage-topping cupola and countless other details, all scored for bargain-basement prices at demolition sales. The couple is among a growing number of cunning do-it-yourselfers who are outfitting their own rehab projects with low-priced cast-offs otherwise destined for landfills.
From late-1800s Victorian mansions to 1990s tri-levels, houses are being gutted or razed as homeowners hunger for the newer, the bigger and the better in housing accouterments. A few local firms have made a business of beating the wrecking ball by working with contractors or homeowners to stage on-site demolition sales of used house parts–everything from slate roofs to refrigerators to vent grates. Sales often are held only days before a building is set to be torn down, and buyers are expected to remove purchases the same day.
“Once we say ‘sold!’ it’s your responsibility to get it out,” said Jodi Murphy of Murco Recycling Enterprises in La Grange Park, a company Murphy started 16 years ago after trying to remodel her house on a shoestring budget.
If a buyer comes unprepared–without proper tools, transportation or enough manual labor to haul their find away, for instance–“tough toenails,” Murphy said with a laugh. “This is not Nordstroms. We are not running a department store here. You snooze you lose. This is not glamorous, but it is cheap.”
Mary Aviles bought a frameless glass shower stall with plumbing fixtures for $500 during an auction at a contemporary house in Hinsdale and installed it in the 1888 Victorian she is rehabbing in Blue Island. The shower would have cost her $3,000 if new, Aviles said. At a Glencoe house, she paid $400 for a central air-conditioning system that she estimates would have set her back at least $10,000 if newly installed.
“Of course I was crawling through the filthy attic and basement pulling it out,” Aviles said, saying she reinstalled the system in her own house with only an on-line instruction manual for help. “Even if you’ve never done anything like this before, by just using common sense you can usually figure it out.”
If not for demolition sales, “I wouldn’t have been able to afford these nice things,” Aviles said.
How demo sales work
Murphy runs her sales auction-style. Clients register at Murphy’s Web site (www.murco.net) and receive e-mail notices of upcoming sales. They also have access to photos of items to be sold at upcoming auctions.
On sale day, there is a 30-minute preview at the house, and bidders register and pay $5 for a bid card. Licensed auctioneer Murphy ushers the group through each room, leading lively bidding sessions on whatever catches the buyers’ eyes, be it a towel rack or Viking range.
With Glen Ellyn-based Vintage Details, prices are set before sales, though prices are negotiable after the first hour, said co-owner Tracy Kampert. Sale information and photos are found on the Web site, www.vintagedetails.com.
Most Vintage Details sales are at houses built from the 1920s to the 1940s. Old five-panel doors, leaded-glass windows and garden bluestone sell well, Kampert said.
“But some of this stuff is brand new,” Kampert said. “A homeowner might have just completely remodeled the kitchen and then found out the house foundation is no good and they have to re-do the entire house.”
For homeowners facing a major rehab or teardown, hiring a demo sale broker is a way to make old building materials help pay for the new. Both vintage details and Murco, for example, will schedule appointments with homeowners to see if a house offers enough good reusable pieces or interesting architectural details to warrant a sale. In the case of Vintage Details, the company handles the sale-related liability insurance, the advertising and sale of the goods and splits profits 50-50 with homeowners, minus advertising costs and sales tax. Murphy also handles the details of a sale and, in turn, negotiates a percentage of the gross proceeds, explains Murphy, who says she scouts up to 20 houses a week. She looks for houses with high-quality parts–regardless of age or style–that will appeal to Murco’s clients of remodelers or restorers.
Ron and Kellie Giles of Chicago are among the restorers. They are returning a 1880s Queen Anne-style brick rowhouse in Hyde Park neighborhood from a rundown rooming house to a gracious single-family home.
For the past two years the couple has monitored Murco notices, attending only the auctions held at older houses, Ron Giles said. Among their finds are a Victorian-style brass light fixture, mahogany stair railing, molding, flooring and an entire set of kitchen cabinets.
The Gileses paid only $800 for two marble fireplace surrounds at a house in Dearborn Park. The surrounds came out easily and were slid into the back of the couple’s SUV; the mantels now have pride of place in the rowhouse’s twin parlors. Similar surrounds purchased at area salvage stores would have cost at least $2,000 each, Ron Giles said.
“The opportunities for bargains are tremendous,” Giles said. “We couldn’t have done (the restoration) any other way.”
The custom look of Nick Loiotile’s 70-foot-long drive goes a long way to ease the memory of how he, his son and three nephews labored like ants to remove the bricks from a house in Hinsdale, pushing wheelbarrows between a back-yard patio and a rented truck.
The Loiotiles, who had never used pavers, then spent hours cleaning the bricks and two days laying the driveway. They also paid $175 at another sale for pavers for an adjoining patio, Loiotile said.
In the end, the project cost about $5,500 because they paid a contractor to remove the existing paving and bought additional bricks at a garden shop to border the drive. Still, the cost was far less than the $30,000 the Loiotiles estimate they would have paid a contractor to surface the expanse with new material.
“It’s amazing–you look at it and think to yourself ‘You did this?'” Nick Loiotile said, saying the thrill of the hunt, the heavy lifting and even occasional missteps are “worth it. Every bit of it.”
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House wreckers’ secrets
Behind the pleasure of finding a demo sale treasure can lie the pain of being unprepared. Demolition sale veterans share these tips:
– Bring measurements. “All the time I see people who say ‘I want this so bad, but I don’t know if it will fit,'” said Jodi Murphy of Murco Recycling Enterprises.
– Bring measurements for things you’re looking for and even for things you’re not. For example, know window sizes even if you don’t need replacements because you might see curtains you like.
“You never know what people will leave behind in a house,” said Tracy Kampert of Vintage Details.
– Bring tools. Preferably battery-operated power tools because the utilities at most sale sites are turned off. Basic tools including shovels for digging shrubs and crowbars for loosening a cabinet also make removal easier.
– Bring helpers. Sale items, even if they are large and heavy, usually must be removed the same day. “Get all your friends who owe you something lined up to help,” Murphy says.
– Bring transportation. Rent a truck if you have to, regulars say.
– Bring cash. Murco, for one, operates on a cash-only basis for non-members, meaning no credit cards or checks accepted. Vintage Details takes cash and checks.
– Research prices. Understanding an item’s value, setting a spending limit and sticking to it will help stave off buyer’s remorse, experienced sale-goers say. Research prices on the Internet and at local salvage and antiques stores. Take into account whether you will have to hire a contractor to install the piece.
– Dress for the weather. “We’ve had sales where it’s been 30 degrees below and 100 degrees above,” Murphy said. And get to a sale early if there is something you really want. One cold morning Murphy was surprised to arrive at an auction to find 10 customers already there–each figured no one else would show up on such a cold day.
— Laurie Grano
