To: "'permaculture'" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Composting an Entire House
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 09:11:45 -0600
If you do decide to scrap and bury a house, or parts of it, there is a
test called TCLP (I run them at work). This tests mimics the environment
of a landfill and will tell you which metals will present a toxicity
problem. I'll get a bag at work of parts of buildings containing a
mixture of old board, paint chips, insulation, roofing material,
etc...whatever is on and in the old house. Then I run this test and
tell them whether or not there will be a hazard to the ground if they
bury it. Barium seems to be high often, believe it or not. These were
very old buildings, so I don't think treated lumber was in them.
We are living in an old house at the moment and plan to disassemble it
and use the parts in our new house and barn. Some awesome old hand hewn
beams I'd hate to see wasted!