High-quality wood boards and vintage fixtures, doors and cabinets salvaged from historic properties are proving to be valuable treasures for progressive and eco-conscious builders and homeowners searching for stunning statement pieces and features for new and existing homes. The move to reclaiming and repurposing aged building materials is spawning exciting new business ideas for renovators and demolition experts across Canada.

Adam Corneil is a serial entrepreneur and founder of two businesses, Unbuilders and Heritage Lumber, located in Maple Ridge outside of Vancouver. Corneil is deconstructing old attitudes about demolition and disposal and the timing couldn’t be better as the country’s net zero targets loom closer.

Visit Unbuilder’s website and you’ll see a message from Corneil: “Our vision is a construction industry where deconstruction and remanufacturing replaces demolition and disposal.” Corneil and his team are realizing that vision with projects that include the deconstruction of three commercial buildings in Victoria dating back to 1908.

“We preserved the front facade and deconstructed the back of the buildings,” Corneil says.

Corneil sold some of the wood recovered from the buildings and moved some of it to his second business, Heritage Lumber, a reclaim product manufacturer with its own mill that acquires reclaimed wood and produces flooring, cladding, custom-cut timber packages and furniture.

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