When
Greensaw Design And Build founder Brendan Jones was building a kitchen backsplash a
few months ago, he tried to sell a client on using old wood and tile
scraps set into the wall. It sounded a little out there, but with years
of professional experience under his belt, Jones was confident he could
make it beautiful. The client wasn't so sure. So he did what any
craftsman would: he made it anyway in his own kitchen.
This week, Jones and his team unveil
1205 S. 8th Street, a rehabbed
South Philly rowhome where the reclaimed materials designers installed
innovations either too risky for clients to take a chance on or with
materials leftover from a job. Old radiators, freezer doors, and molding
can all become something new in what has become the Greensaw show home.
"We had a countertop that we installed for a client and it was all
reclaimed wood but for some of the wood, the moisture content was too
high and the countertop ended up warping so we had to replace that but
that wood became doors for my house," says Jones. "It's an opportunity
to reuse material that has already been reused."
Founded in 2006, Greensaw started as a salvage company, installing doors
and designing bathrooms using reclaimed tile. After building a complete
house from discarded concrete, baseboard wood and sconces restored in his Northern Liberties woodshop, Jones set to
work on the design innovations that would become 1205 S. 8th Street. He
hopes the home's unveiling on Nov. 4 will show all those skittish
clients the power of reclaimed materials.
"The house is for sale but that is really an aside," says Jones. "We are
really trying to use it as an example of the slow-build philosophy,
which has a lot of legs to it. The idea is to make Philadelphia the
center for reclaimed materials because there is just so much here."
Source: Brendan Jones, Greensaw Design And Build
Writer: John Steele