A bargain recycled house
At first glance, Mark Berube's house near the Mayo Road does not reveal its unusual pedigree. Wood siding covers the outside of the two-story house, and the interior is finished with a mix of fir, oak, cedar and pine. The fine workmanship of this handcrafted look hints at a hefty price tag, but that's not the case.
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Mark Berube built his home completely from recycled wood.
(photo: Mark Berube)
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Berube's home was a bargain to build, but more significantly, it is a recycling showcase. Most of the materials used in the house, including all of the wood, have already seen service on other structures.
A cabinet-maker by trade, Berube had all the skills needed to give the home its custom-looking finish. But he also describes himself as a thrifty person by nature, and he wanted to see how much of the house he could build with recycled materials. With some pride he points out that no trees had to be cut to build his home.
The house also preserves a good cross section of Whitehorse history. The oak flooring came from old U.S. Army barracks. The 2x6 spruce and fir used for the framing also came from an old army building. The ceiling beams and interior posts came from a mill torn down at the Whitehorse Copper Mine. The siding was part of a White Pass warehouse that used to stand in the Shipyards area.
A massive beam that runs underneath the house incorporates the Yukon's riverboat heritage. Taken from the same boat as the paddlewheel displayed at Paddlewheel Village on the Alaska Highway, the beam was going to be burned for firewood until Berube asked if he could haul it away.
Berube says that the materials cost about one-third of what they would have cost new, but lots of sweat equity was involved with giving the wood a new life. "Everything had to be replaned and remilled," he explains.
But the cost savings isn't the only benefit of the recycled wood. The interior wood has a rich patina that only comes with age. It is also impressively free of knots.
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Wood from a variety of sources was used to finish the interior of the house.
(photo: Mark Berube)
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Berube says that the fir used throughout the house most likely came from old growth forests. He describes its rich red tones as characteristic of old wood, versus the more brownish colour of the fir found in lumber stores today.
More than wood gets a new lease on life in this home. The double pane windows are all recycled, and half of the insulation was salvaged from buildings that were being torn down. More than half of the plumbing was also recycled.
Even the shelf in the coat closet had a former life. The metal rack was once used on a White Pass passenger car. Berube received it when he helped build a replica passenger car for the Transportation Museum.
The building inspector drew the line at any use of recycled wiring, and Berube says he can understand the safety concerns behind that decision. However he did take and pass the electrical test so that he could do all of the electrical work himself.
Berube did almost everything on the house himself, from pouring the foundation to building the kitchen cabinets. He even made the furniture. Putting in the septic field was the only job that he contracted out.
He figures that he could have finished the house in 8-10 months if he had worked on it full-time. But with a busy cabinet-making business to continue, he could only work on the house nights and weekends. It took all summer just to put up the siding, which was pieced together out of lengths of wood less than four feet long.
The house measures about six metres by nine metres on the ground floor. Upstairs a catwalk connects two rooms, which add about another 36 square metres. Berube figures it cost him less than $40,000 to build the house, including the cost of four new appliances.
He heats the house with a second-hand wood stove. Last winter he burned less than two cords of wood to heat the 90 square metre (1,000 square foot) home.
The home sits on an aspen-covered lot with sweeping views of the mountains in all directions. It's a windy spot, and he hopes eventually to install a windmill to generate power.
The windmill is part of phase two of his building plans, which also includes building a shop on the lot. Not surprisingly, he already has all the recycled wood he needs for this next project.
Berube says that his approach to building reflects his everyday outlook. "It's part of my life. I seldom throw anything away," he says.
