Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1896-12-03

SECONDHAND MATERIALS.
A Business Whose Growth Has Kcp3 PAcs
with the Steady Growth of the CITY.


with the Steady Growth of the CITY.
There never was time when there
was so much secondhand building
material for safe as now, and there
never was beeier market for it. 1t
might seem to one unfamiliar with the
business, strolIing through the yards
and buildings alnrge dealer, that the
stuff looked old, and that it was piled
up to stay there a long time; and ii
NAV be thai some of the things are
"shopkeepers." Secondhand building
material is nevertheless quick moving
stock, as much so as the average mer-
chandise stock, ,iand sooner or later.
somebody comes and takes the slow
things, too.
There are times when the market for
certain kinds Of materials is dull, as it
might be, for instance, for some kinds
of building stone, and when it would
be more prof ,@hle for the dealer to take
n.ch ataff ccaso seeo and DUNN it than
it would be to take up room for it in his
yard, holding it for a customer; but the
general fact reminds that there is sale
for everything that the dealer gets.
Years ago there was only one large
dealer in secondhand building mate
rials in the city. Now there are half a
dozen who would buy any building and
undertake to remove it within speci-
fled time. The manner in which they
come to buy the buildings is very sim
pie: The owner of a property desiring
to put up new building engages an
architect. When the plans have been
approved the architect invites bids
f,om builders for the construction OF
the building. The contract awarded,
the builder wants the old building
out of the way, and he calls on the deal
ers in secondhand materials for bids
for its removal. Sometimes the build
er pays the dealer to take the old build
ing away; sometimes the dealer pays
for the building; that depends. The
owners of church building, for exam
pie, might have to pay to have it re-
moved. Though the church is large
structure, there might be in it COM
paratively little material of market
value; while building no larger, but
cut up into rooms and containing many
fittings, might contain much more
material of value.
The dealers go through the building
that is to be removed and make est-
mates. Taking the area and the thick
ness of the walls, they calculate, if it is
brick building, the sumber of bricks
in the building. Taking into account
the number of stories and the sizes of
the rooms, they arrive very closely at
the amount of material in floors and
partitions. They take everything about
the building into account, and figure
on the value of the material and the
cost of removing it, and make bid
The work of estimating the value OF
such buildings has been reduced almost
to a science; even on very large build
ing the bids of big dealers might not
be more than 500 or 5000 apart.
The great bulk of the secondhand
building material is sold within 1oC
miles of the city; perhaps half of il
in the city. The primary object Of the
purchaser is, of course, economy. The
purchasers include very wide variety
/, of persons, including rich and poor
and the material is bought for very
great variety of uses. Among the regu
lar customers are many builders.
The occasional buyers may want
single window or mantelpiece or
door or a beam of certain length. They
come for all sorts of things, but varied
as their wants are they can all be sup
piled, for one could find here materia
for house, and, if he wanted, a stone
sidewalk to put down in front of it
and lamp post to stand on the edge
N Y SIM