Implications of Using Salvaged Materials for Building Construction in Sri Lankan Context

Abstract

As the biggest contributor for global environmental concerns construction industry has under gone through many transformations in the recent pass. During last quarter of the millennium principles for building design has been re interpreted forcing the design processes to evolve accordingly. Standards were introduced globally to evaluate the performance of the buildings considering its life cycle. There are many aspects covered in these standards and embodied energy of a building is one of the factors accepted by most of the accepted standardization systems. Salvaged material of dilapidated buildings has gone through its intended life span making it minimal when it comes to calculating embodied energy of the material. This study is a review of an experimental construction project which explored the potentials using salvaged material for contemporary construction. The emphasis is given to practical implementations affecting the practice using quantities as a parameter. Methodology is of few steps. Initially an unpretentious tabulation of building material demand is estimated in accordance with British Standards. Second step is to identify the potentials opportunities to use salvaged materials based on theoretical parameters. Conventional construction cost of an item is taken down as an upper sealing limitation to use any material. If the salvaged product is expensive than the conventional material it is to be taken as a limitation which excludes the usage of the material. Finally, the construction of the house is to go ahead. The materials which actually used are also tabulated against estimate with reasoning for the deviations. The outcomes are mixed results, which revealed unexpected potentials and limitations