When Marco and Lea decided to build a tiny home on a back corner of Marco's parents' property in Sonoma County, they set themselves a constraint that would challenge their patience, creativity, and budget. Every structural and finish material in the home would be reclaimed. No newly milled lumber. No freshly fired brick. No new windows or doors. Even fasteners would be sourced from reclaimed inventories whenever possible.
This is the story of how they did it, what they learned, and what they would do differently next time.
The Vision
Marco is a furniture maker. Lea is a graphic designer. Both have a deep love for craft and a strong commitment to environmental responsibility. They wanted a home that would express their values: small, beautiful, and built almost entirely from materials that had already had a previous life.
The footprint they settled on was 240 square feet, with a sleeping loft that brought useful interior volume to about 320 square feet. The home would be on a permanent foundation, not on wheels, allowing them to use heavier, more substantial materials than typical tiny-home-on-trailer construction.
Sourcing the Materials
Sourcing took the better part of a year. Marco and Lea visited reclamation yards across Northern California, including ours, building a collection of materials piece by piece.
- Foundation — Reclaimed concrete blocks from a deconstructed agricultural building, supplemented with new mortar (one of the few new materials in the project).
- Framing — Old-growth Douglas Fir 2x6 studs and 4x6 corner posts recovered from a 1930s warehouse demolition in Oakland.
- Sheathing — Reclaimed 1x8 Douglas Fir plank sheathing from the same warehouse, preserving the original square-cut nail holes as decorative texture.
- Roof framing — Hand-hewn Douglas Fir rafters from a Sonoma County barn deconstruction.
- Roofing — Reclaimed standing-seam metal roofing salvaged from a 1950s feed store, lightly cleaned and recoated.
- Siding — Vertical-grain Redwood from the same warehouse and supplemental boards from a wine country water tank.
- Windows — Six wood-frame double-hung windows reclaimed from a renovated school in Berkeley, all original glass intact.
- Door — A solid Douglas Fir batten door from a deconstructed Mendocino County farmhouse.
- Flooring — Reclaimed Heart Pine boards from a Sacramento warehouse, milled and finished onsite.
- Interior paneling — A mix of reclaimed Redwood and Douglas Fir, planed thin to reduce weight on the loft structure.
Challenges Along the Way
A 100% reclaimed build is not for the impatient. Marco and Lea encountered several significant challenges:
Inconsistent dimensions. Reclaimed lumber comes in the dimensions it was originally milled to, which often differ from modern standards. Their 2x6 studs were actually closer to a true 2 inches by 6 inches, rather than the 1.5 by 5.5 of modern lumber. This required custom adjustment of every plate, header, and connection.
Hidden defects. Despite careful pre-purchase inspection, some boards had internal checking, splits, or hidden hardware that only became apparent during installation. They built in a 15% material buffer to absorb these losses.
Code compliance. Working with the county building department required additional documentation. Reclaimed lumber without grade stamps had to be evaluated for structural use by a licensed engineer who provided a letter certifying its suitability.
Time. What might have been a six-month build with new materials stretched to nearly fourteen months. Sourcing, sorting, de-nailing, and milling reclaimed material is simply slower than ordering from a lumberyard.
What They Loved
Despite the challenges, Marco and Lea describe the project as one of the most rewarding things they have ever done.
The character of the finished home is unlike anything that could have been built with new materials. Each beam has visible hand-hewing marks. The siding shows the silvered patina of decades of exposure. The flooring carries scuff marks from a previous life as warehouse decking. Every surface tells a story.
There is also a deep satisfaction in knowing exactly where every piece of the home came from. They can point to a beam and say "that came from a barn near Cloverdale." They can point to a window and say "this used to be in a fourth-grade classroom in Berkeley."
The Numbers
The total material cost came in at approximately $18,000 — significantly less than what comparable new materials would have cost. They estimate that an equivalent build with all-new materials would have cost between $32,000 and $40,000.
The labor cost, however, was harder to quantify. Marco and Lea did most of the work themselves over evenings and weekends, with help from friends and family. If they had hired out the additional labor required for sourcing and processing reclaimed material, the total cost would likely have approached the cost of a new-material build.
Lessons for Others
For anyone considering a similar project, Marco and Lea offer these tips:
- Start sourcing early. A year of lead time is not unreasonable for a 100% reclaimed build.
- Build relationships with reclaimers. Talk to yards regularly about what they are receiving. Sometimes a single demolition can yield exactly what you need.
- Embrace imperfection. The character of reclaimed materials means accepting slight variations and irregularities as features, not flaws.
- Plan for labor. Budget significantly more time for prep work than you would with new materials.
- Document everything. Photographs, source records, and engineer letters all help with permits and tell the story of your home.
We were proud to supply some of the materials for this build and to watch it come together. If you are planning your own reclaimed-materials project, large or small, our team would love to talk with you about what is possible.