Renovating an Older Fairfield County Home: A Debris Guide

Lower Fairfield County has a lot of old houses, and they are the reason we spend so much time talking people out of larger containers. A renovation in a house built in 1915 produces material that behaves nothing like the debris from a house built in 2015, and almost every sizing mistake we see comes from not accounting for that.

What you are actually opening up

The older housing runs right across the area: the streets around Springdale and Glenbrook, the village fabric of Cos Cob and Riverside, the antique colonials through New Canaan, Wilton and Weston, and a very substantial share of Greenwich and Darien.

Much of it was built when construction meant heavy dimensional framing, plaster over wood lath, fieldstone or brick foundations, and slate or clay tile on the roof. Every one of those produces demolition debris denser than its modern equivalent.

Plaster and lath

This is the biggest weight driver in an older-home renovation and the one people underestimate most consistently.

Traditional plaster was applied in coats over thin wood lath nailed across the studs, producing a wall assembly substantially heavier than modern drywall. It comes off in slabs with the lath attached, it does not compact, and it fills a container with dense, dusty material.

The practical effect: a 20 yard filled with plaster and lath reaches its tonnage allowance at around two-thirds of its visible height. You will look at it, see space above the load, and be unable to use it. That is why we recommend a 15 yard for interior demolition on older properties, and why customers frequently argue with the recommendation before the first swap settles it.

A practical note: plaster demolition generates enormous quantities of fine dust. Seal off the rest of the house properly and use real respiratory protection. On a house of this age the dust may also contain lead from old paint layers, which is a separate reason to take it seriously and a genuine consideration if there are children in the house.

Heavy framing and old floors

Pre-war dimensional lumber is heavier than modern kiln-dried stud, and old-growth flooring heavier again. A pile of hundred-year-old joists is not the same as a pile of new ones.

Before it goes in a container, look at it. Wide-board and old-growth flooring, beams and mantel timber all have a genuine reclaimed market in this part of the country, and architectural salvage operations will sometimes collect where the volume justifies the trip.

What you cannot salvage still goes in, and it should be planned for as heavier per cubic yard than you expect.

Stone, chimneys and foundations

Old chimney stacks are the classic surprise. A house may have two or three, and taking one down produces several tons of brick from what looks like a modest structure.

Fieldstone foundations, stone walls and old stone patios are the local version of the same problem, and there is a great deal of stone in this county. Even a short run of dry stone wall contains far more tonnage than the owner expects.

All of it belongs in a dedicated 10 yard clean-fill container, filled to a level load, and not mixed into a general demolition container. The reason is financial. Clean masonry is processed into recoverable aggregate at a different rate from mixed debris, and one timber offcut in an otherwise clean load reclassifies the whole container. With Connecticut disposal costs where they are, that gap is worth more than it used to be.

Slate roofs

Worth its own section because it is common here and gets sized wrong regularly.

Slate is dramatically heavier than asphalt shingle — enough that a container sized for a shingle tear-off of the same roof area will be badly wrong. Clay tile behaves similarly.

Slate and tile go in a smaller container filled to a level load, much like masonry. If you are not certain what is on the roof, say so when you book and we will ask a couple of questions that settle it. Salvageable slate also has real value and is worth setting aside before it goes anywhere.

Asbestos and old heating systems

Two related issues that both live in the basement of an older house here.

Asbestos was used in construction into the 1980s, and in a pre-war house the likeliest locations are pipe and boiler insulation, vinyl floor tiles and their black mastic, textured ceiling finishes, cement siding and old roofing felt. It cannot go in a roll-off under any circumstances and requires testing and licensed abatement.

Old oil heating systems are the other one. A great many houses across this county were heated on oil and the tanks are still there, in basements and buried in yards. Tank removal is specialist work with its own disposal route, and it is not container material. If your renovation involves converting the heating, get that scoped separately and early.

Sequencing the containers

A full interior renovation on an older house here usually wants a sequence rather than one container.

Demolition phase: a 15 yard, swapped as needed. Plaster, lath, old flooring and framing. The heavy phase, and where the smaller container is correct.

Masonry phase, if there is one: a dedicated 10 yard for chimney brick, fieldstone and footings, filled level. Separate from everything else.

Roof, if slate: its own 10 yard, level. Do not combine with the general demolition container.

Fit-out phase: a 20 yard. Packaging, offcuts, old fixtures, cabinet cartons. Bulky and light, so the larger container suits it.

Trying to do all of that in one 30 yard is the classic error. You hit the tonnage during demolition, pay overage, and still have the rest of the project to dispose of.

If you are working through a contractor, agree who is managing the containers before the job starts. Split responsibility is how a full box sits on site for four days with nobody calling anyone.

Salvage worth keeping back

Old houses contain things worth more out of the container than in it:

• Wide-board and old-growth flooring, beams and timber
• Original panelled doors and their hardware
• Mantelpieces and surrounds
• Slate in sound condition
• Cast iron — radiators, bathtubs, guttering and pipe
• Period light fittings, rim locks, hinges and window hardware
• Newel posts, balusters and stair parts
• Fieldstone, which has real landscaping value locally

Architectural salvage dealers operate throughout the region and several will assess a property before demolition begins. Even where the value is modest, keeping this material out reduces the tonnage you pay to dispose of — and in Connecticut that is not a trivial saving.