Bricks that can last another 50 to 100 years

Guldborgsund Municipality has started reusing the materials from the houses that the municipality demolishes, as reported by TV2 OST.

The Danish INERTWASTE partner has started to level with the ground an empty brick house in Horbelev. It is a usual process, during the last three years the Guldborgsund Municipality as demolished 125 properties, in such bad condition they could not be saved.

However, for the house in Horbelev, the municipality will try to reuse as much of the house as possible instead of getting rid of all the materials. It will be a test house to see how far it is possible to go, in line with the objectives of INERTWASTE.

Annemette S. Johnsen, who chairs the Technology, Climate and Environment Committee explains that Gulborgsund "has a political objective that it must start as soon as possible with a green transition and some more sustainability projects.|

A selective demolition process is applied to the house, where the materials are sorted and treated gently so that they can be later reused. The demolition takes approximately three times as long as a normal demolition, and is thus also more expensive.

"The bricks have been tested, and they can last another 50 to 100 years,so they are good enough", says Morten Renner, director of Renner Pedersen Entreprise, which is responsible for demolishing the house. He adds that "the individual bricks are cleaned of mortar so they are ready to be reused".

The initiative, praised by the Council for Sustainable Construction, estimates that there is a CO2 saving by reusing the bricks between 12 and 35 kilos of CO2 per square metre.

Guldborgsund Municipality already knows what to do with most of the building materials. Some of the bricks will be reused to create a kind of sensory garden in Sakskøbing (with around 2,000 and 3,000 bricks needed).

Source and more details: https://nyheder.tv2.dk/samfund/2024-02-06-man-har-testet-murstenene-og-de-kan-godt-holde-50-til-100-aar-endnu

If you are fluent in Danish, you can watch the TV reportage: https://www.tv2east.dk/arkiv?date=2024-02-06&clip=889fd2f5-958e-4f71-8242-89df390f40bc