Rebuilding Center will move deconstructed house by bike

Debbie's Bike Move

(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The north Portland non-profit Rebuilding Center is planning a bike move this weekend. The Rebuilding Center deconstructs old homes around the Portland area and then resells the old wood, fixtures and other architectural elements at a retail warehouse in the Mississippi district.

BikePortland reader and neighborhood activist Ted Buehler is helping the organization facilitate the bike move. He says the plan is to move a giant pile of 2x4s, 2x6s, 2x8s, siding, windows, doors, floors and bricks from a deconstructed home in the Overlook neighborhood and carry it all by bike about 1.2 miles to the Rebuilding Center warehouse at N. Mississippi and Fremont.

Here’s more from Buehler in an email looking for volunteers:

“Come with your trailer, or just come help other peoples’ trailers. Bonus points for folks who can carry 16′ lumber. You’ll need to fill out volunteer paperwork, and abide by their safety standards. Refreshments provided, but no drinks until afterwards.”

We’re not sure what has prompted the folks at Rebuilding Center to do a bike move. It’s not like we’re surprised, given what a cool organization it is. But to our knowledge it’s their first official move by bike. Perhaps they were inspired by the national attention (as in CNN) a recent Portland bike move received. Whatever the reason, we hope this is just the first of many more bike moves by the Rebuilding Center and perhaps other organizations and companies around town will begin to follow suit.

Will we eventually see an entrepreneur step up and offer moving by bike as a professional service? Who knows, maybe the Portlandia skit will become a reality sooner than we think.

This bike move should bring out some interesting cargo-carrying and trailer adaptations to deal with the long pieces of lumber. If you’d like to join Ted and help out the Rebuilding Center, check the event details and RSVP on Facebook.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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9watts
9watts
11 years ago

So much amazing stuff going on locally. 16′? – that sounds like my kind of fun.

http://s286.beta.photobucket.com/user/o9watts/media/P2200029.jpg.html

Ted Buehler
Ted Buehler
11 years ago

Turns out the house is only partly deconstructed at present. There’s about 40 loads to haul Sunday, and they’ll schedule a 2nd move for the rest of the stuff, probably Saturday March 2.

Should be lots of fun on both moves.

Thanks for the post, Jonathan!
Ted Buehler

Brian
Brian
11 years ago

Great idea, but is there something wrong with the word “disassembled”? No need to drag Paul De Man into this…

Ted Buehler
11 years ago
Tamara Rubin
11 years ago

Oy! I hope they are using lead-safe work practices & proper containment in transporting any lead-painted components… I have free lead-test kits & a $40,000 xrf instrument I could use to test things. People can poisons themselves & their kids by bringing lead dust home on their clothes. Our kids have lead-poisoning from our NE Portland home. It makes life real difficult. It also causes “fun” adult symptoms like erectile dysfunction (again microscopic amounts of lead dust – like those present in deconstructing a house…!) yikes – I’m making a documentary film about it. I interviewed Noam Chomsky. Peter Coyote has volunteered to narrate — this is a big issue folks, don’t dismiss lightly & please wear gloves … To learn more check out the 3-minute trailer for my film here : http://kck.st/Y4nS1m

Ted Buehler
11 years ago
Ted Buehler
11 years ago

The move was a success, we cleared out everything that was ready by 12:15.

“Epic” Deconstruction Move confirmed for Saturday March 2, 10 am – 2 pm. With 10x as much material to haul.