Treasure-hunters like Alan Mayfield have helped make a building materials salvage store a golden goose for Waco Habitat for Humanity.

For several years, Mayfield has been a loyal shopper and occasional volunteer at the Habitat ReStore at 1224 Franklin Ave. Now the recently retired district judge is relying heavily on the store for new and used materials as he builds a new house.

He’s bought light fixtures, cabinetry, bathtubs and sinks, countertop stoves, chain-link fencing, water heaters and doors, all at a deep discount. He’s even hired an 18-wheeler to haul pavers to his house.

Mat Tindell (left) helps Habitat store employee Quan Yepez with a roll of laminate.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“It’s a wonderful place to get things,” Mayfield said. “I’ve bought things I wouldn’t have been able to buy anywhere else. I’ve bought things that would have been outside my price range at other places. I’ve gotten better quality with less money.”

But the biggest beneficiaries of the ReStore’s success have been Habitat for Humanity and its low-income homeowners.

For the past four years, the ReStore has covered all the nonprofit group’s overhead expenses, excluding the cost of building the homes, Waco Habitat executive director John Alexander said.

“It allows us to build more houses and means the dollars we get from donors go directly into building houses or wheelchair ramps,” he said. He said Habitat will celebrate that accomplishment June 18 by christening one of its new homes a “ReStore house.”

Since it opened at its permanent location in 2003, the ReStore has seen its net income quadruple, from $57,000 to $225,000 a year, for a seven-year total of $1.1 million. When possible, Habitat also uses donated materials in its new homes, helping to bring down its home prices.

Waco Habitat builds eight or nine houses a year in the $60,000 to $70,000 range, offering special financing and other aid to make them affordable to families who ordinarily would be excluded from homeownership.

Habitat homebuyers earn between 30 and 60 percent of the area’s median income, which comes out to $15,500 to $31,000 a year for a family of four.

Since the first Habitat ReStore began in Austin 15 years ago, more than 650 have sprung up across North America.

In Waco, the ReStore is laid out like a home improvement store, with sections for ceiling fans and lights, hardware, paint, doors, windows and trim. Shoppers often will find unpredictable inventory such as a Victorian cast-iron fireplace, a Jacuzzi hot tub valued at $11,000 or antique lights.

The ReStore has seen its net income quadruple from $57,000 to $225,000 a year since opening at its permanent location on Franklin Avenue. The store helps cover Habitat for Humanity’s overhead.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

The ReStore’s materials range from brand-new to antique. Some come from demolitions, others from construction projects, others from businesses with overruns and discontinued items. You’re likely to find bathtubs from Ferguson, pallets of decorative pavers from Jewell Concrete, and doorknobs and odds and ends from Do It Best. Most sell for half their retail price or less.

Companies can avoid commercial disposal fees by donating the items and also can get a tax write-off, Habitat officials said. ReStore assistant manager Kevin Niswanger said one home improvement company saves about $2,000 a month in disposal fees alone.

Brent Watts, manager of the Do It Best retail service center in Hewitt, said his store’s savings in disposal costs may be offset by the labor required to handle the salvageable materials. But he said the company would rather see the material put to good use instead of sent to a landfill.

“Habitat is a big focus of our company nationwide,” Watts said. “It’s been wonderful. They’re very easy to work with. They come over and pick it up, and we load it on the trailer with a forklift.”

Mayfield drops by the ReStore regularly to hunt for bargains, which have included antique wood planes and a deluxe cast-iron porcelain sink. Sometimes he’ll find an immediate use for himself or a family member. Other times, he’ll buy items and store them until he thinks of a use.

He recently paid $750 for a pair of leaded glass doors that he said would retail for $5,000.

“The problem with owning those doors is that I still haven’t got a building for it,” Mayfield said. “They’re sitting in my shop right now.”

Mayfield said he’s “pretty much addicted” to the ReStore, but he doesn’t regret the money he spends there.

Larry McCauley, a Habitat for Humanity employee, sifts through some of the goods at the store.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

“I’m glad to be able to get the bargain and glad there’s money going to some really quality houses for people who need them,” he said. “The ReStore has been a boon to guys like me, and it’s also been a boon to the community.”

Pam Scobell, of Valley Mills, is another self-described ReStore addict. She and her husband, Ken, have been working to renovate a house and a cabin for a bed and breakfast called Bouldered Bluff, and almost all of their materials have been salvaged.

They hit ReStores in Waco and elsewhere several times a week, buying everything from tile to tongue-in-groove redwood to washers and dryers. They have replaced 44 windows through ReStore purchases.

“We’ve brought home windows on top of the car,” Scobell said. “So much of their product is one-of-a-kind. For someone who is doing some building renovation, it’s a candy store.”

She said that when the bed and breakfast reopens in a year or so, the family plans to label different materials to show which ReStore they came from.

“We feel like Habitat for Humanity was a partner in our project,” she said.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

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