Call it a thrift store with a construction twist.

Wall to Wall - Renovate, Recycle and Restore, a new business that opened this week, takes in scrap building materials from local contractors and puts those items up for sale at well-below retail prices.

article continues below

If you are sensing similarities to Habitat for Humanity, there is a reason. In 2005, proprietor Christina Wall and her two children were the second family in Prince George to get a home through the program and she worked at the ReStore for a time.

Following a long and ugly struggle with the national organization, the local chapter was shut down in 2016. It left a void Wall is seeking to refill.

"I do know the need in Prince George for a store like this," Wall said.

She's secured a 2,100-square-foot space in unit 12B at 1839-1st Ave., in the Cariboo Estates industrial area. Turn in at Rogers Custom Meats; it's across the street from Prince George Humane Society.

There, Wall accepts "anything you can build a house with."

It has led in particular to a trove of odds and ends - door knobs, lighting, bathroom fixtures - to go along with doors, windows and trim and a bit of lumber. Starting in the new year, she will be accepting appliances in good working order and also takes in wood furniture.

However, she won't take in anything accepted at a typical thrift store, such as clothing, dishes and housewares and furniture with material on it, like couches.

It's a for-profit venture but one where homebuilders and renovators who drop off their excess and salvaged material save on tipping fees at the landfill, which Wall said she's been told can account for as much as eight per cent of a project's cost. On the other end, homeowners have a way to find savings, "especially on renovating which can also be very expensive."