So, there are some ways to recycle things that have already been built. In the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s and ever since then people often look for places being torn down because often the wood siding and wood flooring in houses can be recycled, especially things like Oak or pine floors in houses or redwood siding that can basically last forever because termites don't eat redwood usually. Also, you can sometimes salvage windows and skylights as well. However, before you put these things into the house you are building you need to make sure they are approved by local building inspectors "BEFORE" you install these things other wise often they will red tag your house and make you take all this stuff out.
For example, a friend of mine in 1976 used Cedar 4 by 12 16 foot beams for his house in the ceiling of the house and was making a loft then with these then. Cedar is not considered to be structural like Douglas Fir is (which is what most houses are built of now). So, the county building inspectors Red Tagged his house until he changed out these beams for Douglas Fir ones.
Another friend built a home without a permit and built a really beautiful wood home that was amazing. A lady bought it and he told her she could never tell the county ever what that no part of her new house was ever inspected according to code. Well, she told the wrong person and the county made her tear down this amazingly gorgeous house with a view of Mt. Shasta.
So ,as you can see it can be heartbreaking and bankrupting if you don't follow the building codes and listen to building inspectors in your county where you are building something nationwide.
So, though it's true you can recycle many things like floors and sidings from houses, and windows, you also need to run this by Building inspectors of that county or city so that they can approve (or deny) the recycled stuff you got by helping people tear down and older house or who are rebuilding a house from the foundation up (this is a very common practice where I live) because they will tear a house down to the foundation and the fireplace and start over. But, if you offer to tear this place down (or at least take the stuff you want) and they agree to this) then you can get literally free building materials sometimes which will save you thousands of dollars in building your own home.
For example, around 1976 I bought tongue and groove knotty pine and built a shed on my land I was buying then that I had gone to the county to subdivide for the previous owner. However, when my first wife and I broke up we decided not to keep the land and then everything I had on the land I gave to my best friend including a bath tub I bought then. He still has the knotty pine tongue and groove inside his Sauna and still uses the bath tub I gave him now almost 50 years later.
So, being smart and efficient often helps you survive along the way. Eventually I was remarried and bought another 2 1/2 acres by 1980 with my 2nd wife which we kept until 1989 when we moved to Hawaii and I built on this land an A-Frame which saved us then around 60,000 dollars in rent from 1980 to 1985. Today this would be 150,000 dollars based upon a minimum rent of 2500 dollars a month for something decent for 5 people (wife and three children) to live in now almost anywhere in California.
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