Deconstruction firm earns reality TV investment

The founder of a North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada deconstruction firm has successfully gained the support of panelists of the entrepreneur investment TV show “Dragons’ Den,” which features a format similar to “Shark Tank” in the United States.

A November online report on the WesternInvestor.com website says Adam Corneil of Unbuilders presented the merits and opportunities of deconstruction to the panelists, who unanimously agreed to invest a combined CAD $600,000 ($458,000) in the firm, beyond the CAD$500,000 ($381,000) he had requested.

The website for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) show “Dragon’s Den” lists Unbuilders as making its pitch in Season 15, Episode 2. On the website, Unbuilders describes itself as a company that “deconstructs old buildings by hand, salvaging the valuable materials as a sustainable alternative to demolition. Our second brand, Heritage Lumber, brokers the reclaimed wood.”

Corneil told the WesternInvestor.com website he developed his own deconstruction preferences after seeing reclaimable Douglas fir lumber being discarded by another demolition firm.

The entrepreneur said he was surprised and pleased by the unanimous support from the TV show’s panelists, known as a “Dragons’ sweep.”

Corniel also told the investment website the city government of Vancouver, British Columbia, has a “green demolition” law intended to set minimum levels of reuse and recycling of materials from houses built before 1950.

On its own website, Unbuilders states it uses a “skilled crew of carpenters [to] deconstruct buildings layer by layer. We maximize the salvage potential and minimize the waste through on-site material separation.”