Salvage Yards May Fill Your Restoration Needs : Treasures: Architectural salvage concerns may be the only places where one can find just the right item to fit a remodeling project in older homes.

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful,” wrote 19th-Century tastemaker William Morris. This good advice was easier to follow when labor was cheap.

Today’s homeowner--eager to restore an old house, add distinction to a bland one or create a neoclassic--soon learns that period architectural details are hard to find and cost a small fortune to duplicate.

The problem may be resolved by a tour of local salvage yards, which offer both the useful and the beautiful at bargain prices.

In these pop museums, heaped with the rubble of our city’s past, alert treasure hunters are apt to discover arched French doors stacked with aluminum sliders, antique chandeliers hanging beside fluorescents, claw-foot tubs stored amid fiberglass fixtures, prized crystal and porcelain doorknobs submerged in a bin of hardware--perhaps even a beveled-glass fan light or a Victorian mantel hidden behind a rusty water heater.

Block-long salvage yards are an endangered species. Most have closed during the last five years because of rising insurance and real estate costs.

These days, when wreckers tear down a sumptuous old hotel, mansion or theater, they seldom bother to rescue its magnificent hand-carved moldings, inlaid ceilings and parquet floors. All but the priciest surviving yards subsist by selling used building materials and/or cut-rate kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

The majority are in downtown Los Angeles. Three years after the closing of what seems to have been Orange County’s last salvage yard, Orange County’s last architectural antique shop moved to Carmel.

The most elegant local yard is now Architectural Imports, a cavernous warehouse with hundreds of antique windows and doors from $300 up--including Belgian etched glass, English stained glass and massive panes from a century-old church.

Elaborate oak entryways with leaded or stained-glass transoms and side lights start at $7,000. A baroque copper mantel, one of many period fireplace-surrounds, costs $1,500. There are also ornate corbels, arched over-windows and over-doors inset with hand-painted glass, and chandeliers ranging from 1890s gaslights to 1920s holophanes.

Another fancy salvage yard is Scavengers’ Paradise, overflowing with choice antiquities: windows and doors from $15 to $1,200, an oak-and-leaded-glass entryway for $4,500, hand-carved mantels from $150, ‘20s claw-foot tubs and pedestal sinks from $250, plus archaic door hardware, crystal knobs, rococo corbels, built-in Craftsman buffets, planters, indoor and outdoor wrought iron, garden statues and fountains.

Other delights include massive iron driveway gates, a pair of crystal-hung wrought-iron wall sconces 5 feet tall, the old bronze elevator from City Hall and, for $2,500, Rock Hudson’s 15-foot inlaid mahogany bathroom vanity with copper sink and fittings.

All the other salvage yards stock lots of vintage doors, windows, screens and shutters from $5 or $10, and substantial amounts of good, budget-priced used plumbing, electrical and building materials.

MRM Contractors, which wrecks Pasadena mansions, sells red Spanish mission roof tiles for 69 cents each. Old porch columns start at $50, claw-foot tubs at $65, china pedestal sinks and leaded-glass windows at $100. French doors, some arched, range up to 9 feet high. A pair of arched windows 10 feet tall cost $375. Salvaged from the 1889 Childs estate: a 6-foot, 6-inch wooden mantel with beveled mirror costs $450, and a fine oak entryway with leaded glass costs $500.

Although both Cleveland Wrecking and L.A. Wrecking have been demolishing old buildings since the early 1900s, architectural salvage is no longer a major source of income. However, L.A. still has ‘30s tubs and sinks from $95, plus a few original porcelain fittings. And Cleveland still offers old street lamps and big, round stained-glass church windows, plus life-sized teak horses hand-carved in Thailand.

Architectural Salvage, another old-timer no longer retailing general salvage, now confines its business to Spanish wrought iron but still has a few antique bathroom fixtures. Pull-chain toilets start at $500.

At the rest of the yards, where 8-foot 2-by-4s cost about $1 and used bricks cost about 35 cents, there are always unexpected treasures. Big 10 has wooden pillars from $100 and entryways from $250. Southside Wrecking has handsome used hardwood flooring. B & B Lumber has a charming white-wicker-look residential elevator for $200. Aztec Stone & Brick has $60 claw-foot tubs. Frank Daniels has inexpensive wrought iron.

There is also a salvage yard for used and unclaimed glass and mirror in all sizes, thicknesses, tints and styles. Preferred Glass discounts it all: skylights, greenhouse windows, screens, burglar guards, mirrored wardrobe doors, sliders for patio, tub and shower--even salvaged windshields. Window latches cost a dime. Table tops cut to size cost $1 per foot. A rare 52-by-20-inch etched mirror commemorating the 1984 Olympics costs $195.

SUGGESTIONS FOR SALVAGING

Wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.

Call in advance if you seek something specific. Stock changes daily.

Know the dimensions you need.

Bring a tape measure.

Lock your parked car.

Allow plenty of time.

Be polite.

If something requires repair, make sure it’s worth buying.

Try to visualize what you see refinished or repainted.

If you fall in love with an affordable indulgence, it’s often wiser to buy it now than to curse yourself later.

Don’t be afraid to haggle.

Tip the person who carries a heavy object to your U-Haul.

If you don’t find what you want, leave your telephone number and try again.

Hurry. Salvaged items grow costlier and scarcer every year.

How to Find, Contact Local Salvage Yards

Architectural Imports 49 E. Colorado Blvd. Pasadena (818) 796-9019 Open Tues. to Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Ask for Steve or Penny

Scavengers’ Paradise 4360 Tujunga Ave. Studio City (213) 877-7945 Open by appointment only. Ask for Rick

MRM Contractors 5277 Valley Blvd. Los Angeles (213) 222-9191 Open Mon. to Fri. 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Ask for Gloria

Cleveland Wrecking 3170 E. Washington Blvd. Los Angeles (213) 269-0633 Open Mon. to Fri. 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Ask for Cisco

L.A. Wrecking 810 E. 9th St. Los Angeles (213) 622-5135 Open Mon. to Sat. 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Ask for Paul

Architectural Salvage 726 Anacapa St. Santa Barbara (805) 965-2446 Open Tues. to Sat. noon-5 p.m. Ask for Roger

Big 10 Building Materials 787 W. Woodbury Road. Altadena (213) 681-7434 Open Mon. to Sat. 8 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Ask for Alex

Southside Wrecking 12709 S. Alameda St. Compton (213) 636-9553 Open 7 days 6:30 a.m.-5 p.m.. Ask for Willy McCoyne

B & B Lumber 8040 N. Lankershim Blvd. North Hollywood (818) 983-1645 Open Mon. to Sat. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Ask for Amelia

Aztec Stone & Brick 3131 S. Peck Road. Monrovia (818) 447-5419 Open Mon. to Sat. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Ask for Leo

Preferred Glass 18319 Napa St. Northridge (818) 886-4610 or (213) 628-6902 Open Mon. to Fri. 8 a.m.-6 p.m, Sat. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Ask for Bob Ritchie

Frank Daniels Building Materials 11151 S. Central Ave. Los Angeles (213) 569-7813 Open 7 days 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Ask for Frank Daniels

Sinaloaa Yard 4165 S. Central Ave. Los Angeles (213) 233-4277 pen Mon. to Sat. 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-noon Ask for Alma

Clark Co. 2149 N. Durfee Ave. El Monte (818) 444-9331 Open Mon. to Fri. 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Ask for Saul Gomez