Urban Miners

After hearing that Urban Miners’ last day open would be this coming Wednesday, I hustled my butt down to Hamden to pick up some materials for DIY projects. While the space was understandably in disarray, they still had a decent hodge podge of glassware, doors, windows, flooring — you name it. We picked up a few items to repurpose for our wedding in May, and it was great timing because our purchases were severely discounted.
I’m excited to see what Urban Miners does next; in talking to the staff, it seems like they’re looking at a larger space to incorporate their current inventory of raw materials, along with upcycled and repurposed home décor.

The concept of this store is brilliant (they won a green award a few years back): they collect all sorts of unwanted building materials from the area (a lot from the universities around here, which tend to be very wasteful) and make it available to the eco-​conscientious consumer. Nonetheless, this could easily mean sell overpriced trash to yuppies.
The place is a warehouse, filled wall to wall with mostly building materials. I’d pass on the few overpriced knick knacks and pieces of furniture. Basically you have to risk life and limb to dig out windows and sinks and such. The place is impossible to navigate if you are really looking for something specific. And, after you go through all this trouble, the pricing is inconsistent and illogical, if you ask me. They sell cracked pine and antique walnut for the same price, and I believe this is because they have no idea what they are doing. As another reviewer mentioned, they’re very condescending if you try to make any logical argument to why something should be cheaper than price tag. Don’t bother; instead find the gem and run with it.

not appropriate for a very established private business to set up a gofundme to expand your company.really.poor taste.

My husband and I went there looking for a few different projects that we have going on. Overall the place was filled with a lot interesting items. We found a cast iron tea kettle and pot. I was very excited because id been searching for such a thing for awhile! Much to my disappointment the woman at the front desk told me they were not for sale! I was confused as to why, she really didn’t say! Then we asked about the shipping crate prices, when I commented on the price of the small box being the same as the large she was extremely condescending in her tone! Very disappointing because we had the money and were more then willing to spend it. She could have had at least 3 sales out of us but sometimes its just comes down to costumer service. We left with a very sour taste in our mouths. The best thing that could happen to that place is to get someone who cares and knows what their talking about to help at the front desk.

This is a great place for windows, doors, flooring, or in fact odds and ends like shelf boards, radiators, tables, & chairs. I love visiting, even though I don’t have a house that I’m renovating — it’s a treasure trove for people who like antique-​ing. To make a desk, I got a framed window here and put it across two saw horses. The price: $ 10 !

great place, definitely worth a look before hitting the Big Box Store; you never know what will show up from one day to the next. Plenty of freebies. Even a large selection of books and LPs. Prices much more reasonable than the yuppie-​oriented upscale salvage places.

This is a good place for old floors, panels and a few doors. The glass selection was impressive but otherwise it felt like a garage sale leftover warehouse. Vast amounts of various household goods, not exactly architect quality salvage