recycling building materials

[planthelper]

hi!

with all the carbon talk, it's now more important than ever to give any form of wood the longest possible usage.

at times in my life i was able to scavange for material at the local tip,

but in most parts of the world thats not possible anymore, however there are still many opportuneties to pick up wood for free or for cheap.

what excited me to start this topic was the fact that i get enormous gratification out of reusing (building) materials and on top it saves you a lot of money, aswell often the old wood, or steel, or nails, or whatever, are of better quality than the new stuff.

i have build a decking and a solid timber kitchen just out of dumped luber, and old furniture and old window frames.

i love the process of denailing timber, and if i have the time i often reuse the pulled out nails aswell. one can straighten out the nails banging them with the hammer on top of a straight cut treestump.

if i see phillips head screws, i always collect them, which can be done quite fast with a cordless,

screws are very expensive to buy, just one thrown out kitchen can yield you 100's worth of dollares of screws and fittings, and they would be different sizes just as we need them!

anyway, what ever project you are planning, try to work with excisting materials,

but don't become a obsessive compulisive collector, hehe.

and don't make any decisions too hasty as with more planning one often can simplyfie the construction and this saves costs and often means even the "build is sounder".

anyway, i just get a kick out of reusing materials,

and fixing things.

[hebrew]

yeah right on, i got this old garden shed out the back it is horrible to look at but it is valuable for material, good quality wood and tin roofing. windows too. as well as wire, and steel its just waiting for the right time for me to dismantle it and reuse it for something else. as is it makes good chook shed, with some midofications would make a good greenhouse, i just need to figureout what we want to do with it.

[paradox]

fuck yeah my dad built such a beautiful big two story house in the eighties completely out of bushrock from the property & recycled hardwood & windows...pretty much. spent so little money except on essentials such as cement, plumbing etc & to this day people always comment on how beautiful a house it is.

i'm in the process of a similar project right now. i don't think a lot of people realize how simple it is to build a house out of recycled materials. you just need some basic building knowledge & the motivation to work your ass off. & a bitof help from as mny skilled friends as you can doesn't go astray!

PH have yo seen the film Garbage Warrior? i posted about it a few months back... http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=23020

check out this film man, this guy is seriously cool & has so many fuckig great ideas. for instance recycled car tyres pounded with earth & built up by like brick work then rendered...one of the most effecient & cheap building materials imaginable... but seriously this guy rocks, his 'earth ships' are absolute genius.

can't talk much now but i look forward to continuing this soon

[mescalito]

We had a council trash 'n treasure throw out your dead type thing started on Sunday..MAN the things people throw out!

I got to dump heaps of shit on the footpath...er well load into ute drop on mums footpath hehe,then came back with more shit!

Everyone NEEDS one of these!

Just what we were looking for!

Nah it was great every town should do this it's an eye opener I tell ya and the petrol stations musta made a killing there was so many people out scavenging.

Felt good too.....genetic throwback? LOL

I often look twice at something before throwing it out in case I can use it for something else.

Small industries are also good to approach about waste like newspaper,sawdust,tyres esp. as they now have to pay to dispose of them.

SEE BELOW cost nicks!

Edited January 20, 2010 by mescalito

[mescalito]

Too easy

[planthelper]

the more often one looks out for "stuff" the more you have a chance to find what you need.

another thing is storage, most aussie homes have enough space to store those materials,

but it's always good to take home less than more.

if in doubt if something is usable than leave it wher you saw it, for god's sake don't carry home crap, hehe.

as a cabinetmaker i always look out for fine timbers, but i can tell you that one can see how quality wood is getting rare. in old buildings and furniture they used far wider boards, this clearly tells us, timber is getting chopped down at a far to fast rate.

old furniture/kitchen cupboards often contain wide hoop pine boards,

specialy watch out for australien native timbers as a lot of the old stuff was made out of oz native timbers!!

i guess, i would not like to use "whacky building materials " like car tyres, old bottles and so on...

[mescalito]

Yeah I agree PH...I actually didn't come home with heaps of crap,but a few old skool things for the bub we can work on (can't wait!!) and some really nice outdoor furniture.

One house had HEAPS of fine old wooden furniture and a massive old style mirror,alas as you say no shelf space at home in the shed as it is!

What do you recommend a cheap way for decking my shed out with shelving using recyclables?

There was about a 100m roll of un-used fencing wire I'm kicking myself for not loading in too bugger it!

Not really building materials but:

Also some transport companies can get used olive/pickle food grade 200L barrels...tons of uses for these.I can get them for 10 bucks a drum.I'm using some to catch the water from my first flush gutter system for plants.Another will be for fast composting(black),another for bulk straw substrate prep,another 3 I'm going to run grey water through planted with reed-beds to clean up the waste and when I get the technique down I'm going to use another to make up bulk ormus precipitate for plants and fungi.

For the mycologist,fish and chip shops for hessian bags,cafe's etc for coffee grounds and the newsagent for out of date newspaper.

[planthelper]

Also some transport companies can get used olive/pickle food grade 200L barrels...tons of uses for these.I can get them for 10 bucks a drum.

 

man, you just said the word!

barrels are so important, i think, i got a fetish for buckets, barrels and co.

the drums and buckets building materials get sold in, are much longer lasting (stronger plastic) than cheap buckets

sold for the household.

about the shelving, i would use timber aswell for making the brackets which will be holding the shelves up, as brackets are expensive to buy. as shelves any solid timber will do.

maybe a good idea to avoid hardwoods, as they very heavy, give you splinters, split easy, and are hard to work with.

always pre drill holes for screws, and don't use powertools when you are too stoned!

one has to always look out for various opportuneties, for example if the tree lopers work in your area, offer them

money for a carton of beer, in exchange that they dump a big truck load full of woodchips in your yard.

happy diy and gardening!

[Sola]

I agree..I think once you start scrounging you're constantly on the lookout.

Hard Rubbish days, especially in ritzy suburbs, you'd be amazed what you can find.

We furnished our entire house from doing just that. Fridge, washing machine, everything.

I think it took probably 18 months but worth it.

Sola

[PoC]

I am from Oregon, USA and here there is a place called the Rebuilding Center. They are a not-for-profit business that gets used building materials through donations (which affords people tax writeoffs) and also offer a service to deconstruct buildings rather than demolish them in order to salvage materials. They do very good business and it's a mutually beneficial arrangement for all parties since donators get writeoffs, people are employed, and the customer gets a bargain. I'm actually surprised I haven't encountered this type of business model a lot more as it seems like a sustainable, profitable operation that could get easy access to lots of free building materials in any major city.

[planthelper]

good to hear that Poc!

they don't allowe us to scavange in my hometown, but the next bigger town still allowes it, and the councel saves a lot of money that way.

some of the australian timbers are so good, they get recycled already since i guess 100years, i mean they can outlast many other timbers.