New shed out of old materials

In an attempt to push myself along a little, I thought I'd show you my latest undertaking: an equipment shed tied into the back of my livestock shelter.

Remember that I live in a rural community in Texas...the only thing that requires any inspection is septic systems...and that's only because the sprinkler types failed to perform to expectations, creating a nightmare for a lot of folks. Anyway, I can build any structure out of what ever i choose.

I offered a local home improvement warehouse the savings in manpower that would have gone toward dumping a big pile of rack systems. That's the way I approached the manager, and she said that I could have all that they were getting rid of. Motherload!

So I loaded up the trailer three times, and I've been using the materials for a few years now.

The first picture shows the horizontal beams that I welded together to create 18' rafters. The second picture is a pair of the beams welded together. The third picture is how I attached them them to the existing rafters on the other structure...I just cut the little ears off the ends of the beams and welded them back on one end.

If for no other reason for this post, I hope that someone will look at their scrap piles a little different...well, I have to finish this thing first!

As the work progressed...

Well that was a nice find!... I love the crap you bring home when you have a PU , a welder and a place to store scrap.

I have alot of crap laying around and the wifer gets poopy now and again about it but then I will make something out of it that she apprecaites like a hay feeder and drag shed, chickencoop, rusty metal flowers (nev'rwilts) the wing blade (actually she thought that was a waste of time)

BUt I like what you are doing...

im a constrution laborer and i do alot of commercial site work,i find it disguesting how much new o slightly used material ends up in the dumpster.im always bringing the trailer to work to load up i always ask the foreman/superintendent before i take ,the steel erectors are always more than happy to just give me stuff as long as i dont sell it for scrap,i tell them i like to stock pile steel for my projects and i get a big thumbs up from them.i built a green house10x20 with a 10x8 potting shed with "scrap"all i bought were nails and a retention system for the plastic.i even had enough 2x4's to make all the benchs.another job i ended up with 4 cords of oak free heat for the winter thank you verry much.all you need to do is ask and be willing to do a little work,there is alot of 'junk' just waiting for a new home!!!!!the hardest part is the wife all she sees is "junk" until i put it all together and say"thats the "junk"i brought home the other day i saved us x amount of money"she usually walks away with a smile!!

Okay, I'm glad that I'm not alone when dealing with the wife on this issue. Green, you're right on the money (literally) when you say that there is a lot of waste in the construction industry. Back last year, the wife (and I couldn't believe it) saw a big warehouse here in town that was being torn down (with heavy equipment) and said, "You'd think they'd let people remove the sheet metal from the building, instead of trashing it". I pulled into the parking lot, asked the foreman, and he said that he too thought it was a shame, but that insurance provisions wouldn't allow non-employees on the property. I mean, a standard metal building is so easy to de-construct...yet it went to the dump.

I cut up a bunch of those frames that they hang screen doors in over the past couple of nights. Got this from one of the home-improvement warehouses too. I'll use this 1"x2" steel as purlins between the rafters on the shed.

alot of demo material now with scrap prices high is being recycled.alot of concrete ,asphalt and brick rubble is recycled into gravel for roads,d ways etc. not bad stuff some plants product is better thanothers but it works and packs hard.what are you planning on using for sheeting to cover it?

If I could find a cheap source of regular corrugated tin, like that already on the adjoining structure, I'd use that, cause it'd tie in well with the tin already there.

But around here, it's cheaper to use the thicker sheeting. At one steel building manufacturer, I can buy custom cut lengths of 26ga R-panel sheeting out of rolls they call "seconds" for about a dollar per liner foot. That equates to about .33/sq ft. Not bad. I had them run off 32 foot sheets for my carport...I didn't even notice the defect.

Oh, I've seen an increase in recycling here too. A new company just opened that recycles brick, block, rock, etc, into fill materials for roadbeds and such. The say it is about 20% lighter than virgin aggregate, giving you more material for the price. The best part is that they "allow" dumping of said materials at their place.
I don't know if they charge for that, or if they just take it as a free supply source.

I have bought "reject" asphalt from an asphalt company here in town for $10/ton. This stuff is what I've used in several places like the driveway, carport, and one shed. I probably won't put anything down in this shed I'm building now.

10 bucks a ton is dirt cheap,no pun intended,last i knew here in ri they were getting 65 a ton 2 yrs ago.i just spread the stuff now i dont see invoices.was it still hot enough to work with when you got it?nothin worse then cold mix

Green, it isn't hot when i pick it up, but I only mess with it in the summer time...okay, it's hot in that respect. The loader driver smears it out really well with the bucket to break up any chunks. What chucks I do end up with that my loader won't smash, I put into a wheelbarrow or barrel and pour a little petroleum product (old kero that I got a couple of barrels of, or used motor oil) over it and it falls apart.

I had some really slick spots beside my garage, and grass wouldn't grow because of the clay, but after I smeared some of the reject asphalt into the mix, grass started growing there. Oh, traction was increased tenfold, with very little aggregate.

Excellent recycling effort

mobilus...I could tell immediately you are not from New England when I saw the pitch of your roof addition...

Just enough for the little bit of water we get to run off...doesn't take much here in north Texas. It just ain't happening! Not here, anyway.

Shelter is as much about shade here as it is anything else!

Mobilus,

I have about 500 ft of drivway I need to finish someday and I am weighing recycled asphault vs hardpack(they called it 3/4 minus in Oregon, dont know what they call it by you, bluestone?)

ANywhoo, I know a guy who had some recycled asphault thrown down and he loves it, but t is on a hill. THe guy I bought my excavator from who moves dirt for a living says hardpack is the way to go because the recycled asphault will rut over time and cant be graded the way hardpack can. I also have some stupid idea to throw old shingles down on a hot day and spread hardpack on top of it.

ANywhoo, do you have ruts in the asphault?

Shinn, I have some extremely hard clay on my place. I have more problem with it being slick than bogging and creating ruts. Under the carport, the only problem is when I work on something that leaks any type of petroleum product. Loosens up the material...not good. That application was meant to be a temporary (2-3 years) measure anyway. I'll eventually pour a slab there and use that asphalt elsewhere.

Anyway, we really have only two gravel pits anywhere close by. One is in Oklahoma, so the trucking charge is higher, and it is still a long drive. The other is in Jacksboro, and actually closer at 50 miles. They call it by grade here, 1 1/2" crusher run. I think it is a limestone type material. Whatever it is, it drives down into the dirt over a few years. This is probably our equivalent to "hardpack".

When I spread the reject asphalt, it still had a good tar covering. As I spread it out, the tar got covered with dirt, and the gravel pieces separated from each other really well. The "reject" material is new stuff, but for whatever reason, it didn't meet the desires of the customer, so they just haul it back and dump it in the materials yard. It works for me, very well in fact, and when I haul three yards home at a time on thee way home from work, it doesn't hurt the wallet (and is cheaper than gravel).

Don't think that the shingles thing is stupid. I had a couple of places in the drive that were always getting wallowed out from being driven over. When it was wet, I'd bust up bricks and old concrete block pieces and fill it up. Did this for a long time before it actually held up. If I had some shingles, they too would have gone in the holes.

So, no ruts.

Have a great day! It's colder than a witch's tit in a brass brassiere in this part of the world this morning.

Got a little more done this weekend

I welded in the 1"x2" "ribs" in between the "spars" in this bird. Really, I don't expect it to ever fly away. This took longer than expected, but it's done. Next step is to put some tin on it.

I'll haul a load of scrap metal and aluminum to the scrap yard this week. And I need to haul the couple hundred pounds of pecans in to town to sell them. And I'll see what else I can dump for a few bucks...seems like I'm misssing something. My goal is to do this totally separate from regular monies...I like it when i can build something and say, "See that, didn't cost me anything but my labor!"

Well, it ain't done yet...but i just found a guy that wants a barn torn down. I get everything, he just wants it cleaned up. So, now I'll possibly be able to put the whole shed up for free. Well, other than a handful of welding rods and some lag screws. More to come.

mobilus said:

Well, it ain't done yet...but i just found a guy that wants a barn torn down. I get everything, he just wants it cleaned up. So, now I'll possibly be able to put the whole shed up for free. Well, other than a handful of welding rods and some lag screws. More to come.

Click to expand...

Hokey Smoke...YOU ARE A RECYCLER!!!!...

mobilus said:

Well, it ain't done yet...but i just found a guy that wants a barn torn down. I get everything, he just wants it cleaned up. So, now I'll possibly be able to put the whole shed up for free. Well, other than a handful of welding rods and some lag screws. More to come.

Click to expand...

Mobilus...I thought I was pretty good at scrounging and then building something worth while with it, but you are the champ! Good job!

Well, thanks! I appreciate the compliment.

If you saw my junk pile, you'd understand why my wife always says, "I just hope you don't die first and leave me to deal with disposing of all that junk!"

I love her to death, but she has no idea of the value in a good junk pile.

MObilus,

I envy your junk pile! Mine is under 2 ft of snow right now(time for a telephone pole shed?), but I did just scrounge some pulleys to improve my "wing blade" That said, when I was in Oregon, I saw an old yard tractor for "free" and when I pulled over to investigate, the owner beckened me out back and showed my tons (literally) of scrap steel fairly well sorted. He had bought the property cheap at an estate sale because the daughter of the original owner didnt want to deal with the junk. I did make a few loads from there, but I curbed myself when I thought ahead to my wife and kids having to deal with my "Estate" . I still hauled over 4 tons to the scrap guy when I moved. Dont fret though I brought some select "seed metal" with me.

I have since renewed my collection and tell myself I can sell the scrap and put my kids thru college but I too share a nagging fear of leaving the kids with a bunch of crap also

however I love building things with stuff on hand without a run to the store...I have a sheep and chicken shed and many usefull dodads like that.

Hey, if you throw road fabric down before you throw crusher run on it it will keep it from mixing with the soil.

Thanks, Shinn.

I can't wait until I'm healed up enough to get out and work. I took down the barbed wire fence that ran in the middle of my current shed project, and after about an hour, I was hurting so bad that I had to come to the house. When I move a lot, that pocket where the lymph node was taken from fills up with lymph fluid and starts hurting. This sucks...it is absolutely beautiful outside this weekend.

Anyway, I've got an appt with my surgeon tomorrow, and hopefully I can get some answers.

But one thing about scrap piles...my wife thinks it is hilarious that when my friends come over, we'll eventually include the scrap pile as part of the "grand tour". Guys understand, guys appreciate the potential, but the wives just don't get it.

Mark