Monday afternoon I was taking a walk and passed an old roundhouse that has been used as a pottery factory for past seventy years. The pottery factory is in the process of closing and the historic roundhouse is being converted into a strip mall.
Apparently they emptied the warehouse portion of the building because there were between 20 and 30 wooden shelves lined up by the big commercial dumpster. Being the happy dumpster driver that I am, I wandered over to look at the shelves.
I was shocked. The shelving units were 8 foot long by 2 foot wide and about 7 foot tall. They were constructed entirely out of TRUE 1 x 12's. Each of the shelves had 12 1x12's 8 foot long and 4 1x12's 7 foot long...and there were over 20 shelving units. 
I planned on going by Tuesday and asking them if I could break the shelves down and take the lumber.
Giddy I was when I got home. I was already planning what to do with all that free incredible lumber.
Anyway I drove by Tuesday at lunch and was deeply saddened to see an giant industrial wood chipper and a massive pile of chips. No shelves seen...they shredded all that lumber. They don't even make lumber like that anymore. I was very sad.
There is still some light in this story. There is a large deck running along the back of the building it consists of roughly 60 2x6x8 and 20 2x6x12 foot long pressure treated boards with probably 20 2x12x10 foot beams...in other words a barn. I will swing by first thing in the morning and see if they will let me salvage it.
Don't Waste Wood
Off-Grid carpentry and construction is much easier with a rechargeable tool kit. I have been using the same Ryobi Rechargeable Tool Kit
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Don't Waste Wood
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
12 comments:
I hate the thought of all the good wood going to waste. It makes me sick. But that is an indication of what we are dealing with involving the citizenry of this country. They think to just get rid of every thing that might be an obstacle to their "progress." What a bunch of chumps.
Michael
What a lot of damn good wood chips are going to do. It cost them more money to dispose of those shelves than to just hang a sign that said "free wood".
During the depression, the lowly ol' nail was in such great demand that nails were actually reused numerous times. To think that someone would go through the trouble of having to straighten, and reheat nails over a fire so as to reuse them.
Man that sucks. I hate to see all that waste when there is someone that can use all that stuff. I have rescued a bunch of lumber that would have had the same fate. I pull nails and reuse them too, hey I gotta pull 'em out why not reuse them. Good luck on the other wood.
It's the same old story Bear...he who hesitates is lost. The same thing happened to me with fire wood, I didn't stop when I first saw it and the next it was gone. BTW, I read your blog everyday and really enjoy it. Whatever happened to your neighbor that disapeared?
meadowmouse
that is ridiculous. why would they do that?! fools.
i hope you are able to get the deck.
That does certainly suck about the wood. What's really sad is they probably paid the people more to grind it up than it was actually worth. Whether we're in a recession or not we still have a lot of people throwing money and useful stuff away with no regard for value.
As for the power tools I just bought a couple sets of Ryobi tools for $60 a pop. One set is for my bro for Christmas. I also got a free tool with each set which basically made my bro's present free. He gets a kickass present, I get an extra set of hands and power tools when I start building my cabin and I end up with a few more tools in my own kit. Gotta love it.
That, in a nutshell, is what's wrong with this country. I don't toss very much myself. If I don't want or need something any more, I sell it, give it away, or set it out by the curb for the junk man to pick up. I have yet to have something I put out by the curb fail to disappear. One man's trash is another man's treasure....
Hello, anyone home?
I'm here just really busy.
I've also been wondering. What happened to your missing neighbor?
Both are still missing.
Neighbors were planning to tear down an old farmhouse paneled inside with CHESTNUT. I asked them if I could tear it out and have it. They said yes, and they'd let me know when they were ready. Next thing I knew, the local volunteer fire department had burned the place down for practice.
Post a Comment