Got it free - whatever it is??

So, I'll post pics when I have a more cooperative phone... But, to sum it up... DH just finished the living area of my goat barn!

There was a building that was at a local racetrack, it was used primarily to prepare and serve food. The racetrack was sold and the building was scheduled to be put in a dumpster. Until DH talked to the person in charge. He managed to get whatever he could salvage from the building for free, and had help from the person tearing down the rest (with an excavator) to load the pieces on trucks and trailers. He basically split the building with a friend who helped.

We got the exterior walls, all the plywood, windows, a breaker box and all the wiring as well as the roofing. Also fans, a sink (that's going in our bathroom, which he's renovating also) and fluorescent lighting. Oh and the front door! After splitting materials, we how have a 15'x15' goat barn. That DH worked many, many hours on, but on which we spent $0.

That's a HUGE score!!!! That's a score to beat all scores, right there, NH! I can't wait to see it when you put it all back together. I've always wondered how in the world people can be so wasteful and casual about perfectly good buildings and materials like that. Tax right off, maybe?

The building was only a few years old too! The racetrack was bought by a very wealthy man who couldn't care less about what he wastes, in fact they're about to tear down a MUCH larger building (we can't handle that one! Might try to get a few pieces though)

A friend even gave us nails to put the building together, since he had gotten a giant bucket of nails for free from an older gentleman at a yard sale. DH is really good at finding free stuff!!

Hardware is really expensive, especially when you go to putting together an entire building, so those nails are a big blessing to be sure. When I score free lumber, I take out any screws, lag bolts, or nails that I can possibly use again, as they are just so costly to buy.

I do too Bee, and I straighten crooked bent nails to be reused.

Wow fabulous deal @NH Homesteader !! Congratulations! How wonderful to have that before winter really sets in!

DH re-uses screws and nails. He even makes his own staples out of nails, lol.

NH Homesteader said:

DH re-uses screws and nails. He even makes his own staples out of nails, lol.

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I re-use them when the effort involved doesn't outweigh the cost or trouble of going and buying new ones.

I generally find that, in my life, it makes more sense to re-use bolts & screws than it does to try to remove, straighten & re-use nails. With screws, I particularly like the robertson (also called "square drive" or "scrulox") screws, since in my experience they seem the least prone to getting damaged during removal from an old application.

By contrast, nails are made of soft steel and unfortunately they almost always get bent during removal. Yes, in many cases, I can straighten them okay — but I find they're then extremely prone to bending again when I try to hammer them in.

I know nothing about building- but he managed to save a lot of nails in this case! We live far enough from a Home Depot or similar store that the hassle of going to get things usually makes us reuse things!

Scored some free pallets today, some really good wood. One thing in that pile was like a display type thing that was likely used in the store...has four compartments that are the perfect size for nest boxes for my broody hens and I was just needing a mobile unit like that for being able to convert the broody ward from one mode to another.

When not in use in the broody ward, I could likely use this unit on the back of the shed for organizing things and storage.

Nice Bee!

Once the snow clears in the spring I'm going to get my DH to take the truck one day and grab the pallets by his work. Most aren't good quality and have broken under the weight of our stacked wood. So we need more!