My local bank is being remodeled and every time I go I marvel at the wealth of interesting stuff that ends up in the dumpster. I swear if these guys need a 19 inch piece of 1x4 they cut it from a new 6 foot length the rest of which then gets tossed in the dumpster, even if that dumpster already has 1x4s that are long enough to have been used. They built new dormers on the roof and filled the window openings with nicely framed 1/2" plywood, which now that the windows are installed has now been tossed -- each one would be a ready to use small layout or a module! I do believe one could build an entire large layout just from the stuff that is sitting in that dumpster, including wood for the legs.
I also found boxes of nails that still had some new nails in them. The project is almost over -- out they go. There were also cans of paint that seemed to still have plenty of paint in them.
I took nothing but sure looked it all over.
There is no point to this story other than to suggest that if you are thinking of a layout and find lumber to be a cost issue for you, get to know someone in construction. What they casually toss every day most of us would be glad to get.
Dave Nelson
Yes, it is amazing what they can throw away. But the project costs allow for it, and HOPEFULLY, they recycle the waste at a proper facility.
AN utmost importance is to ASK first , then retrieve as noted.
Now that we are in the market on a new house that may to be my source of new layout materials.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
They're building a new high rise across the street from my office and every day I look out the office window down at the mountain of pink foam leftovers piled up behind a fence where I can't pilfer it.
All the pieces are triangles. I wonder what they're doing.
When you are paying $70+ an hour for a carpenter plus $30+ for a helper, you can see that scrimping on materials is not an option, also remember materials bought in bulk are way cheaper. A small pack of 5 emt end fittings (5) is twice the price per fitting as the small job pack (50), just think about 500 to 5000.
Two different places were redoing communications systems, and I got permission to police up the leftover wire. One scored me about three hundred yards of 50-pair cable (in 20 to 50 foot lengths.) The other provided two full coils of twisted pair #24 wire, less a couple of feet off each coil. In both cases, permission was readily granted - all I had to do was ask.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If dumpster diving was an Olympic sport, I'd be a medal contender. And that's with the cautions and guidelines mentioned above applied. Note that all that constitutes dumpster diving doesn't always come from an actual dumpster. And doesn't ever mean grocery or restaurant dumpsters. Eeew.
Often contractors are all too glad to see discarded materials hauled off. Others may not want the liability risk. It never hurts to ask. My RR layout room was about 90% discarded, but that was a lucky find, as it was mostly already built. I just had to move and remodel it. (Having a big ol' flatbed trailer helps)
I have a 10x20 shed, I call it my wood shop, and it is very serviceable as such. The only thing I bought for it was nails, and roll roofing. Every last stick and sheet of lumber was salvaged for free. Including a nifty clerestory with windows for light. And that was before I learned the following:
Making friends with a contractor certainly may help, but making friends with a construction cleanup contractor is a far better bet. (Ask the builders who they are) They get paid to haul it all off. They have to pay to dispose of it. How it works for me is; I have a friend named Scott in the trade. And I have enough yard space hidden from public view to let him dump his trailer loads off. He knows when he has a good load of mostly framing, or a good load of decent size sheets of wafer, siding, whatever. Some loads are all little scraps of junk, so he doesn't call me. But when he has a load that has a good deal of salvagable material, he calls and lets me know what it is, and asks if I want it.
The variables are: Sometimes I can sift through and take what I want. Other times I have to take the whole load. (I also have friends with wood stoves who can sometimes use the fuel. I also have a large burning pit where I can burn it up, season pending.) Also the percentage amount of good stuff can vary greatly. And there can be surprises, like mentioned above, unused supplies like nails, screws, I got a full unopened roll of roof underlay felt paper.
I know this can't work for most folks, but being willing to ask and do a little work can get you some great stuff sometimes. Do keep an eye out, especially for commercial remodels. Talk to the contractors and cleanup guys. I finally gathered enough stuff, built 3 enclosed sheds, 3 lean-tos, have a decent supply of lumber stored away, and still I had to call it off.
The economy's pretty good right now in most places. They're building and remodeling. DON'T TAKE SAFETY, LEGAL, OR LIABILITY RISKS!!! If you want it, talk to people. it's out there. Dan
Keep in mind to that a lot of contractors don't care if you dumpster dive, but would never give permision, why, liability, if you do it on your own, it is all on you, if not and you get hurt and they gave permision, some or all of the liability falls on them, not fair but that is the way things work in the real world.
I got a real nice 36" x 80" door blank just by asking- well in a way. The holes for the hinges was drilled out low enough to render the door useless.
Me: Seeing your tossing that door could I have it?
Foreman: I can't give you permission but,what you do after I walk off is entirely up to you.Wink.To the forklift driver,(name) do me a favor,place that door on the corner of the dumpster.
As soon as the foreman turned and started walking away the driver drove to my pickup and placed the door in the bed of my pickup waved and drove off.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
rrebelldumpster dive,
Russell
Hmm thread has me wondering if I can get my wife to drive me down to the house next week when the bathroom remodel starts.
Joe Staten Island West
I tried dumpster diving around my neighborhood. Sometimes I'll find some good wood or a door but nothing to work with. You might get lucky with bulk clean up twice a year.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
Ooh, good idea - I can expand my layout space if I do the bathroom/bedroom remodel I want to do, which brings the laundry room upstairs. Plus all the leftover wood I can scrounge....
Bonus it keeps the other half happy to not have to go downstairs to do laundry AND adds a huge walk-in closet.
I have the basic workings of a track plan that will fit in the available space but perhaps I should just wait and work on something that uses all of the space. Still can't go continuous around the walls though as there is the door from the garage and the door off the basement to outside, which is the primary way in and out (never use the real front door of the house). So lift ups and so forth would not be acceptable. Guess I'll just stick to what I have.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I built the small work bench I use for My RR from dumpster scrap. Also, I found, in a dumpster, a great piece of plate glass, about 30"x18" that I use on my work bench. It probably was a glass insert from an old coffee table. Works great for building structures, gluing pieces together that have to lay on a flat surface, so that the glue doesn't stick to that surface. It also works well for flattening out wooden pieces of structures that have been painted, so that they don't warp, just place the pieces under it.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
rrinker Ooh, good idea - I can expand my layout space if I do the bathroom/bedroom remodel I want to do, which brings the laundry room upstairs. Plus all the leftover wood I can scrounge.... Bonus it keeps the other half happy to not have to go downstairs to do laundry AND adds a huge walk-in closet. I have the basic workings of a track plan that will fit in the available space but perhaps I should just wait and work on something that uses all of the space. Still can't go continuous around the walls though as there is the door from the garage and the door off the basement to outside, which is the primary way in and out (never use the real front door of the house). So lift ups and so forth would not be acceptable. Guess I'll just stick to what I have. --Randy
Randy:
Like you I have a track plan in mind but am waiting for the space to be finalized. Meanwhile I study and read up on industries that I want to add to the SIW.
Also like you I am moving the laundry upstairs to make my other half happy it will be just off the new bathroom.
Sounds like my plan. I have 2 bathrooms upstairs, one in the hall and one in the 'master' bedroom, which is actually the smallest of the 4 bedrooms. The bathroom in the master is behind the hall bathroom and adjoins the wall of the other bedroom on that side of the house. So my idea was to knock through that wall and make what is now the bathroom a walk-thru closet and turn the master bedroom into a nice bathroo - but it wouldn;t need all that space, or the second door. So walling that off as a narrow strip from the door to the back wall would make a perfect space for a laundry. There's a half bath in the basement so I can stay down there all day. It's in the plan for someday, and since it would still be a 3 bedroom house, I don't think it will hurt resale. I don't plan on moving anyway. It might open a few possibilities with the layout, but because of the way things are arranged down there, the former laundry space would probbaly be better served as workshop and crew lounge, so I am going to just keep plugging away on my track plan with things as they are. If I wait til I do the remodeling, I'll never get a layout built.
When I was in college years back and building a layout in my garage, I had a lot less funds available to build a layout with and found many construction sites threw out a lot of wood scraps I was able to make good use of.
FYI, in the environmental engineering world, a "dumpster dive" was the slang for a "Waste Stream Characterization". The firm I worked for had to do one of those at Fort Mead in Maryland - they provided a large airplane hanger type building for us to collect various waste samples from around the base, and sort them to classify the waste stream by types of waste. Some of the waste was rather interesting like the stuff medics used to train field medicine - fake blood and bandages and the like, to base housing waste, including whole credit cards etc. Holy identity theft risk Batman!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Dave
You are correct we in teh industry throw away a LOT of stuff. On my site we are "pulling" on avreage one thirty yard dumpster a day that goes to a place that recycles some of it.
I have built a a 16'x12' shed with a porch from the scraps that had hardiplank siding, twenty five year shingles, 3/4 plywood everywhere including teh roof, Azek trim....Cost to me $400 for the stuff we dont use. I finished an entire 1500sq.ft basement that included full bath with tile, Kohler fixtures, marble at the entrance, granite wet bar, recess lights, insulate the ceiling and walls for sound, 3 piece crown, 2 piece chair rail, three color paint scheme, surround soun with 50"flat screen tv......for a fraction of the cost it would have cost me if I didnt dumpster dive.
Coupel of tips - FIRST ASK permission before you go in
second - Be CAREFULL lots of sharp objects in the dumpster
Third - if you throw something out and decide you dont want it throw it back in.
Fourth - Go in on a saturday or Sunday when the site is not busy and you will not delay other workers
Have a second person with you JUST in case you get stuck or hurt and cannot get out.
Happy hunting
YGW