Foraging for materials

Earlier this week we picked up a 1984 Dodge 150 pickup truck (pictures to come) for $700. So far it has proved to be an oldy but a goody and has allowed us to begin looking for materials. It drives like a tank and is slow to do everything, starting, acceleration, braking, but feels solid and has already nearly hauled it's purchase price in salvaged lumber.

We have only been dumpster diving at construction sites for a few days but have already learned a few interesting things. To begin with it seems that 2x4" is pretty expendable at large work sites. We filled up the back of the truck with 2x4" after searching at only two sites. There are lots of short cuts, as could be expected, but oddly enough some 6' or longer pieces can be found as well. I actually found one 24' board. It also seems that asking permission to do this puts the project manager in a sticky insurance position. If they were to give a salvager permission they would become technically liable for any injuries which that person sustained while on the construction site. It felt like the various project managers who I spoke with were saying "don't ask permission" so at the next site we checked I just jumped right into the dumpster. I found that all of the people we encountered working at the site were either indifferent to our presence or offered help by pointing out where some particularly good pieces were at. On a return trip to the same site I found a neatly parceled bunch of treated 1"x2"x6' boards at one end of the dumpster. It kind of felt like someone had left them there for easy access.

I began downloading yurt foundation and deck plans last night. There is a nice assortment of free plans on various prefab yurt websites. The sets from Colorado yurt company look very detailed. The Rainier plans seem very user friendly. I think that this needs to be the next serious research portion of the project. We are planning to order a couple of yurt building books from Amazon.com and are hoping to find some useful info there as well.

Tonight I have been putting together some drawings of a few wood building warm up projects. I learned my lesson after carting around a 24' salvaged piece of lumber today. I tried to pull in at the University parking garage only to discover that the board wouldn't pass the 8' clearance. We need a ladder rack for the truck but I refuse to spend several hundred dollars on one. After looking at some of the designs online I was able to modify a removable wooden ladder rack plan to serve our purposes. It will be using a tongue and groove design to allow for relatively quick release of the horizontal beams and the vertical supports will attach to 2x2" posts that will slide down into the sides of the truck bed. I also modified some sawhorse plans to make a 3pc sawhorse that can be broken down easily and only requires 2x4" and nails or screws.

Almost forgot to mention that we found some yurt builders who have been using the recycled vinyl from billboard signs as an exterior waterproof layer. The stuff is super cheap and seems to hold up well. We also discovered that recycled concrete blankets can be a cheap insulation material.