Recycled Respites

Here on RR, we talk a LOT about using “found” materials.

This leads to an email folder full of hate mail from irate housing pros (who also whine that we’re “UnAmerican” for “stealing jobs from them”), who claim that we’re teaching you to use garbage to build structure.

Bull. We’ve NEVER advised anyone to use “junk” to build with. We don’t teach people to build “hovels”. We teach them to build, strong,  sustainable, AFFORDABLE homes.

What we HAVE advised you to do is to find innovative ways to use materials (within specification and purpose, of course) to lower your building or even (gasp!) furnishing costs.

These same guys will tell you that you can’t really build “anything” for under $150 a square foot.

We usually suggest that they double up on their meds and read more. Maybe they’ll learn something.

Do we collect and use materials like “scrap” rigid insulation in our builds? You bet.

“Rigid” performs extremely well. You can find it in dumpsters at commercial build sites all the time. Ask a contractor or “yard  boss” and they may just let you haul it off. It gets that bulky stuff out of their dumpster so that they have room for more garbage. We see it on Craigslist and Freecycle, all the time. Is using it “labor intensive”? YES. You take large, cast off scrap pieces of foam and then piece them together like a jigsaw puzzle. It takes some forethought to get it right.  But, it costs you SWEAT instead of cash. The benefit is that you get a high performance insulation package out of the deal.

But you can find gems in (actually UNDER) the stuff that gets delivered to your building site as well;

This is a bed that you could build in a few hours, tops.

Some thoughts;

1. Sand the pallets (edges) to make them less prone to snagging your sheets or shins.
2. Nail pallets together to keep them from moving once you’ve established your “pattern”.
3. Use recycled LED Christmas Tree lights to illuminate under the bed. Low power and low heat.
4. Remember that beds aren’t just for “sleeping”. If you’re in a relationship (or you are building this for a child)  consider putting a box springs under the mattress, to help “fortify” the bed system.

And then, have fun with it. While your neighbors are spending boatloads on high priced furnishings, you’ll have cash left over for “family nights”. 🙂