Antique, reclaimed wood – for free!

Over the past few days Bre and I have been busy.  Not working on the land directly – that part is still in the hands of our contractors.  The slab site prep has been done and is ready to be poured.  The plumber will be out next week to complete his work.  Our recent work has been indirectly related to the homestead, and it will pay massive dividends in the future.  

Someone had made a simple post on Craigslist offering “free wood” that was said to be over 100,000+ board feet and over 130 years old with timbers and boards of miscellaneous widths and thicknesses.  Naturally, I was intrigued.  Over the course of several emails to figure out when and how we should plan our trip, I was informed by the poster that this lumber was from an old grain elevator that had collapsed.  Our research on the grain elevator indicated that the first carload of grain was loaded on October 3rd, 1887.  My mind soared with the possibilities.  We could get enough timbers to build our timber frame barn, for free.  Or, we could get enough 1x material to make into our shiplap wall framing for the cabin, for free.  The shiplap boards we’ve already priced out at $5,000, so that’s a significant savings.  The timbers….that could be $10-20,000 depending on the source and if I do the cutting.  Needless to say, the opportunity presented here was incredible.

We drove out and picked up our car trailer as we anticipated a huge haul the first day.  When we arrived at the location, we were astonished at the magnitude of which we were about to embark.  Piles upon piles of lumber existed – dimensional lumber, beams, boards, and everything in between.  Unfortunately, it seemed that we would be unable to use a lot of it.  The lumber had been sitting out and exposed to the elements.  Everything on the ground had begun to rot.  There was so much to go through, we were overwhelmed by the whole process.  It took us a few hours to even identify lumber that would be worth trying to salvage.

That first day we came back with about 20 2×12’s at 12 feet long as well as a few 1x boards.  I was a bit disappointed as my massive dreams of free barn timbers and shiplap for the cabin were crushed.  I did the math, and based on our square footage we would need about 400 1×8’s at 8 feet long to provide enough lumber for all of our shiplap needs.  I think we ended up with 5.  Now, there was a LOT of lumber, but a lot of it didn’t seem to be worth the effort to try to salvage.  Granted, it was free – but still.  I was just disappointed that my dreams were not met.  We did, however, manage to dig out and salvage a 10×10 about 12 feet long that had the original mortises from the timber frame grain elevator.

Today we went out for our second trip.  Before we left last time we had identified a specific pile that we should focus our attention on.  Unfortunately for us, it was raining all day today.  At least, we thought that it was unfortunate.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the rain showed the immaculate grain and figure on this 130 year old lumber that we had dismissed the last time we were out there.  Now, we couldn’t pass a board without taking it.  In half as much time we ended up with twice as much lumber.  Today we salvaged around 20 3×5 joists as well as 20-30 1x boards of miscellaneous sizes.  *We (actually just Bre) also found two slabs, 4 inches thick and about 18 inches wide.  Side note: Bre is some kind of treasure hunting savant when it comes to digging through piles of lumber.  Seriously, she has found pretty much everything of value.

Also, we were surprised to find out that pretty much everything there and everything that we salvaged is littered with nails.  Normally, this would be an unfortunate situation.  In this circumstance, however, I was pleased.  The reason for this is because the nails were cut nails.  Cut nails help to indicate and validate the poster’s claim on the date of the lumber.  Furthermore, I have plans of making cut nail damascus knives, and I think that will be pretty awesome.  Also, due to the age of the lumber, it stands to reason that a lot of it could be American Chestnut, which is now an extinct species of lumber.

\

We also ended up finding a multitude of vintage sprinkler heads, industrial light fixtures, vintage pulleys and giant pieces of iron for blacksmithing materials.  We have grand plans to incorporate these materials in the future.  We are planning on going out again tomorrow, and we’ve identified a few more hidden beams and more beautiful timbers and boards to salvage.  I’ll do an update post to highlight some of the pieces we end up with!

Leave a Reply