Building with Secondhand Stuff

Book excerpt: “A practical guide to choosing, salvaging, refreshing and reusing materials such as wood, metal, stone and glass.” —The Chicago Tribune Anytime you’re checking out Craigslist, cleaning the basement, or patrolling the springtime garage sales, you’ll encounter opportunities to collect and reclaim usable building materials. If you exercise good judgement and know a few salvage tricks, you can take advantage of these chances to obtain free (or nearly free) project supplies and put them to work in your house. When you build with secondhand stuff, you’ll save money and reduce pressure on your local landfill. You’ll also help curb the consumption of brand-new materials that need to be manufactured from raw resources and shipped across the country or around the world. But perhaps best of all, when you use salvaged materials to build your home projects, you’ll get unique results and original outcomes that satisfy you in a way that new stuff just can’t. Building with Secondhand Stuff is about making good decisions and learning specific techniques for getting unusable material into useful condition. It covers wood, glass, metal, windows, plumbing fixtures, hardware, and much more. Practically any material can be reclaimed using the tools and techniques you’ll learn in this helpful book, and all for a fraction of the cost of buying new materials at a building center. Praise for Building with Secondhand Stuff “How can you get a new look—or a new shed, garage, outbuilding or playhouse for the kids—for cheap or for free? Start with the ideas in Building with Secondhand Stuff. If you’re looking for something old to lend a new look, then look here first.” —Georgia Times Union