'supporting each other through really tough times'

GreyQueen

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Hope you find a treasure at the reclaimation yard GQ and even more than that I hope you find one the right size to get on the bike!!! Enjoy the day, enjoy the sunshine, enjoy life for a while!!! Cheers Lyn xxx.

I treated myself to an 8 foot long fencepost which I walked across town balanced on a bike. As is always the way when I'm doing summat slightly-odd, I bumped into several people I knew as I was doing it.:rotfl:

I have a pricelist from the rec yard but he's old school and measures in the sizes in inches (and the lengths in meters) and I've learned the hard way that the timber merchant sells in metric, so I measured thus. Will now have to convert back to work out how much of which size I need.

I have sent the wants list to Mum via email and she plans to scour the woodshed to see if we have aught to match before I go shopping. In an ideal world, I'd fix this shed using all stuff from skips etc but I don't have unlimited time to scour the streets for salvage so will be looking at buying some stuff.

It's unplaned stuff and pretty cheap, under 30p a meter for some stuff.

Tried and failed to find a chest of gold doubloons on the lottie but here is today's tally; most of a paving slab, half a dozen rusty nails, a chicken pellet feed bag, binder twine bogies, many many sherds of window glass, broken plastic flowerposts, flakes of plastic from disintegrated poly bags, empty snail shells, the cut glass knob off some kind of fancy glassware (incompete), many worms, bindweed roots, some centipedes and fragments of rotted timber. Rusty lumps of gawdknowswhat which may have fallen off a tractor yonks ago.

Oh, and a bit of chickenwire. Not the big buried bit I already knew about and haven't had the strength to dig out, but a much smaller buried bit I managed to excavate.

The most exciting finds (yawn) were some more clay pipe fragments and some early Neo flint scrapers.

Duty calls. Either that or I need to get the tea on. Where oh where is that chef?!

kidcat

GQ - you have inspired me, I have found a local reclamation yard and am taking a trip on Monday looking for stuff for the garden refurb - hoping for some stepping stone type things and maybe something I can use for decking

GreyQueen

kidcat wrote: »

GQ - you have inspired me, I have found a local reclamation yard and am taking a trip on Monday looking for stuff for the garden refurb - hoping for some stepping stone type things and maybe something I can use for decking

Trust me, it'll soon be your favouritist kind of shopping venue. Take the big car.

Mine sells railway sleepers. Being as they were originally pickled in creosote, might they be suitable to form the base of an area of decking? As in being impervious to rot?

Rellies who are landscape gardeners tell me that railway sleepers are fine for this kind of use but shouldn't be used to edge veggie plots due to contamination of the soil and thence your grub.

These places have a wonderful and constantly-changing array of stock, so bear with frequent visiting. You also meet the most fascinating customers; was talking to a bloke this morn who builds houses to fit around the reclaimed materials, not the other way around.

Have decided to wander offline for the night as back hurts and I want to lay on the sofa reading. Or on some of the sofa and those blasted fish (carp ) have taken over the rest of it.

Have a good evening, peeps. GQ xx

kidcat

GQ - that was my sort of plan to use railway sleepers the patch of garden is sloping so I will need it to be sturdy and part will be raised so the sleepers would be ideal. I am so excited I have always wanted to go visit but the only time I ever saw a place it was on my way to a family funeral so I wasnt really appropriately dressed.

nuatha

kidcat wrote: »

GQ - that was my sort of plan to use railway sleepers the patch of garden is sloping so I will need it to be sturdy and part will be raised so the sleepers would be ideal. I am so excited I have always wanted to go visit but the only time I ever saw a place it was on my way to a family funeral so I wasnt really appropriately dressed.

A local yard does green oak sleepers for a very similar price to proper reclaimed creosoted sleepers. Advance warning, they are heavy, ask if they offer a cutting and delivery service.
Our decking was salvaged by Herself's Dad, (Why do people change decking after 2 years?) He spotted it going into a skip, knocked on the door and voila we had all the decking we needed - I think we bought two joists.

Enjoy

kidcat

ooh nuatha - silly question I am sure but what is the difference between the green oak and the others.

nuatha

kidcat wrote: »

ooh nuatha - silly question I am sure but what is the difference between the green oak and the others.

There are no silly questions, generally sleepers will be hardwood or softwood. Hardwood is likely to be oak, though can be more exotic timbers depending on where in the world they've come from. Softwood needs to be treated before its used outside - its likely to be already tanalised, a copper based preservative is pressure injected into the timber. Used sleepers are likely to be creosoted.

Green oak is fresh cut oak rather than seasoned timber - seasoning thick cut oak takes either years to air dry or months in a heated kiln, both add significantly to the cost of the timber. Green oak is significantly heavier (70lbs per cubic foot) than seasoned (approx 45lbs per cubic foot). It starts off a golden brown and gradually turns silver grey. It will shrink and crack as it dries, but generally there isn't major movement and it stabilises fairly quickly. To me the major advantage is no chemical treatment is used or needed and they should have a life in excess of 25 years.
If you use creosoted sleepers try to avoid regular skin contact and don't use where young children will climb on them or where you are growing edibles.

HTH

kidcat

Thanks Nuatha - that really helps, no creosoted sleepers for me, not with DS9 its just not going to work

nuatha

kidcat wrote: »

Thanks Nuatha - that really helps, no creosoted sleepers for me, not with DS9 its just not going to work

You're welcome.
I'd always assumed that my Dad wouldn't have creosoted timber because it would ruin my clothes when I climbed on them*, I learned later that it was concerns over the creosote being poisonous.

*And climb on them I would, regardless of what I'd been told - I used to get told not to climb the haystacks as well

[Deleted User]

GQ well found with the fence post, if anyone had asked me what I was going to do with it whilst it was being transported on the bike I'd have said I was going to take up JOUSTING!!!!! They'd probably have believed it too, so you're not the only crazy here!!!!!

KIDCAT we used green oak sleepers from the reclaimation yard to go round our garden pond (It's built in a raised bed) and they have weathered down to the most beautiful silvery grey. We made the pond surround about 5 years ago and they just get more gorgeous every year. They have cracked in some places and also we have some sort of bracket fungus in a few of them but, they give us a lovely place to perch to have a cuppa and make the pond beautiful to look at too. Worth every penny. Will see if He Who Knows can take a photo and post it so you can see the colour, Cheers Lyn xxx.