Getting Salvaged Materials

There are so many ways to get salvaged materials. First tho, let me define what salvaged materials are:

1. About to be trashed, discarded materials.
2. Returned items, 50% off store discards.
3. Hospice and charity second-hand stores.
4. Used or un-wanted building materials.
5. Scrap piles, de-construction sites.
6. Various construction/renovation projects' discards
7. Friends+
8. Nature's bounty?


I have a whole network of stores and places I stop by for each of these. My most used sources are Urban Ore in Berkeley and multiple ReStore locations from Habitat for Humanity. There are two ReStores that I used for a LOT of WinSol3's materials: the El Dorado County one in Placerville, now relocated to El Dorado city; and the Sacramento Army Depot one = mainly for 95% of the tiles at WinSol3.

WinSol3's 80%+ salvaged accounting

How do I arrive at the 80% + Salvaged material? I calculated that backwards. The only construction materials that I bought brand new were:
a. Steel Roofing
b. 2x8 Roof Rafters
c. Roofing membrane + insulation
d. Floor joists
e. Decking 2x6
f. All concrete + cement
g. plumbing pipe + fittings

That's it! All the windows, rocks, support posts, tiles, fasteners, plywood sub flooring, etc. were salvaged.

I have the luxury of time, and the pressure of limited funds that motivate me to use salvaged material. I know that not everyone can do this, and that is the BIG limiting factor in using salvaged materials = time.


Here's an example of how I get salvaged materials:

The other day, as I was working on finishing the mudroom, I decided I will need more drywall to finish the walls.

When I went to the Home Depot the next day (I always check the scrap pile there) because that lumber manager offers it to the public for 50c – to $2 per piece), there was a whole cart filled with 3’x4’ 1/2" drywall pieces. I wasn’t sure if it was for sale. After a while I found the clerk in charge of that area and sure enough they were about to trash all 16 drywall pieces! So I took 8 pieces for 50c each. I was tempted to take the rest, but 8 pieces was more than I needed for finishing the mudroom walls (and more importantly, I didn't need more 'stuff' to store)

This is just one example of hundred's of such purchases of salvaged material.