1500 New Homes

davemhughes · Mar 3, 2007

I live in a area where we will be getting about 8k more active duty soldiers being re-deployed from Germany to here over the next 4 years. So we are have a huge building boom right now with housing additions going up everywhere. Outside every new home is one of the big trash containers and a big piles of dirt and limestone rock.

I stopped today and asked who I needed to talk to about getting some of that limestone/dirt/scap building material of all sorts. They are taking it to the landfill and dumping it. Many many pieces of lumber/plastic roll tubing/ sheets of OSB just being thrown away because of slight imperfections or one end is split or some other reason. They said no one can have any of it. The trash company is under contract to haul out so many containers per week and the over all gen contractor wats his money worth from them plus afraid someone would get hurt. They also said no to any dirt and rock even though they are trucking it out to be dumped in old quarry pits.

So went down to the land fill and watched as their dozer just spreads it out and runs over it and keeps piling it up. Asked them about getting some of it....you guessed it, No.

What a waste, i have not doubt there is some much usable stuff being thrown away I could easily build several small storage buildings and rock my entire 1900ft of road i have to build plus build a really nice limestone retaining walls and such with many many more uses also.

Kind of of mad at the stupidity of the waste and I do understand the liability issue but I had no idea exactly the level of waste.

cp1969 · Mar 3, 2007

It's too bad you already talked to the dump. Sometimes, the way a question is posed makes all the difference in the answer.

A question like "Do you let people salvage any of this left-over rock?" might get a whole different answer than "I'm comin' over to get some of that construction rubble. When's the best time?"

I'm not saying it works every time, but it has worked in the past.

davemhughes · Mar 3, 2007

cp1969 said:
"I'm comin' over to get some of that construction rubble. When's the best time?"

Next time I'll try that one as "any chance of getting some of your scraps?" didn't work.

plowking · Mar 3, 2007

That's happened up here as well, years ago I had a friend who drove demolishion containers.He saw cement blocks get thrown away. On some of the bigger jobs, they would throw away air compressors, tools, etc. because it would cost more to store them for another job or they wanted new tools for each job. He got enough T111 siding to finish his garage. plowking

Jstpssng · Mar 3, 2007

plowking said:
That's happened up here as well, years ago I had a friend who drove demolishion containers.He saw cement blocks get thrown away. On some of the bigger jobs, they would throw away air compressors, tools, etc. because it would cost more to store them for another job or they wanted new tools for each job. He got enough T111 siding to finish his garage. plowking

The amount of waste on any major project is scary. I guess it's just an economy of scale, but I still hate to see it.

LarryD · Mar 3, 2007

I have two friends who've both taken the max limit without permit (<500yrds

) of fill from a nearby highway project. Both times they just found the project super and asked what it would cost. Since one site was about the same distance as the pit they were dumping at, he just got charged $25 a load. The other site was right off the highway less than 2 blocks drive, that was free. "And if you spread it fast enough, I can bring more"

There is a major housing renovation going on at NAS Whidbey and they were just loading the old houses in dumpsters as fast as they could. I stopped by the site one day and asked the super if we could have some of the 4x12 beams from the carports. He said there would be some stacked the next day for one day only. So I got 5 good ones @ 22' and my friend got the same number.

I guess you have to find the right person but normally the super just wants the stuff gone. Of course his insurance would probably cancel him if they knew what was going on, really don't like non-employees getting hurt on the site.

deereguy · Mar 4, 2007

I did some "dumpster diving" at a subdivision site that backed up to our farm. I went on Sunday's and evening in the summer time. I was able to get some nice stuff (2x4's, etc, and odd pieces of OSB) but it had nails in it. I would take it home and pounded the nails out and used it to make shelves in the barn. I found out that a neighbor was doing the same thing. The only time police would say anything is if it appeared like I was adding to the dumpsters- it was tempting but never did.

davemhughes · Mar 4, 2007

Plan on asking later in the week but from someone who looks like a foreman/supervisor instead of just some guys working the site. Figure it can not hurt. I asked my neighbor about it as he works for the city inspecting the sites and he said the waste is figured in on the total cost of project and it costs more in time to correct a blemished piece of material than it does to just get a new piece and toss the other one. Maybe ask the dump drivers how much to detour a few loads of rock would be.

WayneB · Mar 4, 2007

davemhughes said:
Plan on asking later in the week but from someone who looks like a foreman/supervisor instead of just some guys working the site. Figure it can not hurt. I asked my neighbor about it as he works for the city inspecting the sites and he said the waste is figured in on the total cost of project and it costs more in time to correct a blemished piece of material than it does to just get a new piece and toss the other one. Maybe ask the dump drivers how much to detour a few loads of rock would be.

Find the right person and normally a little greese in the palm will make a major difference.

riptides · Mar 4, 2007

Couple of things:

What a waste.

Next, an enterprising soul would make a deal for the imperfect stuff and fill on these big projects. The company would reduce their dump runs, the dump would reduce their material fill and fuel times.

Also, our county actually has a sort of give-away point at our dump centers. Somewhat good ,to "I just don't need it material", end up here. Needless to say, a lot of people make a difference in this, and it doesn't turn into the landfill. Heck, I have seen people trade off their vehicles waiting in line. I say good for them.

-Mike Z.