It’s been a year since I’ve scrounged anything good from the woods. Then it was the foundling end table (which got improved and which Commentariat member Pat eventually dubbed “Doorway to the Sun”).
This afternoon I brought home a small heap of equally unprepossessing but potentially useful stuff I found in a newly dumped trash heap. To wit:
This is tongue-and-groove beadboard from somebody’s old house. Depression-era, I’m guessing. Probably wainscotting from a kitchen or bathroom judging by the bits of ancient wallpaper clinging to it. This small amount isn’t enough for anything by itself, but I’ve got this ceiling project …
Last summer (you may recall all too personally, given that y’all were so involved), part of my roof collapsed. The fix involved cutting away large chunks of a beadboard ceiling. Which was bad because it was a lovely old ceiling. But which was good because working from inside made the roof fix relatively inexpensive. And which was also good because it gave me the opportunity to convert a formerly flat ceiling to a vaulted (well, slightly vaulted) one.
I just didn’t have enough interesting material to cover it. Could have drywalled it. But meh. And there was still a lot of beadboard left after the teardown, even if not enough beadboard.
Right now that ceiling is just bare rafters with insulation. Eventually I’ll turn it into a patchwork of the old beadboard, modern tongue-and-groove 1x6s, trim, and whatever the heck else might fit up there. The beadboard I picked up this afternoon is a different design than what I’ve already got and will enhance the patchwork effect. Remarkably, the tongues and grooves of all the different materials I’ve assembled fit together, too. Well, mostly. They will fit whether they want to or not. 🙂
There’s probably more beadboard in the heap of construction rubble. I’ll go back and look later.
It infuriates that people dump construction leftovers in the woods. Aside from the blight on the landscape, the heaps are always full of rusty nails, sharp metal edges, and broken glass. I wonder if the creeps who use the forest as their personal landfill ever give a second’s thought to the excruciating death some animal might suffer, getting an infected wound from all those spiky protrusions.
The rubble heap this beadboard came from could have been left at the real landfill for about $7.50. But noooooo. Some cretin couldn’t be bothered.
If I ran the world, people who dumped dangerous junk in the woods would have to pick it up with their teeth. Serve ’em right. Still, for scroungers, there’s occasional gold in the rubble.
Sometimes, when someone dumps like this, you can find a piece of their old junk mail in the mess, and get their address from it. I did this once when somebody dumped on my property (and had been doing it for a while). Had to pick through stuff like baby diapers to find it! I gave it to a county cop (rural area, where they at least care) and he must have read the guy the riot act, because the place was all cleaned up next time I got out there. I had visited his house myself but he was not around at the time. He lived just a mile from my place. I too get feelings of rage when this happens. When Sartre said “Hell is other people”, he was probably thinking of midnight dumpers.
Amen. I always look for envelopes, magazines with labels, etc. in these junk heaps. Mostly the dump sites I find are construction leftovers rather than household garbage, so no real luck with that search. If I did find something, though, I’d probably take it to whatever timber company owned the land. They hate dumpers, of course. Unfortunately their main response has been to gradually close their lands to the public. Which is just sad.
“The rubble heap this beadboard came from could have been left at the real landfill for about $7.50.”
They could have even taken it to a Habitat For Humanity Re-store for free. It’s like Goodwill for building materials.
I remember when some friends and I were playing in a park, way off the trails of course. I was hiding behind a large bush, and it occured to me that the leaves were wrong, they usually belonged to a vine, not a bush. Then I realized that the “bushes”, that one and several others, were actually rolls of barbed wire, each one 5 feet or more in diameter. For some reason, that was more unsettling than the broken washing machine in the gully.
Ellendra, I had never heard of Habitat for Humanity’s “ReStore”. Turns out there’s one less than a mile from my house. I’m definitely going to check it out. Thanks for the tip.
Claire
When we re-did our home that was originally done with 1×4 bead board (ceilings and walls), we wanted to replace it with the same. – small problem $$$$$$
I found some 4x8ft sheets of plywood that looks like bead board. Think we ended up using Georgia-Pacific – http://www.buildgp.com/DocumentViewer.aspx?elementid=4474 – however there are lots of companies do this kind of stuff –
We saved $8,000 on our place playwood vs boards – and remember this is only a 1010 SqFt place.
PS – Google plywood bead board
Ellendra — Love the idea of a ReStore (and Laird, how cool that you have one). No such thing here. My guess is that even if there were, the kind of jerk who leaves construction rubble in the woods to avoid paying a few bucks in landfill fees would also be very unlikely to separate the useful and donateable (e.g. beadboard) from the useless crap that dominates forest rubble heaps (e.g. broken scraps of drywall, water-damaged carpet, rotted studs and paneling, etc.).
Kid…we found ya name on a envelope at the bottom’a half a tonna garbage…
Michael — Thanks for the tip!
In my case, the actual beadboard is better since I can put it up myself but would have to hire help to put large sheets (drywall or plywood) on the ceiling. Yeah, if I had to buy beadboard … no way! It would definitely be out of the question. But I’ve got almost enough materials now, nearly all either salvaged or scrounged.
Might be good to know about that plywood if there are still a few small gaps to fill, though.
Maybe you can put a large border around the outside, of 1×6 material, or something along those lines, to make “almost enough” of your beadboard into “enough”? Just a guess; I am pretty clueless when it comes to looks and appearance in construction work.