As we reach the rafters of the homemade storage building, we're using primarily scavenged lumber and are discovering that it has its pros and cons.

On the pro side, that old wood is hard --- Mark screws straight into storebought lumber as if it's balsa wood, but our scavenged boards require pilot holes.  The scavenged lumber also comes in much thicker sections --- no 1.5 inch lumber here.  From a very project-specific standpoint, the scavenged wood makes awesome rafters because it's already cut to the length of the tin (that we plan to reuse) and has a handy notch in just the right place.

On the other hand, scavenged lumber isn't quite so modular as those regular 2X4s.  We've had to add a spacer here and there since some rafters are thicker than others.  Furthermore, the brackets that Mark found in the barn to secure the non-notched ends of the rafters to the header would have fit 2X4s but not our old rafters.  Luckily, Mark was able to cut the brackets in half and they worked just fine.

Of course, you all know my main motivation in using scavenged lumber --- price.  It's hard to beat free, especially since it doesn't take any longer to tear the boards out of the old building than it would take to drive to the nearest big box store.  You sure do buy less when you live in the middle of nowhere.

This post is part of our Building a Storage Building from Scratch series.  Read all of the entries: Part 1: Foundation Foundation leveling Laying the groundwork Cedar post foundation experiment Foundation progress How long will a cedar post last? Cedar post foundation update Part 2: Floor Floor joists Home made storage building floor Part 3: Walls and scavenging lumber Homemade storage building window wall Raising the first two walls Raising another wall Scavenging lumber 01-01-10 level Nail deletion on scavenged lumber Snags in the building process Measuring diagonals Another wall section Miter saw measurements Part 4: Adding the loft A second chance at floor building Loft walls Last loft wall Chipmunk builders in love video Part 5: The roof Adding a header Roof rafters Advantages and disadvantages of scavenging lumber Modified bracket closeup Roofmate Homemade storage building tin roof What I learned on the roof Summing it up: Intentionally underbuilding How much does it cost to make a storage building?

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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