![]() ![]() Exterior appearance can be deceptive and dry rot may lurk within. ![]() (Even broken lengths, though, can generally be put to some use.)īefore you offer - or agree to - a lump sum, test several staves for solidity with a hunting knife. The latter approach may be to your advantage, because the bottom two feet of the old vertical storage units are often rotten and worthless and - in any case - a few staves will probably break when the structure hits the ground. Once you’ve tracked down a likely silo, you can either make its owner a flat offer or suggest a price per usable salvaged foot of lumber. In this neck of the woods you can generally find such a deal by advertising in the local paper or inquiring of neighbors. Consequently, many of the smaller wooden silos have fallen into disuse and are available for salvage. During the 1950’s farmers began to buy concrete silos, and more recently they’ve taken to storing feed in huge metal tanks. but here in upstate New York, anyway, that’s not at all the case. You might expect such a rich source of lumber to be expensive and hard to come by. The segments of roofing are trapezoidal and make very effective wainscoting when alternately reversed to form rectangles. which will yield another 200 or so board feet of 5/8-inch-thick planks. The silo, incidentally, may also have a wooden roof. Silo lumber is currently serving as roof, floor, and walls of my house, and each rafter of my 16 foot by 32 foot tool and animal shed is made of two staves spiked together. Nicer still, the wood - often fir or pine - is multi-purpose. The salvaged boards may vary in length from 4 to 20 feet - depending on the construction of the particular silo - with 8-and 16-footers very common. which breaks down to approximately 1,400 to 1,900 board feet of weathered 2 by 5 tongue-and-groove lumber. It may, in other words, have a surface area of 750 to 1,000 square feet. The wood silos structure is usually 11 to 12 feet in diameter and 24 to 28 feet high. The old-time feed storage tank was (and still is) simply a large cylinder made of boards set on end, fitted together at the edges, and bound with metal hoops. Low-Cost Building With Salvaged Wood SilosĪ much better - and often overlooked - alternative (at least here in the Northeast) is to forget the barn and go for the wood silo which may be attached to it. all topped off with several trips to the dump. In fact, the ordeal may have left you wondering whether you shouldn’t have purchased rough-cut 1-inch boards from a sawmill and avoided the hassle of extensive second-story ladderwork and careful removal of nails. and, no doubt, expended a tremendous amount of energy. If you and a partner managed to get the sagging structure down to a clean foundation within a week, you made excellent time. ![]() Even post-salvage cleanup is often a major task in cases where burning isn’t feasible or a permit can’t be obtained. Have you ever tackled a salvage operation on a tumbledown barn? If so, you know only too well just how much time and work go into such an undertaking (that is, if you expect to rescue anything more than splintered kindling). Renewable Energy News, Blog, & ArticlesĪ much better - and often overlooked - alternative (at least here in the Northeast) is to forget the barn and go for the wooden silo which may be attached to it.Sustainable Living - Blog, Articles, & Tips.Natural Health - Nutrition Articles & Tips.Tools and Equipment Articles, Stories & News.Homemade Cheese Recipes: Cheese Making Articles.Sustainable Farming & Agriculture Articles.Power Equipment Articles - Lawn and Garden Equipment. ![]() Raising Ducks and Geese: Articles & Ideas.Homesteading Poultry - Chicken, Turkey, Ducks Archives. ![]()
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