It's funny how long it can take for us to recognize the obvious low cost building techniques. The sort that any self respecting castaway wouldn't miss for a minute. We see expensive, house building materials (including uber-expensive timber flooring) arrive at site on wood pallets. The pallets then lay around for a while, are left by the side of the road, or crushed. Hello!
Well, plenty of people have used discarded wood pallets for all sorts of things (
fences,
sheds, bed bases, compost bins, etc.), and "scrounging" is an age old technology.
Pallet bigfoot fence
Pallet chicken coop
...and pallet shed.
As a low cost building material for low cost houses, they have been somewhat neglected. Well, finally someone is trying to make use of these wasted pallets (and make money) on an industrial scale. The website www.palletflooring.com wasn't up when I checked, but I did find what looks like a
nerdy corporate Powerpoint presentation detailing their process. Here's a pic of what the finished product looks like:
Nice!
For a great step-by-step guide to removing pallet wood for reuse yourself, see the tutorial
here. (We would've thought punching the nails in would save time (and wood) - but hey.
If anyone has any tips for planing, staining and laying pallet wood floors, perfect for an eco, low cost home approach - we'd love to hear them!
Pallet bigfoot fence
Pallet chicken coop
...and pallet shed.
