Wood Sources

[Empressnightshade]

Well, I picked up my first door from craigslist about 30 minutes ago. I loved how it looked from the front, but got a HUGE surprise when I saw the back -- half is painted a bright yellowish green, the other half a putrid green and the top painted white.....PERFECT for our klown klinic! Here's a pic of it from the front:



With the two doors I had from last season, that makes a total of three. Only nine more to go~

[Frighteners Entertainment]

You know what, I had forgotten that you could stop by your Apt. complexes.
5-6 years ago I picked up 30 + doors.

[dshaunt]

wood

try this... drive behind a best buy, hhgreg, or circut city..and you might find full sheets of osb that they just throw away..... they use them to load appliances, and after that have no use..... thats what a buddy of mine did to get all wood walls for his haunt
good luck

[Kevin Dells]

Empress,
If you have any countryside in your area i would say hit the farmers up.

I had found a two story barn a few years back that was almost to the ground, i knocked on the door and an elderly woman answered. I asked about the barn and she stated that the city was citing her for having a fallen down building on her property yet everybody that quoted her to take it down was trying to get 10,000+ to do it.
This lady was a widow, she had very limited funds and we said we would remove it in trade for the wood.DONE! we completley removed the barn including the huge beams,numbered a lot of the beams and rebuilt it at our haunt only slightly smaller in size, the rest of the already distressed wood we used to build special effects rooms and we still had a ton left.

We also got the tin roof already rusted and distressed as well,all free of charge just blood sweat and tears. You cant find better haunt wood pre distressed than barn wood but keep in mind you will need to fire retard it really well.

Best deal i ever made!

[Jim Warfield]

My step-son pulled up here one day with a truckload of 3/4 inch plywood pieces for me. They were from 6 to 8 feet long by 2 foot wide, YES! I can make use of them! (who couldn't?)
The computer rebuilding company he works for uses brand new 3/4 plywood to send their products back to the customer in but always have all these 2 foot wide scraps, everybody that works there has so many of these that it is like a plague so finally a truckload found it's way all the way to my house 120 miles away!
I tore down a 150 year old farmhouse just before I officially owned my house , just to be ready.
I hand-sawed off the beams with an 18inch bladed little wood saw like you might trim shrubbery with, it was work but the closest electricity was a mile away.
I worked hard, ate alot of plaster dust to free some old cut real 2 by full 4 inch beams that were maybe 14 feet long, only to find they were oak! Impervious to nails! I was told it wasn't as hard 150 years ago when they put those old cast iron square nails through it? (Cast iron nails snap and come flying back at you sometimes.)
Building materials are where you find them.

[Empressnightshade]

Building materials are where you find them.

Yes, they are, Jim...aren't they? Ya just gotta get creative and know where to find them.

I went on to Freecycle and put in a request for doors yesterday. I've gotten several responses. I also called several door installers and most have huge jobs coming up and will have doors available in the coming weeks.

I went to a construction site last weekend asking for the 2x4s they had laying around. He told me to come back today and he'd see what they had. Keeping my fingers crossed -- we start building today!

[Kevin Dells]

Jim, it's not the good old days anymore! use your battery drill and pre drill that oak before you pound the nail through it!
Another very good carpenter hint for having to drive a screw or nail through any wood is wax the tip of the nail. I buy a toilet gasket wax ring and i have a little container in my tool pouch, run the tip of the nail or screw through and it goes in much easier.

Thats Bob Vila's Tip O' the Day, Folks!