Bartering/trading for materials

[LincTex]

Since I am still recovering financially from my divorce & losing my job last year, I have become pretty creative in my ability to procure building materials without having to spend money!

One thing is for sure…… Tearing down old structures to salvage the materials is almost a wasted effort. Not just the amount of labor required to take the structure down, but to clean & remove all the nails, straighten, pound out dents, trim, etc. etc. etc. - it is all so much work.

My new monitor-style “barndominium” is a steel structure, and boy – is it a hodgepodge of different steel dimensions! I have been doing a lot of mechanic & repair work for a local company that designs & builds steel structures for commercial buildings, & I have been trading my talents for structural steel pieces!

I am also an insufferable collector of older Farmall tractors, and I have been making one good tractor (Farmall “C”) from three junk ones as a project. I just struck a deal with someone for 36 sheets of 20 foot long R-Panel in trade for that tractor!

OK, it’s been fun visiting with you all again - - Back to work!

 

[TMT Tactical]

Since I am still recovering financially from my divorce & losing my job last year, I have become pretty creative in my ability to procure building materials without having to spend money!

One thing is for sure…… Tearing down old structures to salvage the materials is almost a wasted effort. Not just the amount of labor required to take the structure down, but to clean & remove all the nails, straighten, pound out dents, trim, etc. etc. etc. - it is all so much work.

My new monitor-style “barndominium” is a steel structure, and boy – is it a hodgepodge of different steel dimensions! I have been doing a lot of mechanic & repair work for a local company that designs & builds steel structures for commercial buildings, & I have been trading my talents for structural steel pieces!

I am also an insufferable collector of older Farmall tractors, and I have been making one good tractor (Farmall “C”) from three junk ones as a project. I just struck a deal with someone for 36 sheets of 20 foot long R-Panel in trade for that tractor!

OK, it’s been fun visiting with you all again - - Back to work!

Bartering skill are and will be important skills to have and maintain. That is another area I am lacking in. Being financially challenged is an afflictions that has happen to most if not all of us at some time. I have bartered labor for cash mostly but not for other items. I just referred to it as side jobs but it is a form of barter. Now if I see something I want, then I do not have the skill set to negotiate. I should get out more and practice my bartering skills. Keep up the good work LincTex and you will be back on top again.

 

[Amish Heart]

I love bartering items. I always come back from our farm with eggs and fresh raw milk. I have bartered canned food, a ham, dehydrated marshmallows, alive baby silkies for milk and eggs.

 

[LincTex]

My goal has always been to try to build this house debt-free. I know the finishing of the interior is going to eat some money, but so far I’ve done really well looking for (& finding) really good deals.

 

[TMT Tactical]

My goal has always been to try to build this house debt-free. I know the finishing of the interior is going to eat some money, but so far I’ve done really well looking for (& finding) really good deals.

Get it done the way YOU want to get it done. The only right way is the way that works for you.

 

[The Lazy L]

… Tearing down old structures to salvage the materials is almost a wasted effort. Not just the amount of labor required to take the structure down, but to clean & remove all the nails, straighten, pound out dents, trim, etc. etc. etc. - it is all so much work...

I agree!

Dad had a 40 foot x 100' cement block building with wood rafters. When I was 10 a tornado relocated Dad's building to the other side of the property. Grandpa and Uncles helped Dad drag lumber and carry blocks out of the debris. I was assigned the job of pulling the nails out of the salvaged lumber. Dad had a fit when he learned I was throwing the pulled nails on the ground. He had me pick them all up and put them in a tin coffee can. Took me forever but I did it. Then he put me on the task of chiseling of the mortar from the cement blocks. I had no idea what he had planed (Dad had a "watch and learn" instead of a "ask questions" mentality). I got the blocks done and I thought back to my playing. Nope. He had be straighten ever last one of those bent nails in that coffee can! If I had known that I'd might have been more careful when I had pulled them! Dad used the salaved materials to rebuild a 40 foot x 30 foot building that only cost family labor.

To this day I'm careful when I pull a nail and I'm known to straight it and reuse it. That penny saved here and there adds up quickly. Thank you Dad for the leason (or he was just cheap?).