Shocking Lumber Hack! Never Pay for Wood Again With This One Easy Trick.

Lumber in 2024 is still expensive, even if prices have come down from the highs of the past few years, and it can be hard for DIYers and other people who like to build stuff. Added to that, Lumber get's trashed every day at constructions sites all over the country. In this video I explain how you can walk away with quaility lumber for free while saving waste from going to the landfill.

#lumber #woodworking #lumberprices

Here is a list of all of the tools that I use in my projects:

Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you I may earn a commission. Know that I only recommend products and tools that I’ve personally used and/or believe are genuinely helpful, not because of the modest commission I may receive should you decide to purchase one of them. Most of all, I would never advocate for buying something that you can’t afford or do not need.

[dsbennett]

I made a business card that gives my name and phone number and says “Free Wood Scrap Removal “ I go to construction sites, ask for the boss and introduce myself and tell him to call me when he wants me to come take his scraps. I have gotten a lot of really great wood of all sizes this way, and the contractor was happy that he didn’t have to haul it to the dump.

[Paladin]

As a Builder I agree with most of what Dave has NOT go to job sites / developments on the weekend and take materials!! That's a great way to get arrested and spend your weekend in a cage w/ stupid people until the Judge can see you on Monday or Tuesday. The exception being if you've gone to the site during the week and received permission. Coming back with a trailer is a great way to cleanup on the scraps. But if you do that make sure you get a Name and phone number of the person / Foremen / Super / Builder so when the police have a talk with you, you can prove you are NOT stealing from the site. Also doing this you may score more usable lumber if the crew knows you're coming and starts a scrap pile for you. Lots of lumber that may look like "scrap" to the public can or will be used as drywall backing, fire blocking, blocking in walls for cabinets, etc. Construction theft is such a problem lots of sites have cameras. If there are any occupied homes in the development they will be watching / calling the police. Good Luck and Go For that ends up in the landfill the better.

[cab]

Ok here’s my story. One time my friend and I were driving by this combo gas station McDonald’s. We saw this crew digging out all these beautiful flowered and planting new ones. I said pull over, so my friend did and I got out and asked them why they were pulling out all the flowers to plant new flowers. They said the owners wanted a new look. I asked what they were going to do with the flowers they just pulled out, they were going to throw them in the garbage. I asked if I could have them and they said sure. So my friend and I put all of the flowers into boxes and brought them home. I planted them everywhere even some in my next door neighbors planters. She was shocked, came out of her door and did a double take to see flowers where there were none before…lol

[CherryBlawesome]

My Dad worked on a movie as a lighting guy when Paramount came to their small town. Back in the day they never cleaned up after themselves and left the sets behind. My dad built a large portion of his house out of what they left. Crazy the amount of good supplies. He saved thousands which was a blessing.

[darrylbuckett]

My son had a house built a few years back, so I got permission from the builder to sift through the skips, I got enough insulation to do my roof, Glulam beams, rebar, treated pine etc. I made my son a great coffee table, 3 jewllery boxes for the daughter in law and grand daughters and the pine went into a studio i built for the missus. Not wasting is in my DNA and goes back several generations. Cheers

[MarkCosgrove-bp]

Trespassing can get you hurt. I'm a builder 👷. Never, never, never just help yourself. And always better to ask in the morning.

[battalionR]

I was driving by a Taco Hell that was being built in the winter and noticed that the wall was enclosed with reinforced visqueen to run space heaters. This keeps the mortar from freezing. Anyhow, I had decided to build a greenhouse and had already sourced some 2" gasline from leftovers on a different jobsite. I asked and those guys said they had just hauled a huge load off, but I could have all the new cutoffs.
Anyhow, back to the visqueen. I asked the job supervisor what they did with the stuff when they were done. He said it went into the dumpster, and he'd take my number and call me when they were done. Cool! A week or so later he called. So, I swung by. He had the visqueen all folded up nice and neat. I put it in my car. I thanked him and he said, "Oh, we're not done yet." He walked around the corner and returned with a good sized box. It was more plastic, still in the box. I asked him if they could use it on his next job. He said it was part of the bid on this job, and they couldn't use it elsewhere. It had to go in my trunk or the dumpster. I thanked him again and drove off with a whole lot of expensive ($300.00 for that box) plastic. My greenhouse came out to 14'x20'. I had enough plastic to cover it 3x over. I spent $12.00 on nuts and bolts to build it. It was great going in there on a sunny day in January, where the wind chill outside was just above 0°f, and I was in a t-shirt sweating as I pulled weeds.

[pygar]

I'm a commercial construction inspector (one of the guys in a white hard hat carrying around a clipboard). My job is to make sure the contractors are building to plans and specifications. My current job has 3 30 yard dumpsters that get emptied every other day. Anything that goes into the dumpster is free game. The number of 10 foot 2 by 4's that have been tossed is amazing. There were a number of triple pane, tempered glass, tinted and reflective windows that went into the dumpster. I got 1, and am going to build a side table with it.

[timetraveler]

I’m a developer and have built 124 houses all with wood taken from job sites. It has helped me tremendously to maximize my profits.

[Papalegba]

I'm an Electrician for 12 yrs now and I definitely come home with awesome cutoffs and even full length boards. I always ask my project manager on site for permission, but I have acquired 1000's of dollars in good usable building materials over the years. It's especially good when we are on some bigger money longer projects (1 or 2 years) those yield the best.
Items I've acquired are, 2x4's, 2x6's, 2x8's, 2x10's, maple plywood, white oak boards, tongue and Grove pine boards for ceilings, exterior doors with glass, brand new French doors, mortar, tile, water proof membrane, blue stone. That's just a small example of my free material grabs.

[dinospd]

I live in a new neighborhood and there are still plenty of houses being built. With the builder's permission I have raided multiple lumber piles and this have saved me *a lot* of money on my garage projects.

I only had to resort to the Depot for full length pieces at 8 and 10'. All the rest was sourced from the scraps.

[lynb]

Those piles kept me in quality firewood for 10 years (only good thing about living in an 'infill construction zone' for 10 yrs). Ftr I always asked permission; they were happy to have people take it so they didn't have load it into bins and/or pay for removal. One site was ditching a gigantor-pallet (good quality, solid, like a boardwalk, about 4' wide by 12' long); I asked if I, 5'2" middle-age female could take it and they laughed like "OK girly girl go ahead and try" so I went home, got some casters, screws and a screwdriver, and rolled my gigantor insta-deck home. :)

[Francinestube]

I've been digging in construction dumpsters for over 6 years and I've built many things with it from planters, music box, compost toilet, couch framing, to wooden box on wheels to put away all my finds. The most shocking find? a contractor's box of construction screws valued at about $72, now that was a jackpot!

[rondavis]

My wife and I just retired from working as property caretakers for a private club. We lived onsite for many years. During our stay, there were a number of new cabins built. These are upscale weekend homes. They call them cabins, but a family of four could have plenty of room to live in them year round. One of the things I always watched for was the exotic wood scraps. Ironwood, White oak, Red Oak, Cedar, Mahogany, and others that I don't even know the names of. One of my plans for retirement was to get more involved in my knife making hobby. These wood scraps will supply me with fine handle material for ages. It will be saving me many thousands of dollars.

[charfunkianmojosapian]

As a framer i would suggest, if you want full length pieces, get your self a good framing hammer and a catspaw rather than get the short scraps from new construction sites, go to remodel/ demo sites where the entire structure or area is removed and the full length often totally reusable lumber is piled in a dumpster and all new material is used. The catch is this is largely because guys dont like to pull a bunch of nails. But if you lay down a couple 2xs a few feet apart on the ground and toss your lumber onto them with the nails sharpside up, hammer them to push the head out, flip em over, stand on the board and yank the extruded nail heads with the claw of your hammer with both hands, it makes easier work of it. Have a circular saw to chop of the ends if thata where the nails are. And cut a wide or shim/ wedge 5-8" long that goes from a point to a 2-3" surface on the back. This is the best tool to separate two pieces of wood nailed together longways just hammer the wegde between the boards utill the gap os big enough to pry open or easily cut the nails with a sawsall. You can stack a nice orderly pile of full length lumber on your truck and will have done the company doing the work a favor bu freeing up space in the dumpster that has to be hauled and paid to dispose of when it gets full. Definitely bring a broom and a magnet sweep to clean up after yourself, if you make those items prominently displayed, the chances of the crew agreeing to your salvaging the dumpster and prepping the lumber on the spot more likely.

[TheFX]

I’m a police officer and we get calls to new construction all the time. Worst thing I’ve ever seen was about a 1/4 bundle of 2x4 studs in the dumpster and two unopened boxes of framing nails. I asked the guy if I could come back and pick it up and he said no, it was going to the dump. I asked him that if he were going to dump it then why call when someone is just get what he considers “scrap” or trash. His answer is, it’s my site, I’ll do what I want and I want that guy arrested. Complete bullshit. I let him go and filed the case and it was dropped which was fine by me.

[budnolan]

I worked for several builders and I can confirm every thing in this video is 100 true.

[MarcusRefusius]

As a retired Garbage Hauler allow me to add that “The Landfill” sorts construction waste for recycling. Those rolloffs coming from the Housing Tract dump in a designated area. Concrete generally winds up pulverized for reuse and the Lumber mostly winds up ground and commingled with Green waste and composted. I just wanted to add this so ya don’t think they’re burying it. Cheers.

[barnyardbrio]

this really encourages people to care more about our planet -- GOOD JOB!

[dragonslayer]

I work in a cabinet shop and we throw out a few dumpsters worth of scrap. Different oaks, birch, alder, wallnut, cherry, mahogany, you name it