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This week on Today’s Homeowner we are turning something old into something new as we explore some great ideas that help you turn trash into treasure.
This week it’s all about trash to treasure where you are taking some of that old stuff around your home, and turning it into something that is functional. Or you might use it as an opportunity to create something that is uniquely your own. So if you do not have any of that stuff around your home, you can certainly find it at a place like this.
This is a Habitat Restore where you have the opportunity as a contractor or homeowner to donate different materials that might be coming out of your house, like the cabinets that have been removed from your kitchen renovation or make some old materials or new materials that are overstocked. All of this can be donated to Habitat for Humanity. They are able to resale it at a very reasonable price, allowing them to continue their great work across the country building houses.
Now, when you get into a place like this, you can also find some things like this furniture that would perfect in your home with just a little TLC. In most cases a furniture find will require refinishing. A chemical stripper is the quickest way to start removing the old finish. The best tip appears to carefully follow the directions for the product you chose. If they say leave it on for 10 minutes, then leave it on there for 10 minutes before you begin scraping.
A putty knife with rounded edges is great for this kind of job, because it will not gouge the wood. You can remove the stripper residue with water or mineral spirits, depending on the type of stripper you use. Begin sanding with the more coarse grit paper up to a finer grit. The stripers and solvents will raise the grain of the woods, so you will have to smooth it right back out. It is messy, but if you apply the stain with a rag, you will have a lot more control. Then, when the stain is dry, you are ready for several coats of finish sealer to protect the piece.
Not all of the items that are in a restore or in a salvage yard are in their finished state, like the furniture and cabinets we looked at earlier. Some things are just materials and some look a little better than others. Looks like this stack of 2×4’s were left out on a job site out in the weather just a little bit too long and kind of weathered them a bit, but still they didn’t end up in the dumpster going to the landfill. They are going to be able to be reused by someone on a future project.
Now, here’s another situation where someone has kept a lot of things out of the landfill.
We met sawmill owner Roy Hyde several months ago when we we’re working on a show about a new home where some of Roy’s custom milling work was being used. Roy’s an interesting character, but what we also discover was that the source of lumber for his little saw mill also has a pretty interesting, too.
It seems that all of the tree services in this community know Roy and his love for wood, so when they have to take down a few trees, rather than haul the wood to the landfill, they bring it to the Hyde Sawmill. It is cheaper for them and provides Roy with an endless supply for trees to be milled into all kinds of lumber.
This is some old pecan and it had to been removed because they were making an addition to their house and they couldn’t do it without taking the tree out. And this is live oak, it is the same sort of thing. This one, this particular one went down in a storm.
Roy’s spends a lot of his time milling down trees into lumber that other people will use in their projects. But as you can see, he is a pretty hands-on individual, so he also uses this wood for his own unique creations.
See for instance this is a piece of pecan here and this is going to be for a chef friend of mine, this is going to be his cutting board.
Because of his no nonsense approach to life and his love for wood, most of Roy’s work has a pretty rustic flair. He puts his own unique spin on everything, from furniture to larger architectural pieces. But what you got to just love about this guy is that he doesn’t take his self too seriously.
We are professional wood movers. And what it boils down to, we pick up a log, we move it up here, we cut up, we move it over there, we sweep it off and put in it here, then we take it out of there.
These are some very unique things that Roy makes with all of that lumber that he mills. And you know when you have a very inexpensive material it’s very easy to be a little more liberated with some of the things you might want to try around your house.
Well, we are taking this $10 door a little bit later in the show, Allen and I are going to turn this into something completely different that makes it a very functional part of the home. We will be catching up on that in just a little bit.
But right now, you can catch up with Joe Truini with this week’s Simple Solution with a very common repair to a wooden chair.
Sometimes small problems we face around the house are also the most annoying, and here’s a good example of one, the wobbly chair. Now to fix it, the first thing you need to know is don’t start cutting legs that you think are long, because you will end up ruing the chair. The trick is to find the leg that is short. In this case by putting it on a flat surface and wobbling you notice that this is the leg that is short.
So you fix that problem by taking a wood shim and sliding it under as far as we need to until the chair is not wobbling anymore. There you go. Now, we are going to mark it with a pencil right where the chair leg sits on a shim. And cut it out, cut out that disk with a hole saw. Then pull out the disk as a whole so it’s perfect, fits right underneath there. And we going to have to put a screw to that in a second, but there you go. You notice that it takes the wobble right out.
Now, we are not going to just glue it on though. Because if you take this little wood disc and just glue it there is going to pop off as you sliding the chair back and forth across the floor. So we are going to hold it on with a furniture glide you can get at any hardware or home center. We are just going to put that right on there. And of course we are going to need to put on every leg, otherwise you will still have a wobble. Here you go. Now with the shim and the glide under the short leg, put it down, there you go, rock solid.
Be sure to come back. Right after the break, we are taking a swing at wasted materials.
Hey you got the door.
Yeah, only 10 bucks, too.
That will work great. 10 bucks, you are kidding me, man.
Hey, why did I have to get these buckets?
I will have to share that with you in just a minute. You know, the whole approach to trash to treasure is to take something that you would ordinarily throw away and turn it into something that is really functional. You might remember we used an old antifreeze jug a while back, and we cut it a certain way to create this nice little scoop to keep these gutters clean around the home.
Now, another simple thing to do is to take an old oil bottle like this, cut off the bottom, and what you’re going to wind up with a make shift funnel that is perfect, the next bottle fits right inside, just don’t forget to take the cap off.
Now, these ideas maybe a little boring, kind of like Allen. But you can take materials and have a lot of fun with it. Recently out director’s son, Josh, dropped by the shop and showed Joe Truini a nice little project that was a little fun. Everything need for Josh’s creation is scrap or leftover materials, so this certainly qualifies as trash to treasure project.
Well, me and my dad made this punching bag, and I was thinking that we could recreate this.
OK.
Show everybody how to do it.
First, what we are going to do is cut out a foot of this plywood right here.
This is just to form a base so the foam does not fall off, Right?
Yep.
Now, we’re going to roll it up in our carpet batting.
All right, so got to cut that, slice that to size first right. Tape it that’s just to get started, I guess. All right, now we just roll it up.
Nice, just keep rolling.
Whoa, look at that. Worked out perfectly. There is nothing you can’t build with a little duct tape, right?
Yep. So, now we are going to wrap the entire thing with duct tape. Is that all right or do you need to cover that up?
That’s good.
All right Josh. That’s pretty cool. So all you need is PVC, carpet padding, and duct tape and you have yourself a hanging bag.
That’s a pretty fun job. Maybe Josh will take out this frustration on the punching the bag instead of on his brother.
Now, I did like the project, but I am much more curious about why did I have to get all of these buckets?
Well, you know there are so many different uses for five-gallon buckets around the house. And we’ve actually shown a few of those uses on shows in the past, but I’ve got an idea of a solution to a storage problem a lot of homeowners have.
Now, just so you don’t think I ran around different job site stealing buckets, I do know a painter and asked him to save some for me. But I still had to clean them all out. Now it brings up a good point. If you want to collect buckets like this, don’t go for the one with roofing cement and glue in them, you’ll never get them clean.
Wow, you did do a pretty good job of getting these clean. Now my idea is actually to create a mudroom caddy. Where you come into your mudroom or into your entryway of your home, maybe the back door near the kitchen or in the garage, and you’re able to use this for a lot of things that get dropped off all over the floor.
First thing we have to do, is figure out how we can cut this little rim off in order to get started on it. I’m thinking the solution maybe use a jig saw. The lip of the bucket should act as a fence to keep the cut straight all the way around the bucket. Seems to be a little bit easier to hold the saw still, and let Allen rotate the bucket into it. Then we sand off the rough edges before we begin laying our design, which in this case will be a pyramid shape.
Because these buckets are tapered, not straight cylinders, this is where it gets a little bit tricky. They’re going to be several different angles working, so we are experimenting and test fitting as we go along. Now after some trial and error, we arrive at the angle that seems to work just right. This framework will be nailed together and then we will begin creating the support for the backside of the buckets. The simple triangle made from scrap plywood.
After all the wood parts are sanded, primed and painted, the final assembly can begin with screwing the bucket the plywood in the proper arrangement. These bulldog clamps really help keep everything straight. Then, we can set the buckets inside the frame and begin attaching the buckets with small screws.
So what do you think, pretty simple, huh?
Yeah. You know, you have a pretty good idea every now and then, but this is actually a good idea. We cut the tops off so it does not intrude so much into the room. Right up against the door, perfect for the kids to put the muddy shoes, maybe even some outdoor toys.
And you can make it as big or little as you want. We used six buckets, but you could use three, five, or all whole stack of them. You notice when we were building this, we had to do a bit of sanding. Well this week Jodi has the Best New Product that will make sanding a little easier.
You know the first time that I used this little Zip Sander I liked it, because of this neat foam grip. If you have ever had to use sanding block before you can relate. This is much easier on the knuckle. This one has a nice soft but firm handle makes it more comfortable than a sanding block. Actually the entire Zip Sander is made with the same high density foam that featured In addition to the hexagon shape, with two pointed edges and four curves, makes it flexible enough to fit in most grooves, curves and edges. A huge help when sanding trim and molding.
It also comes with an assortment with color coded sanding sheets – 80 to 220 grit. Each one attaches easily with a hook and loop grip and you are ready to go to work. The number and color coded sand paper ID system is especially great, because it makes it easy for anyone to find the right sanding paper grit for every step of the project. This is a great tool for tons of projects. From removing paint and reconditions furniture to finish woodworking. And for about $10, you get more than your money’s worth.
Don’t go anywhere we’ve got another great project coming up right after this.
Hey, I hope you are enjoying out trash to treasures projects. We have another one here where we are taking the door that we picked up at the Habitat for Humanity Restore and we are about to turn it into something almost any household can use.
But you can do so much with a door. I’ve seen bed headboards from a door, hinge two or three together and make a decorative room divider. The Habitat store where this came from actually has a contest going on right now where they are encouraging people to purchase their doors and turn them into beautiful pieces of art. So there is really great interest in that.
So what we are planning on doing, though, is turning this into a computer desk. The first step is removing some of the stuff that made it a door, like the old hinges.
These things are ancient, caked with all kinds of layers of paint, so Allen has to work at them a bit. Then there is a matter of all the holes left behind by the messy hardware. I’m filling the biggest part of the void with wood before I start mixing up some auto body filler to finish patching the holes. This stuff is often referred to by the trade name Bondo, and it will dry to an extremely hard finish really fast, so it is perfect for this kind of project. But you don’t want to leave too much excess, because you will end up having to sand it all off once it is dry. Because it shrinks some as it dries, it often takes two more coats to get the surface nice and level.
While I am working on this, Allen gets busy cutting down the material for the desktop and the shelf. When all of the pieces are cut to size, he runs them through a router to get the edges a nice little cove treatment. Then, there is lots and lots of sanding to do. Everywhere I have used Bondo the surfaces has to be sanded down until the patch material is flush with the rest of the door surface. Allen is sanding down all of the new wood to remove any of the marks and splinter left behind by the table saw or the router.
Because this door is so old, there is quite a bit of flaky paint that has to be scraped off, of course that means more sanding. We are ready to assemble the shelves and the desktop and we are using some of the premade corbels for us to support these horizontal surfaces. Setting them out on the door to put them together really helps to ensure that layout is just right.
To support the door itself, Allen is making a pair of legs from an old piece of two by six. They will extend about a foot out on either side of the door, with the ends rounded over the smooth out the look a little bit. Speaking of that, I hope we are almost through with the sanding.
Well, Allen, I don’t care how long I have do this kind of thing, I still just can’t stand sanding, but these little sanding gadgets make it a little bit easier.
Well, it looks really good. You know it’s an old door. I like leaving some of the flaws in it, gives it character.
At this point we can be installed our desktop and our two shelves that Allen put together. But anytime you are installing this when you are doing it on a door like we are doing to or a wall on your house. You want to make sure it stays there. So we’ll be putting some wood glue on this, nailing from this side, then turning the door over and putting in a few screws.
Glue tends to be less effective on painted surfaces than bare wood. But if you sanded the paint as well as we have here, it will add a bit of valuable insurance to the joint. Since we planned to layout of the corbels earlier, all we have to do now is line up the edges of the desktop with the edges of the door and we are good to go. A nail gun makes this kind of assembly quick and easy, but because the nails for a fairly thin gage metal, the screws we’ll add later will still be very important.
The shelves at the top work much the same way, but we have to be little more careful with our layout, since we don’t have a rail in the door to line them up on. To add the screws we are flipping the door over on the sawhorses and predrilling all the spot s we need. Predrilling is often to prevent splitting, that is not a concern here. This door is just ancient, and the wood is incredibly hard. Allen is following up with the countersink bit, so the screw heads will be below the surface of the door. Then we can hide them with a little more Bondo.
And while we are working on this side, we add a wooden coat rack to the door to give it a little more functionality. Now, we’re ready for the legs. While I hold the door plumb, Allen tacks the legs on with a nail gun, before we drive in long screws to hold everything firmly together. Finally, we are ready for a primer and two coats of paint, before putting this old door to its new use.
All right, Allen, this should take much installation at all.
I think this will be simple as find the spot, and set it in place.
That is pretty good spot, because you know in the living room like this, people really don’t use it as much as other rooms in the house. To have this right in the corner. Laptop and maybe a few pictures, and then a coat rack right on the back when your guests come in the front door.
This really is a great reuse for an old door. Here’s another great reusing thought in today’s Thinking Green.
Did you know that in America paper towels account for 3,000 tons of waste everyday? But most recycling centers won’t accept used paper towels, so they still end up in the landfill. You will want to do your part in cutting down on the one billion tons of waste every year, then to switch to sponges for your daily clean up.
A single sponge can last up to the equivalent of 17 rolls of paper towels. Unfortunately along with all those kitchen spills you may clean up, sponges also pick up a lot of bacteria. So, here is an easy way to completely sterilize your sponges.
First rinse you dirty sponge in clean water and make sure it is still wet. Place it in your microwave on a high setting for about two minutes. Once it has cooled, you have a sterile sponge for cleaning. And besides saving room in the landfills, you will be saving some pocket change.
Well, Allen, we really didn’t spend a lot of money on this thing, did we.
No, you spent $10 for the door. I paid about $4 dollars for each corbel, there are six of those, so 24, 34, about $10 worth of paint, less than $50.
That’s pretty good for a piece of say furniture you can use in a lot of different areas of the house. And one thing to think about, everything here could have ended up in the landfill, other than the corbel that we purchased. So you really can turn trash in to treasures.
For more information on any of the projects you saw on this week’s show, check out our website at dannylipford.com. Allen Lyle, Danny Lipford, we’ll see you next week on Today’s Homeowner.
