“If you look into sustainable living there are so many people now realising how we can build homes & sheds out of recycled materials, from earthbags, tyres, sand bags and even pallets.
I have quite an interest in all this and there is a great website called The Natural Building Blog. Each day I get a newsletter from them with ideas of what is happening around the world with sustainable living.
“How to make raised beds out of free wood pallets. Important note: If you aren’t using a perforated liner, or something that allows water to drain, you’ll need to, carefully, put holes in your plastic after stapling it to your pallets.”
This is a short blog post that’s based on a simple concept I haven’t seen done yet. The aim of this method is to speed and strengthen the construction of pallet walls. Feedback is definitely welcome.
This blog post shows several ways of building planters with free wood shipping pallets. Be sure to use pallets stamped as non-toxic. This stamp denotes that the pallets have not been treated with pesticides. Our Natural Building Blog now has about a dozen pages of free information on almost every aspect of pallet building (floors, paneling, walls, furniture, etc.). Use the search engine on the right side of the page using ‘pallet’ as the search phrase.
This is a great idea for DIY low cost storage space. They’re simple enough anyone can build them. If you need a lot of shelving units, then it might be worthwhile to cut the cost in half by using 2x4s from oversized pallets (you’ll have to search around a bit to find them), and bolts or strong screws from yard sales or auctions. Bolts would be much easier to work with since it’s quite difficult to screw into old, dry pallet wood.
This is the second installment of my low cost desert shelters that have been designed with economic refugees in mind. These desert shelters were inspired by Phillip Garlington’s website at Rancho Costa Nada. His book Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Desert Homestead is available through Amazon and Smashwords.