We built a platform/foundation for a 10 by 12 foot metal shed, and we used palettes to do so!
Why we are using palettes:
- Free resource
- Up-cycling
- Availability
- Challenging
I'm sure there are a few other reasons we could come up with, but these four alone are enough of an incentive for us to continue using palettes as building blocks!
This was our second time building with this free resource and we were pretty happy with the result. I was defenitely as satistied as the bridge we built from palettes!
The first thing you need to know if you're going to build with palettes, is that they aren't quite uniform. At least not the ones you find ramdomly on the streets, they usually came from different manufacturers. Though on the most part, they're more or less 4' X 3'3". Another thing is that if you want to take them apart, know that it is time consuming and it isn't as easy as some make it seem to be.
The Plan
Easy, 10 X 12 feet... the palettes are 4 X 3 and change, that means we need 9 palettes full for the platform and maybe a little here and there or adding a couple 2 X 4's.
Let's take a quick look at the build!
First we took some time to pick a relatively flat area in a convenient spot that works in our (undeveloped) permaculture design...
Once we found the right area we cleared all the overgrowth of different vines and brush fighting for survival.
A while back I mentioned something about the 8 forms of capital. This build was a perfect example of making good use of --Material Capital__we have on and a round the property.
Here's a look at the rocks and stones capital we accessed... we're in a very rocky area, plus the previous owners already dugg up some of that capital for us. Wasn't that nice of them?
I tell you about the stones because each and every palette had to be leveled.
If you end up doing something similar for your dance floor or platform for whatever you need it for, try to use one stack of stones to level off more than one corner. You'll save on the amount of leveling materialand time (at some point you will have to level 4 corners, so why not level all of them while you're at it?).
One the first row was up, square and leveled correctly we moved on to the next row of three.
...continued with the same technique
And here's what I was talking about when I said something about leveling more than one corner at a time.
This is about as far as we went into the build. I forgot to bring a circular saw and we wanted the layer of plywood to overlap every seam between the palettes to give the platform more strength.
We finished off the day by nailing down two 4' X 8' sheets of plywood dead in the center of the whole thing, leaving a 2 foot border all around which we will fill in next time.
For protection I just covered it with some plastic sheeting I had saved from the dumpster on a job!
I will definitely continue to use palettes to build. We will be hosting a free workshop in July on our homestead. We will build an outdoor kitchen made of palettes, cob and slip straw! So if you want in, contact me and I'll give you more details.
Until next time...
In the End, it Always works out
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