DIY: Salvaged wood compost bin
I’ve been busy over here for many weekends in a row now, planting corn, murdering my front lawn, deconstructing the huge “live-in” shed attached to the garage, and repurposing the shed materials into a few awesome building projects: namely a compost bin and a chicken coop.
The chicken coop is still in the works, but the compost bin is done!
I did a lot of research into bin design, looking at models using recycled wood pallets, buying a big plastic bin instead of building one, or building one out of the heaps of 2x4s rescued from the shed.
I settled on this 3-bin compost system, in part because I expect I’ll be able to generate a LOT of compost (I have so much yard waste already), but also because I saw a really well-done version of it on featured on Re-nest.
Mine isn’t quite as pretty — after all, most of the materials are recycled — but it does the trick! In the end, I spent about $150 on materials I didn’t have or couldn’t salvage, including the wire hardware cloth, two Trex boards (the slats on the front are this composite material — I had enough for two sections, salvaged from another Oakland homeowner’s pile of scrap, but needed more for the third section), one 9′ redwood 2×4, since i didn’t have enough of that length, and all the screws, hinges, and hardware. The Oakland Home Depot and Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore saw my face a few times that weekend…
I don’t want to think about what it would have cost to buy all new material! I guess the message is DON’T! Even if you don’t have salvage of your own, I found several places to buy recycled wood for really cheap. Urban Ore in Berkeley, for example, sells 2x4s at around $2 a pop!
Steve and I managed to build this guy in about two weekends, with a little extra work on his part on his time off during the week.
The PDF design I followed can be downloaded by clicking here.
Have your own compost bin design to share? Or another repurposed yard project? Send them my way, I’d love to share them on here!
And here’s Brendon with a chicken coop sneak peak…
Our goal is to maximize the R value in each component of the home. Making the building envelope as energy efficient as possible to make the energy consuption of each home we build as minimal as possible is the first step. It’s a lot better to need less energy than to put in high efficiency heating and cooling systems. With the cost of energy increasing and our natural rescources decreasing, we would prefer to not have to use energy, than to find the least expensive way to use. In my builder’s blog, I have posted an article on the passive house. This house has R-62 in the roof, R-45 in the walls, and R-35 in the basement. If a client is looking to maximize energy efficiency, these R-values, combined with a good ventilation system to ensure good air quality and health are a great way to go. Concentrating on eliminating thermal bridging, (building components with high thermal conductivity), is very important. R-values are not always accurate. Unless you take into account the amount of material in your wall that is conducting hot air from the inside to the out, your R-value number is not a good judge of energy efficiency. Put all these concepts into your home:High R-values,good wall systems,high efficiency heating and cooling systems, and good ventiliation and you can have a energy efficient, healthy environment. Good for you, good for the future.
Love what you did!!! I grow herbs (and other veggies) but have found that I can’t grow them indoors. Originally they were on our porch for convenience but then I couldn’t get the rosemary and parsley to grow like I wanted. I then transplanted both to our garden and they work out so much better! If I had as much light as you do in your kitchen I’d totally do this! Just remember to water the plants, but not TOO much. Usually once a week at the most!