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Dduell2
Chirping
- Jun 3, 2025
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Those couple of pallets I had previously cut with a circular saw to get some panels for a project my wife wanted to try. That is why I decided to use them first to disassemble. And yes they were a pain in the but to take apart! LolSigning on to your thread to watch your progress. I love seeing projects made with pallet wood. Looking forward to seeing more pictures as you continue your build.
I have broken down many, many pallets. I noticed in one picture that you use the circular saw method to cut off the pallet wood planks. I do that a lot, too. But it leaves those tail ends of wood with nails in them...
View attachment 4143488
Of course, there are many ways to clean that up, but my favorite method is to use a flat blade screwdriver or chisel and tap the wood to the left and right of the nail head along the direction of the wood grain. That splits the wood into pieces which you can easily remove leaving nothing but the nail heads. Then, I use a long crowbar with good leverage to remove the nails. Sometimes those spiral pallet nails are also glued into the wood. That makes it hard to remove them without a good crowbar. Well, I need to use a long crowbar to make the job manageable.
I am wondering what hardware you are going to use for your build. Since you probably got the pallets and salvaged lumber at free or discounted prices, you will probably spend most of your money on the hardware.
I am partial to using screws for most of my builds. To save money, I use a lot of inexpensive drywall screws. They work great for most of my projects, but it you get into longer screws, then I have to predrill the hole or the drywall head might ream out. Deck screws with Torx heads are better, but they also cost about 3X the price of drywall screws.
Sometimes, for structural long screws, I will just get some long lag screws and drive them home with an impact wrench...
View attachment 4143492
I see you already attached your 4X4 legs, but lag screws are perfect for that purpose. They just cost more money. Fortunately for me, I salvaged some pallets that had those lag screws in. Of course, I saved every one of them and used them in new projects. Saved a lot of money. Depending on the thickness and length of the lag screw, you can pay $1.00 or more each for them.
Anyways, love to read about the small details of a build to find out what works and what does not. Looking forward to more posts.
Also, im pretty sure you are correct in the fact that most the money I will spend will be in hardware...
These are the screw I decided to get for the 4x4 posts. They were about $32 per box.
We got our baby chicks yesterday so I will be starting a thread of our journey with the birds as well.
Thanks again!
Yeah, I went with a vinyl remnant from Menards. Easy to clean. Got a really good deal on the price. Happy with my purchase even after 5 years.
Well, the vinyl lasted a good 4 years, but my third flock of chickens I got last year were hard on the vinyl and have pecked it to shreds in some places over this past winter. I'll have to repair or replace it somehow.
Honestly, I have so much pallet wood that I might just nail down real pallet wood on the floor this summer. The pallet wood might not be level in thickness, but I use dry deep bedding in my coop anyways. So, probably not a big deal. Might be a bit harder to clean out twice a year. But the wood flooring would be free and easy to replace if/when needed.
Probably more important is what direction you decide to have the runoff of rain, or snow. You don't want to have rain beating down on you from the roof as you gather eggs, for example.
