Reclaimed "Deck"

          For this project, a couple of friends and I built a deck, using predominantly recycled building materials, in an effort to bring awareness and gain skills in eco-conscious building. 

          This section will show you the general outcomes and intentions I developed before I started  the project. At the end of this page, after the main body, I will conclude by creating a reflective section that analyzes what outcomes or intentions, if any, had changed or developed in an intentional or un-intentional way.

I. Build something from scratch, using far less raw materials than I usually would; to study how building with reclaimed building materials is like.

II. In the process, explore what is it like to learn while teaching. Learning how to build with reclaimed materials while incorporating my own traditional building skills for the purpose of teaching someone else the efficient and responsible way to go about building certain things.

III. Research how to find and properly procure recycled, re-processed, reclaimed, recovered or salvaged building materials.

 IV. Learn how to share responsibility. Sharing responsibility is a little difficult for me, either I must obtain all responsibility or none at all, but I wish to change that so that I can create collaborative dynamics that are focused on the group rather than an individual. 

 V. Learn how to positively receive help or suggestion. This is an edge for me to push. While growing up I was always told how to do something without myself first being able to try and figure it out alone. Now when others offer suggestion or help, I tend to get a little too defensive, whereas now I would like to change that and welcome help or suggestion.

 VI. Learn how to better work with others. Working with other is very enjoyable for me. Sometimes while working with others on building sites, a weakness that I have is efficiently delegating jobs to people so that we may get the job done or reach a goal quickly and effectively. This is something I would like to improve.

         I had several intentions for this project before I started it. One of them was to build something that gave me another page in my professional portfolio. It will now be something that I will show to potential employers to exemplify my passion and skills in eco-friendly building and design. Another intention I had for this project was to calibrate my own enthusiasm for building. Through this project I found things that I do and do not enjoy about the physical building processes, and with these new findings I feel I can better navigate through future endeavors. One of the themes of this project and output packet was to collaborate with community. I wanted to create a theme that was focused on how I could utilize community collaboration to build things that are skill building both for myself and for those who I work with. With this mindset I found that working to build something together is extremely fun, satisfying and community building. 

          I would like to start off by saying that this was one of my favorite and satisfying building projects to date. I built a deck that I was commissioned for and was given the opportunity to do it out of recycled materials. I was given a budget of $800.00 and I strived hard to fall greatly below that budget. I was given two days to complete this project. Although I was incredibly resisting the temptation to decline this project as I did not think I would be able to make the deadline, I accepted.

          Starting this year's first project was really fun for me. I started it similar to the beginning of last year, with a project focused on infrastructure and building in an "Eco-friendly" state of mind. With this building project I wanted to focus on trying to create something out of recycled materials, so as to fall under budget and to decrease my impact both up and downstream, I believe I did this with great success. In the future, post Gaia University, I want to hone my skills in sustainable building methods and with this project, I have rekindled my inspiration for that practice. 

          I began my project with a simple mantra, recycling can be beautiful. With that in mind I began researching how to acquire recycled building materials. I found within my search that there are strong communities with outstretched hands giving people like me with inspiration the power to do this very thing; a "green man's DIY" network I like to call it. Finding these communities and businesses gave me even more inspiration to push full steam ahead with my project. 

          I wanted to involve people in my community with projects like these, so, for this first project, I enlisted the help and energy of my family and friends. On the first day I went to Friedman Brothers, a locally owned home improvement center. Along with my girlfriend Alysha we picked up the new materials we would need, a half a dozen 2x6's, one 4x6 and a box of deck screws. The next day we went to a recycled lumber yard. Here we spent hours pulling nails out of lumber we could use for the project. I spent about $75.00 on lumber here where it would have cost at least four times that buying it new. We took it back to the site and finished pulling nails.  

          I wanted to recruit my girlfriend for this project so that we could grow closer together doing something that I loved doing. She had no idea what building with recycled materials was like, and frankly, neither did I. We learned together that with my skills in building and her imagination and creativeness that we make an incredible team. Building in collaboration with others is great, it gives a greater sense of community to my life and that was one of my favorite lessons I gleaned from this project.

          Click here to view photos of my reclaimed deck. Scroll down to the bottom section titled 29th Jan 2013

I.     “Build something from scratch, using far less raw materials than I usually would; to study how building with reclaimed building materials is like.”

          The first part of that was learning how to limit the amount of new materials I use in building something. That in it’s self was quite a challenge. It is so easy to go to the store and pick up all new things that it clouded my vision of how much I was actually wasting and how very much I could save. For this project I spent $232.38.  I spent about 1 hour processing the materials into usable pieces and 13 hours building the deck; a total invoice of $442.38. If I had bought all of the materials for it new I would have charged three times this much time, money and energy. The total cost of this would conservatively cost around $850 plus the cost of labor, a savings of around $600. This is a very impressive analysis that I can now use as a template to procure future jobs.

II.     Explore how to learn about something while simultaneously teaching it.

          In most instances this worked out very well. I discovered that in some situations learning while teaching could be very advantageous. Learning a skill and then subsequently teaching it to someone else requires more time and energy, whereas learning and teaching at the same time can be a very efficient use of resources, which is as a matter-of-fact one major objective of this project.

 III.     “Research how to find and properly procure recycled, re-processed, reclaimed, recovered or salvaged building materials.”

          This was very successful and I was very pleased to learn how to find these resources. Basically through networking with other builders I know I was able to locate a lead that I recieved on where to find recycled building materials.

IV.     How to share responsibility.

          I found that this is very helpful in collaborating so that everybody stays self-motivated and accountable. When everyone has a specific goal or job, instead of everyone trying to do everything, people become more effiecient. This is definitely something I will remember for my next build.

V.     Learn how to receive assistance or suggestion in a positive and productive way.

          By intentionally being mindful of this I got over my fear of creative criticism and learned how to welcome assistance. This was a mojor edge of mine that I will have to continue to be mindful of.

VI.     Delegation of tasks is another skill I wanted to work on.

          I tried to work on it and still felt like I was falling short. I will continue to be mindful of this edge and push to reach a point where I am comfortable with my ability to ask others and myself to fulfill specific duties in a job.