They were posting signs along the Home Depot exit road today, stating you could rent a dumpster from the rental counter. Other than our HD doesn’t have a rental counter (I assume you go to the service desk, though may be Pro desk), I thought it was a real brilliant move on their part; buy your stuff at HD, take it home, and toss it in their dumpster that you’re paying for when you discover how much trash it is. They reclaim the stuff when they pick up the dumpster and put it back on the shelves for the next unsuspecting consumer.
To be fair, I visit HD several times a week, more often depending on the location of the job at hand. I have saved a lot of time and gas doing so, but have also taken my fair share of tylenol from the headaches received there as well.
Replies
The local HD offers dumpsters for rent, but under the terms and conditions it says "no construction debris allowed".
Renaissance Restorations
Antique & Victorian Home Restoration Services
http://www.renaissancerestorations.com
You've got to be kidding. What do they think you need it for, anway? I could see the Brady bunch using it for a trash can, but what else do you use a dumpster for? Swimming pool? Bathtub? I know, your own storage container that you park on your front lawn. Right, makes no sense to me.
I wonder if they really hold people to that, or if it's just some lawyers weasel words.
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Geez, and here I thought you'd be talking about the great stuff you found in Home Despot's dumpster! With geniuses like the ones I've met at Home Despot, you've gotta figure that they threw out tons of good stuff simply because they didn't know what it was! And do you think they bother restocking all that stuff in returns?!
I was thinking the same thing. All the good stuff goes into a compactor so no one can get to it.
Turtleboy
Yeah, diving, that's what I thought too!
My sister was checking out the new stock of year end plants just disposed of in the blowes dumpster (also near a grocery store parking lot) just before thanksgiving, and a lady leaving the grocery store offered her a loaf of bread! My dad woulda been proud!
Yeah, diving, that's what I thought too!
LMBO! I was thinking as I was reading this thread ,..... Whers JH? LOL
I knew you would be sucked into this thread . I was too with my rentals, so I will take a step forward with ya.
Tim Mooney
My sister was checking out the new stock of year end plants just disposed of in the blowes dumpster (also near a grocery store parking lot) just before thanksgiving, and a lady leaving the grocery store offered her a loaf of bread! My dad woulda been proud!
Picking up a heartattack in a sack at a MickeyD's, I noticed the place next door was being gutted and there was a 2x10 oak plank sticking up out of the dumpster.
Went back about 11 that night to see if it was still there. Grabbed the plank..yup, oak. About 7' long. Then proceeded to root around some more. OOoops, car coming. Do dee do... just casually standing here. Ok, he's gone on around the McD driveup... root root root... oop, car coming.. do dee do... Ok, he's gone. root root root.
Salvaged about 20' of 2x10 white oak plank (mostly in good shape..some staples still in it), some plexi panels, couple 6' strips of 1" oak-veneer plywood, some 1" panels of EPS. Took me about 10 minutes.
The sad thing is, somehow a neighbor talked me out of most of the oak plank..which was the reason I was diving in the first place. Oh well. I was just gonna use it for scrap workbenches anyway.
jt8
Thanks for saving that oak plank, and it's a shame you're not beng MY neighbour! My neighbours are great, but they don't bring by any 2x10 oak planks, that's for sure!
I'm all over that "car's coming" stuff. After a while it became apparent that nobody really cared as long as you didn't make a mess and were out before they had to worry about getting sued. Most people are just plain glad that someone is putting stuff back to productive use and leaving them more room in their bin...
What hurts is watching the tearing down and hauling away as fill, large old houses with aged massive wooden beams.
Almost cryin' ground.
they pushem down and burn em here..be still my heart.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
In Portland they take old houses apart and resell most everything usable. They can dissassemle them and leave a clean site in what seams like the same or less time as the bulldozer crews. The Home Depots here will only slightly mark down anything before some idiot buys it....
Most people are just plain glad that someone is putting stuff back to productive use and leaving them more room in their bin...
Yeah, I spotted a nice top-half of a breakfront (or is it a sideboard?) by the road in a residential neighborhood. So, I go to the door to see if they wanted it. The woman was ECSTATIC that someone was gonna use it. She was bummin' that it was gonna go to the landfill..................
Sister teaches in Germany, years back they had designated "junking day" to dispose of large items. She saw a beautiful buffet and stopped to pick it up, the housefrau ran out and started jabbering, Sis thought she was running her off. She wanted her to come in and get the hutch that went with it. They were going through a period of wanting "modern" stuff.
Sounds like the right way to operate.....no stigma attached to a little informal recycle/reuse which is as it should be.
Around the northeast, in the cities, if you get caught dumpster diving or curb collecting, you can get busted. Unless, believe it or not, you have a "rag picker's license".
Steve
Spent 30 years rattling around the Chicago area. Most recently far north lake shore area, where we still own a 4-flat. If tenants or we did not want anything anymore, we set it outside the back gate on the sidewalk, or in front of the garage, and often it was gone by the following morning. Dead ceiling fans, old medicine cabinets, you name it.
Had a huge wall-hung cast iron kitchen sink with a 4' long drainboard, I couldn't liberate from the wall. Called a neighboring Mexican junker, who wrestled it off the pipes, and hauled it away, as he and his son did a cast iron bathtub from the 2nd floor months before. Many scrap dealers in Chicago, so the junkers cruise the alleys, and stuff seldom sits out for long.
Been on the other end, too. Spotted a large wood dining table in NW suburb on Chicago where we lived some years back, sitting on the curb, waiting for the garbageman. Loaded it up, knocked the hide glue joints apart, reglued it, cleaned it up, and used it for years before my daughter used it for more years for a cutting table for her sewing business.
My wife spotted a nice cane seat bentwood rocker with a few flaws in the caning, and retrieved it in Chicago. Later, toured an auction house, and they had a similar one the appraised at a few hundred bucks. "Thonet" was stamped on it, was why, they said. Since it looked exactly like ours, we looked, it said "Thonet", took it to the auction house, and sold for $250 less $25 to the auction house, complete with the small hole in the caning!
As to HD, all the others' experiences haven't proved true in north Chicago suburb stores I've gone to. Goose
Sister teaches in Germany, years back they had designated "junking day" to dispose of large items.
The small town in IL where my sister lives has "junk day" once or twice a year. Haul whatever you want to the square (assuming you're a resident) and they haul it off. So typically you have folks going there to dump stuff and another group of folks going there to search through the junk for 'gems'. You'd be surprised what gets hauled off before the trashman gets there to clean it up.
jt8
Edited 12/16/2004 4:16 pm ET by JohnT8
You all know about Craigslist.org, right? I check it 4-5 times a day. It's a great resource for finding or offering. Lots of "free"
Home Depot dumpster diving...
The HDs around here don't have a clearance tent, they just have a table in each dept. I always scope out the tool table and have picked up a number of deals.
One time, the table had a nice Makita cordless drill. Obviously a display model that an orange apron-wearer had butchered. Only one battery, missing a trim piece or two (Makita service center is close by), and the cord had been cut off the charger (my guess is that Homer thought this would deter people from stealing it). The tag says $60.
I always dicker over a clearance tool, so I get the flunkie. "I'll give you $30" (for a $250 Canadian drill). "Ooh, I gotta get my manager for that."
Manager: "We can't sell you that drill. It would be illegal as it no longer meets CSA (safety) approval with the cord cut off."
"You gotta be kidding me. Fine, then sell me the drill only. Or just give it to me."
"Nope. It's gotta go in the dumpster."
To my utter shame, I did not drive back that night to dumpster dive. And heck, I would've paid $60 for the drill, and could've, if only I hadn't tried to get a really good steal.
Regards,
Tim Ruttan
Ditto on the experiance. Went to get a Mak. 5" disk sander for stripping two decks. They only had one. I checked the open box and find the disk is missing as well as the allen wrench. Found the Dept Manager and asked if they would either replace the parts, or take some ka-ching off the price. He grabbed the tool, said it wasn't in any condition to be sold, and left before I could argue. Probably found its way to the trunk of his car that night.
Which makes me wonder, what are the rules the employees have for stuff earmarked for the dumpster?
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Hmm- worked for me once, but at Canadian Tire. Got $30 off the price of my Dewalt circ saw because it had sawdust on it. I took the box up to the service counter and said, "this is the only box left on the shelf, but the tool is used- see the sawdust? And the scrapes on the baseplate?"... I didn't mention a price- left it up to them to make me an offer. It never hurts to ask...
Yep, I also wonder what the policy is for stuff headed for the dumpster. Bet the employees dive the dumpsters more often then the general public do... But I doubt that too many tools end up there- all those factory reconditioned Dewalt tools have to come from somewhere!
When I worked at EXPO, if an employee took something that was to be destroyed or was already in the dumpster, it was considered "shrink" (theft) and they were elibigle to be fired. I fed a lot of beautiful merchandise into the compactor - mostly special order stuff that was the wrong size or color.
Home Depot used to be a lot more liberal in how they disposed of imperfect tools and materials. Then they starting getting sued by people who had been harmed by such a discounted or damaged item, and who claimed that Home Depot was responsible by selling or donating less than perfect merchandise (even though the imperfection had nothing at all to do with the damage or injury). They spent so much money defending themselves that they realized they could no longer afford to discount or donate imperfect items.
Your experience may vary a bit by store and store manager, with those managers who have personally been burned by this problem being much more strict in applying the rule than those who have not.
"A completed home is a listed home."
I asked the same thing of my local HD guy in building materials.
I was lookin for a 32' Class II extension ladder. They had only one left, but the bottom leg (rail) had been ever so slightly bent...would not have been hard to straighten. So I asked the orange apron if he had another in the back?
"No".
So....how about selling me this one at a discount?
"No can do...in fact, this is now an unsafe product and we are required to throw these in the dumpster", as he grabs it and hauls it off to the back of the store.
At 11 PM I checked the dumpster...no 32' ladder!
Dollars to donuts its along the side of a HD employee's garage.
BruceM
I almost cried yesterday. Running errands at lunch, I rolled by a big dumpster. Looks like a doctor's office was being converted to a flower shop. In the dumpster were 4-6, 6-panel oak doors (with heavy duty door handles), assorted trimwork (looked like oak), and many other goodies.
Why did I want to cry? 1. I was on lunch and had to get back to work 2. I'm temporarily truck-less. No way to get doors home right now.
<sigh> hate to see that one get away.jt8
The pain.Oh, the pain.
Hmm.. but I'm temporarily not-truckless now, maybe I'll go back by there and see if its still there :)
I should really find a more permanent solution to the truckless issue, but ain't seen anything in my 'price range' around here. I even half-heartedly looked at eBay, but SHOOOOOOT some of those F150/250's have 200k+ miles. That is a BIT more mileage than I'm looking for.
jt8
Do the HDs in your parts have a "liquidation tent" out in the parking lot?
Dunno if thats what you`d call it, but that`s what appears to have been set up at one of the locations nearest to me.
I went browsing there over the weekend...looks like they take all the inventory that aint moving and throw it out there for anyone willing to pick through it.
I have no idea what type of discount one might expect....but from the looks of it, it may be a good idea.
They had a bunch of tile....some styles enough to cover a decent sized room.....others, just a half box here a half box there......light fixtures, same thing...carpet remnents.....even had some twisted 2 bys.
If ya get lucky, and the price is right.....I`m going to plan a lunch a week over there.....I`m always in need of odds and ends crap.J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
Nick , I know we both have done a lot of drywall.
Everytime I look in my yards dumster there seems to be broken drywall. Somtimes a lot for some odd reason. Of course its been busted by a hyster. Free patch material. I have hung several closets and legs in a house with the stuff. Incredible. Lots of 4 to 6 feet peices by 4 ft.
I thouhght it was a dive thread too.
Tim Mooney
How do you save gas and time going to HD when you can save it by having a yard deliver materials?
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
You save HD's gas, and HD's time.....plus your own time spent fighting over the wrong stuff delivered!!!!!!!!!!
How do you save gas and time going to HD when you can save it by having a yard deliver materials?
We had that conversation once , remember ? Now an update;
Depot and Lowes delivers for no charge here now for valued customers , plus Lowes gives a discount on top. Lowes has a 90 day plan and six months no pay on appliances. They both sell leader items such as 8 ft drywall , studs, plywood , OSB, concrete blocks , rebar , etc.
I can hang 8 ft drywall all day by myself standing. [or could] Theirs is about 5 cents per foot cheaper than any ones. I can hire the ceilings hung out [ buying 12 ft rock from the yard]and bring in the walls after the lid is hung out.
Appliances is enough said . I have got several rent payments before the full payment was made on an appliance. Appliances rent by the month in a unit.
On a spec house or a rental , its not offense , its defense. On a rent house or apartment a dollar saved may mean ten times its worth over the loan period. Once the dollar is paid for, or saved , it turns in revolutions like a sears account. Another way to figgure it is that ; the less the principal owed the greater amount of payment can be made to it , and thus the shorter the time to 100 percent pay days. The hours Ive spent on rentals have been paid at much higher amounts back to me than you even make and its still paying. Of course I dont ever make what you do on a single job where I live except if its a spec or a rental. So in other words, labor means little to bottom line business people building their own.
I think you make yours on labor working for high price clients. That would make saving initial money on materials marginal even if you had an incentive to save money on the project. Your labor cost is so high too that it probably wouldnt be smart to mess too much with material. Just a guess figgureing that you are on top scale across the states on labor.
Tim Mooney
Right off, you and I operate on entirely different strata within the remodeling industry. You being high end, me much more middle to lower class. As Tim said, your labor rate is more likely above mine by 50-100%. I work by myself on projects that range from replacing screen doors to kitchens/baths/decks, all solo.
Every night, I sit down and map out the following days activities. I figure out what I'm gonna be doing and what I think I will need. Any given day I can be doing electrical, plumbing, framing, trim, whatever, sometimes all of the above. When I'm working a big project (for me) such as a bathroom, I'll order all the major components and either have them delivered or deliver them myself. During the job, not everything goes according to plan (a real shocker) or I just plain forget things. If I need something that day, I'm not gonna order it and have it delivered (maybe) the next day or the day following, if I'm lucky, because I need it now. Ok, maybe I don't plan ahead as well as I should, but things have worked well up to now. (Or so I think, right?)
My point is, it's more convenient to stop at HD for the immediate necessities than to order from the yard, which may or may not deliver, based on the size of the order, and the timing.
BTW, I have accounts at several lumber, plumbing, electrical and painting houses, and regularly contribute to them, so I know what you're saying. I'm just saying, in my circumstance, it makes sense both time-wise and economically to use HD, especially when I need a number of different types of material that day.
I'm not a fan of HD, but I have to admit I am a customer, albeit, a reluctant one.
Edit, This where I stand up and say, "Hi, my name is Nick, and I'm a customer of Home Depot."
I never met a tool I didn't like!
Edited 12/1/2004 10:45 pm ET by NickNuke'em