Saw a message here about possible tar paper behind a brick wall put up in 1957 on the garage of the poster’s house and I thought, “Might it be fiberboard” which led me to wince. I winced because I got my wife a new Volvo a while back. Not two weeks after it came home I took it for an interview in a rain storm and pegged a piece of fiberboard that some idiot let fall off his trailer. Really ticked me off. (won’t comment on what she had to say, or where I almost wound up sleeping that night)
Anyway, construction debris is the #1 roadside trash in the area around Charlotte, NC. I was stunned to hear it cause I know how hard we work to keep costs down and how careful everyone here surely must be. (so I hope)
I have seen at least a half dozen hard hats this month. I saw a 20′ length of flexible, round AC ducting last week. Tell me they didn’t know THAT flew off!
Anyway, what is the problem?
Replies
So, they build a lot with bud cans over there?
It's okay, I can fix it!
Must be, must be. Although in Denver I hear its Coors cans.
It was a news report. You know, news chicky looking all concerned bobbing her head talking about our trash by the road and then she sweeps her arm and the camera follows the movement to display a piece of construction debris with the skyline of Charlotte behind it. Some state group or other was quoted and the usual by line of what's being done about it.
I am just curious if folks really don't notice stuff leaving their vehicles. I sure know when a coke can I forget back there takes flight. It usually floats right behind the rear window by about 75-80 and then POW hits the rear glass and comes out of the truck. First time it scared the crap out of me. What happens when the guy who lost the AC duct gets there and can't finish the job? Move the vent 20' closer? Carry a few spares for the ones that fly off? Does the customer get billed if he was headed back in and counts it gone when he checks inventory?
OR, should I just start picking it up, be happy, and hope enough falls off to finish the ducting for my upstairs office by the time I'm ready to finish the poject?
A guy I work with found two Paslode Impulse framers laying alongside the road.
That's not debris, that's a gift from God...
Some people would say it was deliberate. LOL The whole story is, he couldn't really justify keeping them since he didn't have a use for them. So I bought them for a hundred a piece. I was going to have them gone through and keep them for the future. I already have a perfectly good one. Well I farted around and didn't do anything with them. My brother wanted one so I sold it to him for what I gave for it. A couple of months ago a buddy asked me if I still had one, since he was checking into getting one and didn't really want to pay full price. I sold him the other one for what I gave for it. He had it rebuilt and replaced the battery charger that was missing all for one twenty five. He likes it. Funny thing is we were talking about it one day and the guy that had originaly found them said that he wished he would have kept one because now he's finding all kinds of uses for one latley.
They just happened to be "laying" in the tool box of a pickup"
Details detailsDo not try this at home!
I am a trained professional!
Listen I have picked up refridge parts on the side of the road. We has seen the back of one laying on the side of the road for about two days. Finally when I was in the truck I PICKED it up. I couldn't believe no one got it during that time frame. For the most part I would say some don't realize they have lost what ever is on the side of the road or just too lazy to go back and get it.Tamara
Just up the road from me where they're doin a fantastic remodel I see several hundred pounds of copper out for the trash......I left rubber putting my breaks on. Doing "aluminum siding" 27 years ago I know about going to the junk yard. I made over two hundred bucks for five minutes work.......Go figure.
Be well
Namaste
AndyIt's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
Now if you could only figure out how to do that for 8 hours a day...Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
Forget the primal scream, just Roar!
Come garbage night the "junkers" start circling. Ever see their trucks? I can not imagine all that stuff stays on their trucks when they are on the road. Looks like Sanford and Sons. I do try to put my aluminum and scrap value stuff where they can see it. Trying to help the G Man more than anything.
J.
I CAN TOP YOU ALL....
Last year I was going down the highway here in arizona and I passed a white commercial van in the gore lane at an exit stopped dead with a 6 PERSON SIZE JACUZZI leaning on the front windshield and ground in front of it...
soooo funny,,,they must have put it on top of the van (likely from home depot)
strapped it down and when they slowed for the exit...OH OHHHHHmakinsawdust
I once saw a car pick up a mattress and box spring on a highway. Just wasn't on purpose.
A little pickup had the mattress and box spring in the back. Wouldn't quite fit, so they ran the front up and over the cab. Just as they hit the edge of town and accelerated, the wind got underneath them and they flew up in the air together.
Landed right on the front of an oncoming car. The guy in the car wasn't at all impressed by the flying mattress. Smashed his windsheild and scared the crap outa him.
I made sure no one was hurt, left my name as a witness, then got the heck out of there.......
According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman is their eyes. And women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars.
All that garbage diverted from the dumps isn't necessarily a bad thing. Here its actually illegal to remove anything from the curbside recycling collection bins or garbage containers. I imagine its a recycling thing.
I can remember about a year ago, when I was working in Toronto, being passed by a pickup that had a ladder hanging off the back of it. the ladder went airborne after a big bump, and the taillights lit up real quick as they pulled to the shoulder of the 403 (Interstate). Not quick enough though. A semi made scrap aluminium of that thing real quick, and a compact behind it got to eat alu. scraps. Good reasons not to follow too close, and to slow down a little on the highway. I wonder what the ladder used to be worth...
JAG
And When I must Leave the Great River, Oh Bury Me Close to its wave,And Let My Canoe and My Paddle, Be the only Mark over my Grave
Zone 5b Brantford Ontario, Canada
I can't believe it sat there so long too. I once had a bundle of insulation blow off on I-70. I stopped within a quarter mile to back up along the shoulder. I had to back fast because I saw another truck stopppping. I almost had to fight the guy for his "salvage rights" on MY insulation.Excellence is its own reward!
Oh man thanks for the LAUGH:-) I needed that today!Tamara
No they were laying alongside the road. He is always spotting and picking up stuff alongside the road. He just saw the big orange cases laying in the weeds and stopped to check em out. He was on the main road and where he found them is where a side road turns on to the main. Back off the side road is a couple of new housing developments going up. Someone must have forgot them on the tool box or some where and the cases slid off, when the truck turned onto the hiway. I'm sure somebodies helper had a sore butt. They weren't engraved or anything so no one knows who they belonged to.
What makes you think its us? Id be more inclined to believe its the DIYers, you ever look at what they try and carry home on the top of that Saab?
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
You know, that's probably it! That 20' section of AC duct and those 5 hard hats just wouldn't stay in the bed of that caddie truckette thingy. ;-) Pretty sure it probably isn't "US" it is most likely "THEM".
Seriously, I would venture that most posters here are sensitive to these types of things and would stop and get something that flew out, if they knew it. I feel more likely it is the hired crews that are in a hurry to get home or to a job. I clocked a truck from SC coming out of ATL at over 90mph. It was a work truck with the labels for a tower contractor all over it. If he wanted to drive his _personal_ truck that way, it's his business, but he opened his employer up for legal action based on him running like that with so much traffic. (at all really, but I wouldn't have cared if it hadn't been so congested) He kept that pace for at least 100 miles. I had to drop back, fear of getting nailed when he did, or worse, not being able to avoid his wreck at that speed.
OK....I`ll give you the hard hats...but Im dead serious. If you look at the way people "load" their vehicles down at the Big Box you might feel as I do. Ive seen worse than 20' of AC duct "strapped" to the hood of the family minivan.J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
More than once I've offered to truck some impossible load for someone rather than have them drop it later on. Just this past week I offered to carry a huge gas grill home for a lady with a VW Cabrio. She was trying to stick it on the folded down top. She pulled it out and stuffed it in pieces everywhere. There was still pieces hanging out the top....
There's a HD right off Rt 15 in Dover, NJ.
EVERY weekend Rt15 is littered with materials. I keep telling myself I'm going to start cruising Rt15 Sunday afternoons.
Mike
I just saw a guy with 10 sheets of 1/2" foam sheathing tied to roof of his car. Only tied in the middle. He did not even get out of the parking lot with out half of the sheets breaking and blowing away. I kind of felt sorry for him. I remebered when I was in college I had to buy 3 sheets of homisote (sp) as a tack board. Tied it to the roof of dads car and held on to the front half of the sheets through the open window. Only lost half of one sheet. Drove kind of of slow with the hazard lights blinking.
Got one from this Sat no less... Middle aged guy from local tech college was sent to get some OSB in a pickup. Gets about 12-15 sheets of pretty heavy stuff, may have been decking, but I was too busy to read it. I'm going to store with my 14 mo sidekick/son when this guy dumps his load right in front of us about three cars up. Folks go all over the curbs and stuff to keep from hitting it. I grab the gloves and he & I load it like the road is on fire. I realized he had NO TIE down on it! Nothing, just threw it in the back and figured it would stay! We used the only thing I had, black duct tape. He did it, but as he drove off I realized he was definitely not a physics professor. He'd just taped a loop around the ends! Now at least they won't scatter when they come out... My son was laughing. Him being so young I couldn't tell if it was the chinese fire drill lumber manuvers or that single loop of tape.
Who says all the bargains are over at Home Depot?
Seriously,
I have travelled in many parts of the world and have always remarked at what sidewalks and roadsides tell about a culture.
Sidewalks tell how much they care about people and roadsides tell how many resources are available to waste.
Yes it is disgusting to see things dumped, but it is part of the same problem of junk being sent to the landfill. We don't see how much debris gets buried. When I look at how much materials cost me, I am amazed by how much gets wasted, especially by the big tract builders.
speaking of tract builders, the builder of my home told me that some of the big tract guys were getting siding at a cost that was listed as cost! Almost 1/2 what he was paying. Because they buy it in the container ship load I guess. Of course, it's all this plastic stuff like I've got and love to hate. I know wood is a lot more maint, but it just looks more, more, uh... more real.
Driving down the fwy early one morning with my pal Red in the Head and he see a old jacket lieing on the side of the road. So He stops backs up the truck on the fwy and gets out and retrieves it. It was all ripped to ssheds buuuuttttt Looking in the pocket we found about 6 bucks it was late 1970's and we were only makeing about 8.50-9 bucks a hour so not a bad find
Darkworksite4: When the job is to small for everyone else, Its just about right for me"
my prepared answer to "o.k. where did you get this stuff", if I even got arrested for possession was, "found it on the side of the road."# # # # # # # , # # #--# # # # !
Sounds like one of the guys who used to work for me. Load him up with materials and he'd get loaded on the way to the job. Materials heck, I found the whole dang truck on the side of the road. Tools were gone but I still had what was left of the materials. The fine was more than either was worth.
Have a few comments on this subject, hehe :)
1. Dropping stuff on the way home...About a year ago I had bought about 50 bucks in 2 bys and plywood for a doghouse. Gunned my truck to make a left-turn in rush hour traffic and lost all but one sheet of CDX; didn't even notice until I got home, but I was wondering why the road construction crew was looking at me and laughing. Was too embarrassed to pick it up.
2. Also lost a 16' extension ladder I had borrowed from my boss on the interstate a few months back...again, didn't notice until I arrived on-site. I hope no cars hit it! I bought a new ladder.
3. Builder waste...As a tract home framer I know all about this--I build all my workshop horses,benches, etc. from scraps. One bulldozer operator I knew made money on the side by loading up all the left-over lumber from each house into his dump-truck. Stealing, you ask? Not really, because the contractor he works for doesn't have the lumber company pick-up the unused material, so it would just sit out in the weather and ruin anyway.
A couple of years ago I was waiting at a stop light. A contractor was waiting in another lane to turn left. When his light turned green he hit the gas and pealed out. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to raise the tailgate on the bed of his truck. As he accelerated quickly on the turn, all of his tools slid out the bed and covered the intersection. Apparently he had neglected to close the lid on his tool boxes as well, judging from the way the tools scattered.
No one else could move, so we all sat there and watched him pick up his tools while he cussed up a blue streak. I guess we could have offered to help, but we didn't. Didn't feel like getting cussed at. Bet he never does that again.
"A completed home is a listed home."
Only the road could tell what i've lost. The socket set on the bumper, the boy next door found, but couldn't find. Err err, it was stolen from us. I dropped my 6 inch PC ROS on the road and picked it up the next day. Benifits to living in the country.
The funniest, though, or not: was when we returned from Maryland (home of crabs). After some loaded in laws loaded, a few wingback chairs. I didn't check or didn't care. While they were elegant chairs and all the color poo poo was just perfect, we did not have room or the enviroment for them. Kids.
So after getting on I-66 around midnight, I was looking through the rearview mirror and seeing sparks. And the flashing of a multitude high beams. Pretty desolate, even after Christmas. I sped up. Then, to my amazement, in the mirror, I saw the second chair actualy leave the bed. When I realized what had happened, I also realized what the other sparks were.
The chair and its nails hitting the asphalt. I stopped at the next exit, which happened to be a rest area. I stuffed the safely stashed, matching cushions in the trash so as to eliminate any link.
In laws were pissed and DW was crying. (hell they cry when their happy). So any way, the other half of the the furniture didn't even fit. Of course we had no matching chairs... Failure to contain load
david smarter now
I was sitting in my vehicle eating lunch and this pick-up truck pulled out of the side street [actually Q Street] with its tailgate down. As it visciously accellerated, a toolbox flew out the back and alit on the side of the road.
Continuing to sip my instant coffee, I bravely continued to observe the situation. By and by, a car pulled over and this woman got out and proceeded to pick the thing up. Obviously she was going to take it home for safekeeping so nobody could steal it and then the rightful owner could come over to her house and retrieve it.
Enough of this male bovine byproduct. I got out of my Casual vehicle and argued like a lawyer with her. She had no choice but to relinquish custody unto my possession. I kicked it gently under my drippy oil pan for the nonce. After my luncheon was finalized, it ended up in the hands of its rightful owner. It was his collection of welding tips.
-Peter
What happened to the Piffin story?
One of the best fall off the truck stories was a guy hauling boxes of nails hit the gas ,nails hit the steet 2 25 lb boxes of 8's sheriff and I were behind him when it happened. Fortunately I had my magnet and the sheriff was a nice guy but there must have been 20 idiots who wouldn't wait and drove right thru the mess I know the tire stores got some work.
ANDYSZ2
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=23415.1
What piffin story was that?
I've told quite a few, some of them true.
Like this one...
I left some sparks along the Highway once.
I was living in Taos NM and there was this little chickie living in San Antonio. So I left after work on thur PM and drove all night in my '57 Chevy Stepside, the most beautiful PU ever built, to see her.
After a pleasent weekend - during which I can't remember sleeping much - I loaded up to drive home again. I was only about seventy miles north of SA on the interstate when I remember having this dream about some really impressive fireworks and thinking, "hey those are neat!" when suddenly I became aware that I was sleeping with my eyes open. What I was seeing were sparks in my rearview mirror becayse I was sliding along the gaurdrail with my truck. I left behind a little paint and some sparks in Texas.
So I took a nap and got to work late the next week..
Excellence is its own reward!
Mr. Piffin,
I was refering to the thread "Piffen Swarms".
-Peter
If you come to a fork in the road... pick it up.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=23415.1
That's the one I was linking for you - the Q was a joke.
Excellence is its own reward!
About 2 years a go I was traveling on the Interstate on my way to Harrisburg, when I spotted something along the shoulder of the road , I pulled over and it was a 71/4 inch Milwaukee circular saw,not a damn thing wrong with it, still use yet.. must of fell off some ones truck..
ToolDoc
Am I the only one here who thinks it very irresponsible to drop something on the road and then run? It's your mess, clean it up. Don't cop out with the ignorance excuse.
Depends. Nice tools, new appliances, wads of cash - stuff like that is OK to leave behind.
"A completed home is a listed home."