Did you recently have a construction project and you have tons of leftover or scrap construction materials to dispose of?
Check this post if you want to make some few bucks out of it and rather than throw it away. This is also perfect for the “kuripot” or cheeseparing people who wants to get something out of the expenses already made, nothing “must be thrown away” attitude it is!
These are just guides. Although not everything written is practiced per country, we hope that you will have an idea on how to make money recycling some excess construction materials you have.
1.) What to do with Leftover Reinforcing Bars
If say, you have tons of one-foot length left reinforcing bars, you can use those for dowels. Dowel bars are used to connect two non-homogenous concrete to reduce faulting. In other words, dowels help in reducing cracking by transferring the load across the entire concrete joints.
Other contractors save it for window or door openings. Corners of openings need reinforcement to prevent it from cracking. Even slab openings for stairs uses reinforcing bars also called as “corner wall bars” to prevent corner openings from cracking. Check your structural code if this is needed in your location.
If you have enough materials for round or square reinforcing bars, you can always use it for stair railings or window railings.
If what you have are lengths that are too small to be of use, then, better collect it all and ship it to your nearest junk shop. No matter how tiny, since junkshops buy it per kilogram, you can always sell it away.
2.) What to do with Leftover Cement
Normally, the shelf life of cement is around three months. Some contractor deliberately orders excess cement for patching purposes. Leftover cement may be used for patching holes that is punched by aircon contractor for the HVAC pipes.
For too much cement excess, you may want to use it for landscaping. Hire a skilled worker to create something nice about leftover cement, say, foot bricks for porch or backyard. You may also it to build your DIY barbeque or grilling station.
3.) What to do with Leftover Gravel and Sand
You can use your excess gravel for downspout openings. Course earth filling like gravel help in distributing the load of rushing rain water to your catch or area basin that causes soil caving. You can add some gravel in your catch basin or area drain as a means of filter as well. They help filter larger objects that may clogged stormwater line allowing only water to pass through.
For sand, you can use it for masonry and tiling works. Hopefully you won’t have too much excess sand left as sand serves as a base material for concreting works. It needs to come in with cement to create something useful. Always ask your contractor if he/she double checked the quantity of aggregates requested to lessen mistakes of too much wastage.
4.) What to do with Leftover Tiles
If you have few untouched tiles, better keep it for spare purposes. You wouldn’t know if the contractor did a good job with your tiling installation. It’s better to have some spare in case those tiles pops. Tiling industry is fast-paced and tile designs now may not be available in the next few years.
If what you have are chipped, cracked, or tiny portions of different designs, you may use it as random tiling for pathways or garage. Some contractors can do this in an excellent way, but, other also do this too messy so better do this with care. Skilled tilers even do balcony or terrace out of random tiles and they do it in a really good way. Some tilers also install random chipped tile for foot bath in swimming pools. Or perhaps lavatory or sink for dirty kitchens.
5.) What to do with Leftover Wood
With enough good quality hard wood, some furniture shops buy it. They are using it to make centerpieces, doors, frames, and others.
You can also do this DIY. If you have enough time, tools, and you are into doing this stuff, you can create good-looking wall decorations out of leftover woods. You can also create stair railings if you have too much wood excess. That way, you may even ditch the steel railings and just use the excess wood for railings, shell-out a few bucks if the remaining wood materials is not enough. You can save some serious money in there.
You can also use this to do tables and chairs for your garage or balcony. Or perhaps, some tiny toys for your kids to play.
6.) What to do with Leftover Plywood
Leftover high-quality plywood may be used as tiny chairs and table for children. When properly cured and painted, others were able to use it as service area / laundry chairs. Other people also use plywood leftover, with thickness of half inch or thicker in building pet houses for dogs, cats, pigeons, and others.
Others, with skills and tools, uses plywood for wall hang open storage and bookshelves. Just buy some brackets, or hidden brackets, attach it to the walls using rented tools, then you have wall hang extra storage. All for a tiny bucks and time investments.
7.) What to do with Leftover Glass Cuttings
Very common in the Philippines, Filipinos tend to use glass cuttings, say, cut jalousie windows over fences which serves to deter burglars. Other people even deliberately destroy glass bottles for this “anti-climb” measure for fences alone.
Don’t forget to use safety protection and gears when dealing with glasses as they are sharp and brittle it can easily cut you without you knowing. Tiny shreds can also get easily into eyes which is catastrophic!
8.) What to do with Leftover PVC Pipes
We hope you do not have too much excess PVC materials as there are not much to do with scrap PVC pipes. If you still have functional length that can be used for sanitary or water line, better check for online buy and sell groups if there is someone willing to buy it (normally in bulk). Buy and sell groups online provide better resale value than your local junkshops.
Otherwise, just like some of the materials on top, you can always sell it rather than throw it.
If you have tremendous amount of leftover materials, you may want to invest for some professional tools. Check this link as we’ve found some great deal at 50% off!
Did we miss something? Let us know in the comment section!
There are hazardous construction materials that is better thrown away than recycled. Some of which are asbestos, lead-based paint and construction materials that are proven to be carcinogenic. If you want to keep these things (advisable to be disposed-off properly anyway), better lock it in a secured and dry storage room to keep it away from playing children.
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We hope you were able to get some ideas as to what to do with scrap construction materials. It is ideal to not have any scrap construction materials at all but then it is hard to just attain it. Let us do our part in helping the world’s temperature at bay by somehow limiting our carbon footprint our own way.
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