There were a lot of great ideas recently about building a new shop. Been working on mine for the last 6 months.....and will be working on it for many months more. Thought I’d weigh in on an option for covering your interior walls. Drywall, plywood, particle board and OSB were all considered, but one day my neighbor Rick and I were brainstorming and he came up with a brilliant idea: free used fencing. Look in your local Craigslist and you might be surprised at all the fence and deck companies who have piles of the stuff, advertising they’ll give it away, free, just for the price of asking. Think about it: they take down an old wooden fence as part of a contract to install a new fence, and they have to haul off and discard all the old material. What to do with the old material? They either haul it to a dump and pay to dispose of it, or give it away to someone like Rick and I who’ll repurpose it to cover the interior walls of our respective garages. One day we made two trailer trips to a local fence contractor’s yard and we each ended up with about 15-20 fence panels. Here’s where the real work begins: these cedar fence panels were all 6’ tall and 8’ wide with 4” pickets in various states of deterioration, but the color and weathering of the material was the look I was after– very much like old barn siding. (Note: I’d have preferred 6” pickets instead of 4”, but did I say this stuff was Free?!). Breaking everything down was a real chore. Admittedly there will be a lot of waste. Putting it up on your walls takes time, but is easy enough, and gives you a chance to demonstrate some creative carpentry skills. One of the reasons I’m in this hobby is because I just flat like old stuff and being able to repurpose something, free, except for the cost of my labor, makes my day. Anyway, below are some pictures, it’s still a work in progress, but you’ll get the idea.....
Good luck. Dave
Interior wall 1Interior wall 2Interior wall 3
