My cheap salt shed

[Mick]

It doesn't even compare with others', but for my purpose it works pretty well. I needed something to store bulk salt to then mix with Magic later in the Fall. The purpose of getting the bulk now is that I can get good deals on rock salt this time of year buying others' left overs. What I found last year was that salt is often stored outdoors, purhaps covered with a tarp which might get torn and let rain in. Then the salt would be wet. Although I let the salt sit last year for about a month, I still had problems with it being wet. So this year, I've begun buying salt now. Now I needed a seperate storage area; somewhere that would let it dry as fast and well as possible. So this is what I came up with. Mostly just material I had laying around; the contour of the land let me build it so there would be air circulation underneath. The floor boards are 2x6s with 5/8" plywood covering them. The walls and roof are made of 2x4s and 5/8 OSB. I built an interior wall part way up for circulation between the salt and the exterior wall. I put an overhang to prevent rain from getting in and put a tarp only part way up to allow circulation when it's hooked up. On the roof, I used roofing felt as I had a couple of rolls laying around, but didn't use shingles because of the cost. The felt has lasted almost a year now.

I realize it's not very big or very strong, but I only planned for about ten yards of salt at the most. What you see in there now is three 55 gallon drums worth ( one cubic yard is 3.67 drums). Last year I had about three CYs and it held it fine.

So what do you think?

[snowplowjay]

How have the floor boards and wall areas that have salt against them holding up??? Any rotting occuring???

Looks like a nice little setup though. Good use of extra materials to benefit your business.

Nice job Mick!!!


Jay

[Mick]

No rotting yet, Jay, and it's been a year.

[snowjoker]

Looks nice Mick! Take some used motor oil and roll it on the 0sb to make it last a long time. Old farmers trick I learned from my grandfather. Is that shovel the salt loader into the truck?:eek:

[cat320]

Looks good Mick if you want to keep that shed for a while i would paint that osb quick then have the inside linexed or something.It looks like it's working good for you so far just looks like alot of hard hand work to load your sander.

[Mick]

Thanks. It's not for loading the sander from, though. I get that from a supplier where I can use his loader. This is for storing salt that I'll mix with Magic -0, package and sell by the pound to homeowners and small business owners. I don't even need a sprayer since I mix it in a wheelbarrow and use the shovel to get it thoroughly mixed. It's a lot of hard work, but the payoff is there and does a better job than spraying a pile.

One of the bigger problems is quality control. Since I'm using mostly bulk salt ( I used some packaged Halite last winter), I pay particular attention to any dirt or other foreign material.

[snowplowjay]

You should pick up a nice older used small cement mixer for the mixing process. It may pay itself off big time by the end of Salt season!!!

I wish I still had mine I would be doing that :D


Jay

[snowjoker]

Originally posted by snowplowjay
You should pick up a nice older used small cement mixer for the mixing process. It may pay itself off big time by the end of Salt season!!!

I wish I still had mine I would be doing that :D


Jay

Been there done that already. Works Great!!
32 ounces magic to 62.5 pounds salt ( approx. 5 gallon pail ) at the ratio of 8 gallons magic per ton of salt.