Major Lumber Storage Project Finished

This winter, I took a couple days to completely rebuild my lumber storage area.  My house is built into the side of a hill, and one of the previous occupants had constructed a makeshift workspace underneath one end of the house.

When we first moved in, I set some concrete blocks on the dirt floor of the workspace, carefully leveled them, and started stacking my few pieces of pine lumber on them.  Over the next couple of years, the pile grew as I added more pine, then some hardwoods, and long offcuts.  Lately the pile had become completely unmanageable.  I apologize for not having a before-picture, but I don’t ever want to see that mess again.

So, armed with a handsaw, an electric drill, a bo of deck screws, and a minivan-load of 2X4s, I set to work installing some lumber storage that made better use of the available space.  Because the ground slopes up gradually under the house, there is an accessible crawlspace under most of the house that gets smaller and smaller toward the back of the house.

The storage concept is simple.  With adequate support, the long pieces of lumber can be inserted into the crawlspace long-ways.  Shorter pieces can be stored in a shorter rack underneath and beside the longer one.

That freed up enough floor space for me to install a light-duty work table as well, which you can see on the right in the above photo.

As long as I’m giving you the under-the-house tour, let’s look at a few other storage areas.

In the right of the above photo, you can see my stash of log sections, waiting to be cut down and sawn into boards on my bandsaw.  Between the two brick pillars, you just see my drill press.  That’s where all the pipe-drilling magic happens.

This is my grinding/buffing station, strategically placed for the best natural light.  It also doubles as a spoon billet storage rack at the moment.  Later this week, when the temperatures drop below freezing, it will probably also become a potted plant sanctuary.

The whole area is still a glorified crawlspace with a dirt floor.  The difference is that it used to be mostly a storage area; now it’s both a storage area and a usable workspace.

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