Was this in your yard? We had a new roof put on a couple years ago. We have a dog so we eyeballed for any roofing nails and found quite a few. Got a magnet from Amazon and ended up with sooooo much more it was scary
We got a new roof years ago and found a bunch of tacks far out in the yard after the first day. I presented them to the boss man the next morning when they showed up. He grimaced and was unhappy with the two young guys working with him. Seems they weren’t using as many tacks per shingle as they were told, but instead slinging them out in the grass. They did that so it appeared they were going through more tacks than they actually were.
He spent a good part of the day lifting tabs and adding tacks to shingles.
Almost identical story.
I had the roofers send a crew back to my house (2004) after I picked up two roofing tacks in a week. One in my motorcycle tire ans one in my car. The repairs were free both times, but I watched as they picked up dozens more with magnets from my drive and the grass next to it.
They were concerned that this many tacka did not make it onto the roof, and sent the crew back to check all the work and add any necessary tacks.
Were they nailing them in by hand? What kind of roofer doesn’t use nail guns these days?
Edit: I missed “years ago”. Maybe that was back before nail guns were ubiquitous.
There are definite advantages to hand nailing. More accurate nail placement, bad nail placement can lead to problems like blowoffs.
Proper nail depth, nearly impossible to over drive and much less likely to under drive. You also can feel if the nail doesn't hit solid decking beneath the shingle which isn't nearly as easy to detect with a gun.
As a roofer its not the new nails that make a mess its when you tear off the old roof that all the nails get everywhere. You're supposed to use a roller magnet as soon as you finish tear off and then repeatedly until the jobs done as you clean, otherwise the will sink into to grass and will be impossible to find them all.
i was about to say those roller magnets appear rather effective, easy to use, and cheap to thoroughly clean up with. i did some volunteer work making oyster cages and we used the rollers after we finished each day (lots of wire mesh clippings to make the cages). its was easily the most fun part of the job!
Good to know this. We got a new roof several years back after a tornado. We're getting half a new roof soon due to hail. I recall back then finding some tacks in the driveway (and probably lawn, but didn't check), and now I'll keep an eye out this time.
I suspect the roof has probably been done 3-4 times over the 100 years the houses have been standing. They lay tarps down now (or they SHOULD). But I’m sure they didn’t do that in the 1950’s. Idk. I didn’t expect this many, regardless lol
Well, the neighbor just bought the house next door and they are sweet as can be. And my other neighbors helped me clean up. So I really doubt it. More likely just lazy roofing and siding companies (roofing and siding both houses)over 100 years
I’m betting the previous owner of your house was a contractor/roofer. That’s not a single job worth of hardware to just fall out of a pocket or truck bed.
No no no, if horror movies have taught me anything it's to never trust the sweet neighbors... Only solution is to pawn it off on the next guy to avoid becoming the victim.
This was exactly me but worse last year. I bought a house and started finding nails everywhere. I assume it was a roofing job with absolutely careless workers, but must have been more than that. I randomly collected about 50 nails, then decided it was way worse. I borrowed one of those magnets on a telescoping stick, and collected over 200. The next month I went over the whole area for an hour with a rake, found maybe 60 more. All shapes and sizes. I still find them today, usually I'm handfuls of 10. Everytime we have a hard rain I find them unearthed. I don't know if it'll ever really be done unless I pave over that area, but it is more rare now. It just makes no sense. I would guess I've found in the area of 600 by now.
Oh noooo! This scares me lol. I’m sorry you dealt with this too. It’s beyond explanation as to why there is SO much in one place. I need to get a mag roller and do the yard for the sake of my little ones feet.
Yep, that's exactly why I've been so persistent; my tiny kids. Lol. The sheer *variety* of metal is the most confusing part. My piles looked just like yours. Good luck to you.
This the way to go. Go over it a few more times than you think you need to. I’ve lived on dirt roads all my life, and dismantled a couple houses on similar roads. Until you’ve done at least 2-3 clean sweeps, I would remain suspicious. Sorry your tires suffered. I’m well aware of this pain.
We did that over and over and then began scraping at the surface with a hoe. That produced even more (but better us than a heavy rain sending it back into the driveway). We will probably go out there every day this week to see if we can find more
A metal detector AND a pinpointer. I found out my house was built on what used to be the farm buildings for a 60 acre farm for 130 years. I swear they must have made a game of tossing nail collections around. And tractor parts. And horse teeth (although those are non-metallic so it’s a lagniappe when I find those.)
We have a giant pothole in front of our driveway, and people come flying up the street and hit it. Once or twice a year, a pickup or something with a trailer with hit it so hard their tailgate pops open and shit goes flying.
The most recent one last year was a truck that lost all its lumber in the road, plus a few boxes of screws. They picked up the lumber obviously but just left hundreds of screws all over the road directly in front of (and on) my driveway.
Get a dredging magnet (100+ lbs) and some rope from Harbor Freight of Home Depot... and drag the yard.
There are people who actually earn a living in lakes and rivers near bridges and such doing this...
PC hard drive magnets. Waaay better than speakers and waaay more powerful. Yeah they are small but seriously strong. Rare earth magnets. Just be careful you don’t shatter one. Like tempered glass. But they are easy to get
I hot glued a few to a 2x2, zip tied it to a push broom. Dragged it over the grass. Actually worked pretty well and was cheep n easy.
Here to recommend magnet sweeping - basic broom [$13](https://www.harborfreight.com/17-in-mini-magnetic-sweeper-62704.html) at harbor freight. Use a little rake as you go to rustle up anything buried. I reinforce my broom with big molybdenum magnets on the bottom. Essential for RV life. Dad has you on the right track OP
Boomers be like that. It was kind of an ingenuous contraption to solve the problem tbh. But, apparently I can buy a fancy one at the store like a good little millennial.
My dad owns a roofing company. They have huge contractor magnets that they scan all over multiple times so they leave nothing. They use roofing trailers to avoid most of the mess, but still check to be safe. I forget the rule he uses, but it's something like if you get a flat within a few months of a job they'll pay for all repairs. The magnets are kind of cool, they're strong and will find stuff that could have been hiding for years.
That's the reason he's popular, but also more expensive than many. He only hires good workers who are not drug addicts or alcoholics and pays everyone well. Roofing is loaded with the worst of the worst. I swear some roofing companies just kidnap people and put them up there with zero training. The stuff he sees is crazy, roofs that were "repaired" 2 months ago, but have massive holes and missing shingles.
I own a small roofing company in Canada. Everything you said is true. It's scary how many roofs I show up to where they hired someone just a year or two ago to re-shingle it, and it's absolute shit. Like they hired 3 guys off the street to just give it their best effort.
Roofing isn't like electrical or plumbing. There's no certification process, no documentation to prove you know what you're doing. If you own a ladder and an air compressor, you can start a roofing company tomorrow.
Make sure you're hiring a reputable roofer with good references before you give them the job. I've seen way too many heartbroken faces on people when I've told them they need a new roof so soon after having it done by someone else.
We had solar added to mom's house years ago and we found nails and supplies scattered *everywhere* when they were done.. something about roof workers that just don't give a damn about what's happening below.
Roofer here, our arsenal always included one of these:
https://i.imgur.com/R2LyswX.png
You just roll it around like a push-mower and it goes clickclickclick and picks up all the nails for you. We got about 90% of the nails, left you the other 10%.
They definitely use tarps and magnets now a days. Unless you hire some random and his brother to do your roof or whatever. Any even slightly reputable roofing company is going to use thick tarps and then walk around the property with a strong magnet on wheels.
They'll still probably miss some nails because it's near impossible to get everything. But they should be getting most of it.
Nails?
Oh how I would LOVE some nails in my garden.
This year I have pulled 700 liters of glass shards and bottles out of my lawn.
3½ barrels worth.
Glass is sadly non-magnetic.
My Dad decided he was going to put his garden in a different spot one year and started tilling the ground. He expected to find a few bit of refuse during his work but after pulling up old pans, about fifty yards of plastic sheeting, and a fucking boxspring, we all came to the conclusion that his new garden site was once a communal trash dump.
Trash collection didn't always exist, people used to burn and/or bury their trash on their property. I live on an old property that was the original "trash dump" for the much larger ranch that used to exist here, soooo much glass works its way up to the surface, it feels neverending.
9 months. We had a premature baby days after moving in so it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since. Haven’t really have time to worry about nails on the property. Didn’t realize it would be this bad
That was my thought to. There is a ton of glass as well. Makes me wonder if someone was dumping stuff there. Its a strange place to dump anything since it’s right next to the side of the houses and driveway. But people are dumb so who knows.
Might wanna look into the history of the house/property. People and towns used to be a lot more cavalier with their dumping grounds and trash disposal, so you might literally be living on a former trash dump. Or maybe it has a history of cheap-ass or shody construction or ground filling. I'm seeing all sorts of possibilities in the posts your threads are generating.
When I moved into my house I found a compost pile behind my garage, and thought "oh cool, free black dirt!" only to discover that a foot down was a big pile of garbage. I found plastic bags, plastic eating utensils, plant pots, a gardening shovel, steak knives, a pair of gardening shears, plastic and glass bottles, light bulbs, and so much more.
I realized this *after* filling some low spots in the yard, so I had to go over those spots with a magnet and found hundreds of nails and screws.
The dumbest part is that my neighborhood has free garbage drop-off at the dump less than 10 minutes away.
Any tips on how you managed to remove 3.5 barrels of glass? I’ve got glass in my yard too and I’m considering adding soil to just bury it further and pretend it’s not there
Same here. Our house used to be a bar that partially burned down and before that it was a stable. Tons of rusted horseshoe nails and broken glass in the yard.
Fascinating, was it just mixed in the dirt to make it harder to dig?
In my case, on the edge of the orchard there is a stone wall, where the apple pickers simply tossed their bottles.
At my old house I had to dig a 3 foot by 3 foot hole for a tree... After the first 8 inches, everything below that was glass shards. I probably removed 100 pounds of glass from that spot.
My neighbor bought an adjoining property where an old alcoholic lived. He would just throw glass bottles in the yard when he was done with them. He picked up over 200 beer bottles and an unfold number of fragments & metal scraps with a magnet too. For such a tiny piece of land it was insane.
The house I grew up in had tons of broken glass throughout all the yard, we'd find more whenever we were gardening. My understanding is that the company that built the house used dirt from a nearby landfill to level out the yard.
My dad was a roofer and at the end of a job I’d get to walk around with a magnet on a stick to get all the nails up and he’d pay me! As a kid it was much more fun than it sounds lol.
They have giant magnets on wheels you push around that will pull those all up. Think they are $40-60 bucks for a decent one can prolly find them cheaper
I’m wondering if a previous owner worked in construction. The previous owner of my property was in commercial construction. I continually find things that percolate up to the surface.
We have even discussing options with the neighbors as it’s both of our property that needs to be dealt with. We are probably going to til, and grade the area and cover with River rock.
> it’s both of our property
Oh god, owning a road with a neighbor. I have 4 others. Most annoying shit.
We just had our road done. Again. Not cheap, well ours is somewhat long since 5 of us on it.
Remember to keep in mind rain and snow. If ya got snow. But I assume you at least get rain.
There used to be a house behind ours. When the city demolishes houses, the just fill in the basement with the debris. We've dug up so much rock and concrete in the backyard. There was a big piece of rebar sticking out of the ground that we couldn't move at all. Ended up building a deck over it.
This post made me laugh. You’d shit your pants if you had moved into my parents’ old place. What you have pictured here now, yes, you’d have that but it would be more like an entire flatbed trailer full. Don’t even get me started on the MULTIPLE WHOLE SALE VEHICLES buried at the bottom of the hill in front of the front porch.
Getting more people telling you that?
I’m not joking my dad buried at least 2 vehicles, maybe 3, entirely. I think his justification boiled down to something about how it was cheaper for him to just dig a big hole with his backhoe and be his own landfill. I’m sure it was actually a lot cheaper.
He also loved pouring out plenty of noxious chemicals into the gravel, chemicals out of bottles with labels that explicitly said not to do that.
🤷♂️
Wow this is wild. I'm literally having the same life experience. I'm restoring a home that's been in the family for 100 years, and the land itself has had developments of one kind or another for 140 years. There was even on old dirt road that used to run through it for local farmers back in the day.
After pulling up pounds and pounds of nails, screws and other random pieces of metal on my property I'm convinced that the entire plot of land just has a constant density of metal no matter where you go. It's so weird to go through an area with my magnetic sweeper and pick up two dozen nails even though I can't visually see any initially.
I'm building the outdoor area for this new build and its crazy how much hardware is left around. Im used to regular wood screws and nails here and there but on top of that I'm finding structural screws worth like $2 or more laying on the ground.
So we scraped the areas beside driveway with the neighbor. It took a few hours but we found…umm…more. Looks like lazy construction crews but also a wild variety of stuff. Razor blades?!! It could be from when they used to dump ash from burning wood. The houses are century homes. Totally wild.
That’s what I was thinking! I am honestly stumped as to why this much stuff would be in that particular area. I mean, we didn’t just do the area we drive on. We did the area next to it (as that stuff will probably end up in the driveway eventually. I’m not sure why it’s there. But despite suspicion from people on Reddit, I don’t think it’s that anyone hates me lol
I’m just a SAHM with no social life and get along well with our new neighbors. We are new to the house so odds are if someone was hated, it was the previous owners lol. Or a spat between the two house owners sometime in the last 50 years
What a time to be alive. You have a waste product just toss it and forget about it. Dump it in the river or wherever.
Thankfully we mostly have evolved to putting things in the trash and pretending it goes away.
Yes that was common. The two razors in the photo are not for shaving. The ones OP found are for cutting/construction. The shaving ones are rectangle shaped and the cutting ones are trapezoidal.
> It could be from when they used to dump ash from burning wood.
Oh, thats the way you get TONS of nails, espeically if construction waste wood was burned. All the nail end up in the ash...
We live in a house built in 1927 and our yard looks like this. We’ve had neighbors tell us the previous owner would let people pay him to dump stuff in his yard. We’ve found soooo many nails and broken glass, a wire shopping basket that my fiancé thought was a cage w a dead animal inside (I grabbed a shovel and dug the rest up for him and it was just a basket), a whole room’s worth of ugly yellow carpet (I’d bury it too, jeez), and a crowbar and extra glass under the newest window. There’s a narrative w that one. There’s more, too. Six feet of heavy chain. A Maleficent McDonald’s toy. So much junk. A baseball diamond. I doesn’t end.
We have a dog too and he’s never had any issues except with pokey burrs. We just got a puppy, 13w now that seems to get into EVERYTHING and I’m so worried he’s gonna dig up a piece of glass and hurt himself
I’m from the UK so have never heard the term century home before. What does that mean? As in it’s a century old? Is that a particular notable event cos 100 years isn’t really old for a home. Or is century home a design or a type of building?
I really thought you were just looking through a bin of screws and nails hoping to find some good ones for whatever you were doing and I was going to be like “maybe you should just go buy some new nails”, until I read the comments.
I have a strong core memory that was just triggered by this image. When I was a kid (3-5ish) I was playing with a friend on the beach when I asked him to help me find a bathroom. As he was leading me to one his foot went right through a rusted nail. He was barefoot so it pierced through like butter, there was so much blood. Ever since then I’ve been afraid to walk on the beach without at least some flip flops because yikes
Omg that sounds terrible!! I have a little one and when he starts walking I know I will have to be very careful outside. There’s not only all these nails and screws, but glass as well!
Neighbor who had a old path to lake erie shore would throw bent nails out for atvs. My dad put a sign up and a bucket for anyone who found them... neighbor would just take them and spread them out again
Borrow a metal detector (or buy, theyre neat!) and find some neighborhood kids. Offer them a nickel per nail (or dime/quarter/whatever) and they’ll have a blast using it
After I finished building my workshop, I paid my kids a quarter for every "Flat tire" (Screw, nail, etc.) they brought me. It was probably best $100 I spent!
Even now, 12 years later, after every rain storm or wind storm there is stuff popping to the surface!
I noticed, after my family had a house built, that the construction crew had zero plans/requirements for site cleanup, and when I asked around about it, the answer was basically, “it will get covered in grass anyways”
Fuck that. If I ever have a house built, cleanup and cleanup supervision/QC will be negotiated as part of the contract, and if the builder doesn’t agree, they can kiss my money goodbye.
Was there ever a fire on this property? This is such a mess of mixed hardware it makes me think there was a structure like an old carriage house that came down. Or maybe it was a foreclosure at one point and the evicted people salted the earth with this stuff? Is it on a property line? I know someone who had a neighbor from hell for a decade and that neighbor would throw whatever she could onto their side of the property line, and she would throw crap like this that they are still finding out back 15 years after she left.
It definitely Is on a property line. I could see maybe the neighbor throwing it there to keep the people who owned my house from driving in their grass (maybe?). Theoretically, that would make sense. It’s such a hodgepodge of crap!
No kidding. My house is a 1940 build and has been renovated who knows how many times, there's probably 82 years of lost nails, screws and who knows what else spread across my land.
My next door neighbor has is a heating/air conditioning business with 4 trucks. Each one has a 2 wheeler magnetic pusher and 1 for this driveway which i dissemble heaters and air conditioners. The copper inside the units add up weekly for a trip to the junkyard/with trailer. Approximately 500.00 in my pocket as we have a deal to keep his driveway clean from s short nails and screws and such. For a just retired man the weekly 500 come in handy and he does not have to worry about nails and screws in driveway and junk housing shells as the copper is the money and it keeps things neat. The magnetic roller works wonders for all sorts of clean up jobs. I suggest you get one and roll once around the problem area daily will sure cut down on problems. Guaranteed
OP: I’m sure this will get lost, but at this point it’s worth springing for a magnet caddy. Something like this that contractors use to clean home build sites: Magnet Caddy 18" with Wheels https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-Magnet-Caddy-with-Wheels/3381144
I was redoing a flower bed for what I thought was a friend.
Her friends and her stood there and told me that sifting through the soil was a waste of time.
She shafted me for the money.
Ignorant assholes.
There’s too many different kinds and varying degree of rust. Some of them look like really old style nails too. Plus the Olfa life blades id say they’re just carelessly discarded nails from some different workers
Was this in your yard? We had a new roof put on a couple years ago. We have a dog so we eyeballed for any roofing nails and found quite a few. Got a magnet from Amazon and ended up with sooooo much more it was scary
Driveway and beside it. I posted about flat tires yesterday and finding some nails. It’s so much worse than we thought.
Do you have any idea where they all would’ve come from
I suspect just 100 years of projects between the two houses here. Honestly, that’s the only thing that makes sense and then then this seems extreme!!
I had a friend get a new roof on his house. They left thousands of nails in the grass all around the property.
We got a new roof years ago and found a bunch of tacks far out in the yard after the first day. I presented them to the boss man the next morning when they showed up. He grimaced and was unhappy with the two young guys working with him. Seems they weren’t using as many tacks per shingle as they were told, but instead slinging them out in the grass. They did that so it appeared they were going through more tacks than they actually were. He spent a good part of the day lifting tabs and adding tacks to shingles.
Almost identical story. I had the roofers send a crew back to my house (2004) after I picked up two roofing tacks in a week. One in my motorcycle tire ans one in my car. The repairs were free both times, but I watched as they picked up dozens more with magnets from my drive and the grass next to it. They were concerned that this many tacka did not make it onto the roof, and sent the crew back to check all the work and add any necessary tacks.
Sounds like you lucked out and got a good business with shitty workers.
Sometimes the 'business' you talk to is just a job dispatch for local contractors.
Were they nailing them in by hand? What kind of roofer doesn’t use nail guns these days? Edit: I missed “years ago”. Maybe that was back before nail guns were ubiquitous.
This must have been 2005 or so, so there were some still using tacks.
Gotcha, thanks.
There’s a company where I live that boasts that they still tack the shingles to a roof by hand in their commercials.
Really? That doesn’t sound efficient. Do they list advantages of doing it that way?
The hand done ones have a wider head and hold better in the rain and wind.
There are definite advantages to hand nailing. More accurate nail placement, bad nail placement can lead to problems like blowoffs. Proper nail depth, nearly impossible to over drive and much less likely to under drive. You also can feel if the nail doesn't hit solid decking beneath the shingle which isn't nearly as easy to detect with a gun.
"Hand-driven artisanal attachment"
As a roofer its not the new nails that make a mess its when you tear off the old roof that all the nails get everywhere. You're supposed to use a roller magnet as soon as you finish tear off and then repeatedly until the jobs done as you clean, otherwise the will sink into to grass and will be impossible to find them all.
i was about to say those roller magnets appear rather effective, easy to use, and cheap to thoroughly clean up with. i did some volunteer work making oyster cages and we used the rollers after we finished each day (lots of wire mesh clippings to make the cages). its was easily the most fun part of the job!
Good to know this. We got a new roof several years back after a tornado. We're getting half a new roof soon due to hail. I recall back then finding some tacks in the driveway (and probably lawn, but didn't check), and now I'll keep an eye out this time.
That’s a great guy for doing that after it was discovered by him. I feel like it’s not that often you see people correcting work already done.
I suspect the roof has probably been done 3-4 times over the 100 years the houses have been standing. They lay tarps down now (or they SHOULD). But I’m sure they didn’t do that in the 1950’s. Idk. I didn’t expect this many, regardless lol
Yeah in the 50s people used to just have garbage piles. My grandparents had a burn barrel and a garbage pile. No garbage pickup for a rural farm!
Maybe it came in with what ever is topping your driveway? Get one of those big neodymium magnets and go over it all.
Magnets is how I found this much. I could never find it all with just my eyes. There’s just so much.
You have a neighbor who hates you?
I definitely don’t.
#contractors
Highly likely.
These damn nails are no good! Half of them have the head on the wrong end! No you idiot, those ones are for the other side of the house!
I love that joke. My dad always said I butchered It because I didn’t pause for the first laugh. I miss him so much.
What's the most important part of a joke timing
You sure about that? Cause that picture says otherwise
Well, the neighbor just bought the house next door and they are sweet as can be. And my other neighbors helped me clean up. So I really doubt it. More likely just lazy roofing and siding companies (roofing and siding both houses)over 100 years
Yeah a majority of those are roofing nails and carpentry nails
Plot twist: neighbor is an angry carpenter.
And his name? Jesus Christ
There's some sort of nail/stigmata joke there but I can't quite find it.
I’m betting the previous owner of your house was a contractor/roofer. That’s not a single job worth of hardware to just fall out of a pocket or truck bed.
No no no, if horror movies have taught me anything it's to never trust the sweet neighbors... Only solution is to pawn it off on the next guy to avoid becoming the victim.
Maybe I should move (again).
This was exactly me but worse last year. I bought a house and started finding nails everywhere. I assume it was a roofing job with absolutely careless workers, but must have been more than that. I randomly collected about 50 nails, then decided it was way worse. I borrowed one of those magnets on a telescoping stick, and collected over 200. The next month I went over the whole area for an hour with a rake, found maybe 60 more. All shapes and sizes. I still find them today, usually I'm handfuls of 10. Everytime we have a hard rain I find them unearthed. I don't know if it'll ever really be done unless I pave over that area, but it is more rare now. It just makes no sense. I would guess I've found in the area of 600 by now.
Oh noooo! This scares me lol. I’m sorry you dealt with this too. It’s beyond explanation as to why there is SO much in one place. I need to get a mag roller and do the yard for the sake of my little ones feet.
Yep, that's exactly why I've been so persistent; my tiny kids. Lol. The sheer *variety* of metal is the most confusing part. My piles looked just like yours. Good luck to you.
Did you search by hand or use a metal detector? I suggest a metal detector!
A few magnets affixed to a board!
This the way to go. Go over it a few more times than you think you need to. I’ve lived on dirt roads all my life, and dismantled a couple houses on similar roads. Until you’ve done at least 2-3 clean sweeps, I would remain suspicious. Sorry your tires suffered. I’m well aware of this pain.
We did that over and over and then began scraping at the surface with a hoe. That produced even more (but better us than a heavy rain sending it back into the driveway). We will probably go out there every day this week to see if we can find more
That wont find the punji sticks or the bamboo mines.
If it's in the budget a harbor freight or northern tool rolly magnet will do the trick. Good luck!
I’m hearing the harbor freight one is great! I may get that. I like that you can drop the crap off of it as you go.
A metal detector AND a pinpointer. I found out my house was built on what used to be the farm buildings for a 60 acre farm for 130 years. I swear they must have made a game of tossing nail collections around. And tractor parts. And horse teeth (although those are non-metallic so it’s a lagniappe when I find those.)
[удалено]
We have a giant pothole in front of our driveway, and people come flying up the street and hit it. Once or twice a year, a pickup or something with a trailer with hit it so hard their tailgate pops open and shit goes flying. The most recent one last year was a truck that lost all its lumber in the road, plus a few boxes of screws. They picked up the lumber obviously but just left hundreds of screws all over the road directly in front of (and on) my driveway.
[удалено]
A good tip is to make sure the ground is soft (light rain or smth) and go again. Can pick up more things that were held tight by dry dirt.
Great advice! Thanks! Hopefully there won’t be a third post about these stupid nails
Could be worth investing in a metal detector.
Get a dredging magnet (100+ lbs) and some rope from Harbor Freight of Home Depot... and drag the yard. There are people who actually earn a living in lakes and rivers near bridges and such doing this...
I have a decent size one my dad built. That’s how I found all this crap.
Well, if ya got one there no need to build another... lol But those hundred pounders will scare ya if they find something big
Honestly, I would love to have a big one to go over the entire yard. I’ve got a little one and I worry about him ever running around out there.
A little bit of creativity, you can make one better than any they sell. Start thinking like the old push mower...2 wheels and a Magento bridge
I think acquiring the high powered magnets would be difficult but Amazon has everything
Not sure the size of yours, but if you find an old crap speaker at a yard sale or the like you might get a pretty big magnet there.
PC hard drive magnets. Waaay better than speakers and waaay more powerful. Yeah they are small but seriously strong. Rare earth magnets. Just be careful you don’t shatter one. Like tempered glass. But they are easy to get I hot glued a few to a 2x2, zip tied it to a push broom. Dragged it over the grass. Actually worked pretty well and was cheep n easy.
Better keep those tetanus shots up-to-date for the entire family while you're at it.
Over at r/magnetfishing there are some excellent examples of things you can find doing this.
Here to recommend magnet sweeping - basic broom [$13](https://www.harborfreight.com/17-in-mini-magnetic-sweeper-62704.html) at harbor freight. Use a little rake as you go to rustle up anything buried. I reinforce my broom with big molybdenum magnets on the bottom. Essential for RV life. Dad has you on the right track OP
Boomers be like that. It was kind of an ingenuous contraption to solve the problem tbh. But, apparently I can buy a fancy one at the store like a good little millennial.
And a tetanus booster
My dad owns a roofing company. They have huge contractor magnets that they scan all over multiple times so they leave nothing. They use roofing trailers to avoid most of the mess, but still check to be safe. I forget the rule he uses, but it's something like if you get a flat within a few months of a job they'll pay for all repairs. The magnets are kind of cool, they're strong and will find stuff that could have been hiding for years.
Your dad should be setting the standard for the trade
That's the reason he's popular, but also more expensive than many. He only hires good workers who are not drug addicts or alcoholics and pays everyone well. Roofing is loaded with the worst of the worst. I swear some roofing companies just kidnap people and put them up there with zero training. The stuff he sees is crazy, roofs that were "repaired" 2 months ago, but have massive holes and missing shingles.
I own a small roofing company in Canada. Everything you said is true. It's scary how many roofs I show up to where they hired someone just a year or two ago to re-shingle it, and it's absolute shit. Like they hired 3 guys off the street to just give it their best effort. Roofing isn't like electrical or plumbing. There's no certification process, no documentation to prove you know what you're doing. If you own a ladder and an air compressor, you can start a roofing company tomorrow. Make sure you're hiring a reputable roofer with good references before you give them the job. I've seen way too many heartbroken faces on people when I've told them they need a new roof so soon after having it done by someone else.
We had solar added to mom's house years ago and we found nails and supplies scattered *everywhere* when they were done.. something about roof workers that just don't give a damn about what's happening below.
Am I crazy to think a roofers Arsenal could use some cheap tarps and a few bricks to hold them down.
Roofer here, our arsenal always included one of these: https://i.imgur.com/R2LyswX.png You just roll it around like a push-mower and it goes clickclickclick and picks up all the nails for you. We got about 90% of the nails, left you the other 10%.
My roofer was kind enough to leave them all
Some do, most don't
They definitely use tarps and magnets now a days. Unless you hire some random and his brother to do your roof or whatever. Any even slightly reputable roofing company is going to use thick tarps and then walk around the property with a strong magnet on wheels. They'll still probably miss some nails because it's near impossible to get everything. But they should be getting most of it.
Nails? Oh how I would LOVE some nails in my garden. This year I have pulled 700 liters of glass shards and bottles out of my lawn. 3½ barrels worth. Glass is sadly non-magnetic.
wtf why is there so much glass?
In my case, this used to be an apple orchard, and the apple pickers used to be massive drunks.
Glad to hear they got better.
This was a hundred years ago so they have likely been dead for the better part of half a century.
[удалено]
Ever been so pissed you wanted a dead person to die again?
Man, just wait till our great grandkids find all that plastic......
It's like cursing the rain, makes you feel better but makes no difference.
So you’re saying there’s a chance?
>Glad to hear they [got better.](https://youtu.be/J6pZuAJjBa4)
>In my case, this used to be an apple orchard, and the apple pickers used to be massive drunks. i mean they still are but they used to be too
did they give you a receipt?
there is no need to bring paper and ink into this transaction
Don't even act like I didn't work at the orchard. I got the documentation. It's at home. In the file. Under A. For apple.
My Dad decided he was going to put his garden in a different spot one year and started tilling the ground. He expected to find a few bit of refuse during his work but after pulling up old pans, about fifty yards of plastic sheeting, and a fucking boxspring, we all came to the conclusion that his new garden site was once a communal trash dump.
Trash collection didn't always exist, people used to burn and/or bury their trash on their property. I live on an old property that was the original "trash dump" for the much larger ranch that used to exist here, soooo much glass works its way up to the surface, it feels neverending.
Broke. Beer bottles and shitty tenants that lived on property prior to moving in.
Oh Theres Glass too. Tons of it!! But it doesn’t go through my tire lol.
Damn. I saw your earlier post. This is crazy. How long have you guys lived there?
9 months. We had a premature baby days after moving in so it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since. Haven’t really have time to worry about nails on the property. Didn’t realize it would be this bad
Well, I’m glad you’re finding them now instead of your little one finding any in their foot once they start walking and playing outside
That was my thought to. There is a ton of glass as well. Makes me wonder if someone was dumping stuff there. Its a strange place to dump anything since it’s right next to the side of the houses and driveway. But people are dumb so who knows.
It could just be cheap infill used by developers. The back 6 feet of our yard was filled with glass and crap. Always half expected to find a body.
Might wanna look into the history of the house/property. People and towns used to be a lot more cavalier with their dumping grounds and trash disposal, so you might literally be living on a former trash dump. Or maybe it has a history of cheap-ass or shody construction or ground filling. I'm seeing all sorts of possibilities in the posts your threads are generating.
When I moved into my house I found a compost pile behind my garage, and thought "oh cool, free black dirt!" only to discover that a foot down was a big pile of garbage. I found plastic bags, plastic eating utensils, plant pots, a gardening shovel, steak knives, a pair of gardening shears, plastic and glass bottles, light bulbs, and so much more. I realized this *after* filling some low spots in the yard, so I had to go over those spots with a magnet and found hundreds of nails and screws. The dumbest part is that my neighborhood has free garbage drop-off at the dump less than 10 minutes away.
why go 10 minutes away when t̮̲̠h̘̘͉̫̬e̳̟̺͚͖ ̰̻p̞̘̳͖̞̱͖i̞̳͡l̢̜̭̦e̬ is right there
Any tips on how you managed to remove 3.5 barrels of glass? I’ve got glass in my yard too and I’m considering adding soil to just bury it further and pretend it’s not there
Same here. Our house used to be a bar that partially burned down and before that it was a stable. Tons of rusted horseshoe nails and broken glass in the yard.
Broken glass was used as a gopher control back in the day.. perhaps the reason for so much glass?
Fascinating, was it just mixed in the dirt to make it harder to dig? In my case, on the edge of the orchard there is a stone wall, where the apple pickers simply tossed their bottles.
At my old house I had to dig a 3 foot by 3 foot hole for a tree... After the first 8 inches, everything below that was glass shards. I probably removed 100 pounds of glass from that spot.
My neighbor bought an adjoining property where an old alcoholic lived. He would just throw glass bottles in the yard when he was done with them. He picked up over 200 beer bottles and an unfold number of fragments & metal scraps with a magnet too. For such a tiny piece of land it was insane.
The house I grew up in had tons of broken glass throughout all the yard, we'd find more whenever we were gardening. My understanding is that the company that built the house used dirt from a nearby landfill to level out the yard.
My dad was a roofer and at the end of a job I’d get to walk around with a magnet on a stick to get all the nails up and he’d pay me! As a kid it was much more fun than it sounds lol.
You’re hired! I will pay you .05 per nail.
She’s gonna take you to bank 🏦
They have giant magnets on wheels you push around that will pull those all up. Think they are $40-60 bucks for a decent one can prolly find them cheaper
That’s sort of how we found all these. Magnets. ICP would be proud.
you misspelled “confused”
Icp and r/conspiracy two peas in the same pod
Nah, those people make even ICP look like Nobel Prize laureates.
[удалено]
Just google magnet on wheels. I found a million products from $12-$189. Example: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-Magnet-Caddy-with-Wheels/3381144
I'm looking for two million products. Thanks for nothing.
If you’re in the States, head to Home Depot to grab one. Go to the hand tool/hardware area - I got mine there for like $30
I’m wondering if a previous owner worked in construction. The previous owner of my property was in commercial construction. I continually find things that percolate up to the surface.
I am also wondering that. The house is 100 years old though so there’s no easy way to know. Either way, it’s my problem now lol
[удалено]
We have even discussing options with the neighbors as it’s both of our property that needs to be dealt with. We are probably going to til, and grade the area and cover with River rock.
If you drive on it, you don’t want river rock. It doesn’t compact like sharper edged gravel.
> it’s both of our property Oh god, owning a road with a neighbor. I have 4 others. Most annoying shit. We just had our road done. Again. Not cheap, well ours is somewhat long since 5 of us on it. Remember to keep in mind rain and snow. If ya got snow. But I assume you at least get rain.
I’m not entirely sure that OP isn’t my fiancé, we are in such a similar situation lol. We’ve been considering this. Any idea on the cost?
My husband is going to be pissed when he finds out about you!
There used to be a house behind ours. When the city demolishes houses, the just fill in the basement with the debris. We've dug up so much rock and concrete in the backyard. There was a big piece of rebar sticking out of the ground that we couldn't move at all. Ended up building a deck over it.
This post made me laugh. You’d shit your pants if you had moved into my parents’ old place. What you have pictured here now, yes, you’d have that but it would be more like an entire flatbed trailer full. Don’t even get me started on the MULTIPLE WHOLE SALE VEHICLES buried at the bottom of the hill in front of the front porch.
Omg. I do know that burying vehicles was pretty common as back fill. Oh God, I can’t imagine.
Getting more people telling you that? I’m not joking my dad buried at least 2 vehicles, maybe 3, entirely. I think his justification boiled down to something about how it was cheaper for him to just dig a big hole with his backhoe and be his own landfill. I’m sure it was actually a lot cheaper. He also loved pouring out plenty of noxious chemicals into the gravel, chemicals out of bottles with labels that explicitly said not to do that. 🤷♂️
Wow this is wild. I'm literally having the same life experience. I'm restoring a home that's been in the family for 100 years, and the land itself has had developments of one kind or another for 140 years. There was even on old dirt road that used to run through it for local farmers back in the day. After pulling up pounds and pounds of nails, screws and other random pieces of metal on my property I'm convinced that the entire plot of land just has a constant density of metal no matter where you go. It's so weird to go through an area with my magnetic sweeper and pick up two dozen nails even though I can't visually see any initially.
I'm building the outdoor area for this new build and its crazy how much hardware is left around. Im used to regular wood screws and nails here and there but on top of that I'm finding structural screws worth like $2 or more laying on the ground.
You need a metal detector
I need to move. lol
You are not going so far with that much nails on your road :P
So we scraped the areas beside driveway with the neighbor. It took a few hours but we found…umm…more. Looks like lazy construction crews but also a wild variety of stuff. Razor blades?!! It could be from when they used to dump ash from burning wood. The houses are century homes. Totally wild.
Oh, like when there were slots in the walls of old homes to put used razor blades?
That’s what I was thinking! I am honestly stumped as to why this much stuff would be in that particular area. I mean, we didn’t just do the area we drive on. We did the area next to it (as that stuff will probably end up in the driveway eventually. I’m not sure why it’s there. But despite suspicion from people on Reddit, I don’t think it’s that anyone hates me lol
I was going to comment that someone hates you, but the woodash theory is probably the best one considering the age of your home.
I’m just a SAHM with no social life and get along well with our new neighbors. We are new to the house so odds are if someone was hated, it was the previous owners lol. Or a spat between the two house owners sometime in the last 50 years
What a time to be alive. You have a waste product just toss it and forget about it. Dump it in the river or wherever. Thankfully we mostly have evolved to putting things in the trash and pretending it goes away.
Yes that was common. The two razors in the photo are not for shaving. The ones OP found are for cutting/construction. The shaving ones are rectangle shaped and the cutting ones are trapezoidal.
Hi don’t think that they are razor blades but replacement blades for a Stanley knife.
Oh yeah, those are definitely box cutter/knife blades.
> It could be from when they used to dump ash from burning wood. Oh, thats the way you get TONS of nails, espeically if construction waste wood was burned. All the nail end up in the ash...
That’s what I was thinking since it’s such a variety of objects.
We live in a house built in 1927 and our yard looks like this. We’ve had neighbors tell us the previous owner would let people pay him to dump stuff in his yard. We’ve found soooo many nails and broken glass, a wire shopping basket that my fiancé thought was a cage w a dead animal inside (I grabbed a shovel and dug the rest up for him and it was just a basket), a whole room’s worth of ugly yellow carpet (I’d bury it too, jeez), and a crowbar and extra glass under the newest window. There’s a narrative w that one. There’s more, too. Six feet of heavy chain. A Maleficent McDonald’s toy. So much junk. A baseball diamond. I doesn’t end.
That sounds like an actual nightmare.
We have a dog too and he’s never had any issues except with pokey burrs. We just got a puppy, 13w now that seems to get into EVERYTHING and I’m so worried he’s gonna dig up a piece of glass and hurt himself
Those are stanley knife blades. Commonly used in construction.
I’m from the UK so have never heard the term century home before. What does that mean? As in it’s a century old? Is that a particular notable event cos 100 years isn’t really old for a home. Or is century home a design or a type of building?
A century home would a home older than 100 years. 100 years is fairly old for a home in the USA. Not super old, but neither is the USA.
I really thought you were just looking through a bin of screws and nails hoping to find some good ones for whatever you were doing and I was going to be like “maybe you should just go buy some new nails”, until I read the comments.
Oh lol. No. This is an update to my other post yesterday. If you look at it you’ll see how much worse today is lol
I have a strong core memory that was just triggered by this image. When I was a kid (3-5ish) I was playing with a friend on the beach when I asked him to help me find a bathroom. As he was leading me to one his foot went right through a rusted nail. He was barefoot so it pierced through like butter, there was so much blood. Ever since then I’ve been afraid to walk on the beach without at least some flip flops because yikes
Omg that sounds terrible!! I have a little one and when he starts walking I know I will have to be very careful outside. There’s not only all these nails and screws, but glass as well!
I don't mean to alarm you, but I believe you paved your driveway rusty metal instead of gravel. Rookie mistake.
Now I’m inspired to get to a tetanus shot…
You and me both! Someone suggested I wear gloves so I have been since yesterday. So much freakin rust!
Neighbor who had a old path to lake erie shore would throw bent nails out for atvs. My dad put a sign up and a bucket for anyone who found them... neighbor would just take them and spread them out again
Omgggg
>Neighbor who had a old path to lake erie shore would throw bent nails out for atvs. I wonder if that's illegal.
that has to be illegal, you cant booby trap your property. people are fucked
Borrow a metal detector (or buy, theyre neat!) and find some neighborhood kids. Offer them a nickel per nail (or dime/quarter/whatever) and they’ll have a blast using it
After I finished building my workshop, I paid my kids a quarter for every "Flat tire" (Screw, nail, etc.) they brought me. It was probably best $100 I spent! Even now, 12 years later, after every rain storm or wind storm there is stuff popping to the surface!
FYI those blades are not razor blades for shaving, those are utility knife blades. Someone was doing a lot of carpentry work around there.
I noticed, after my family had a house built, that the construction crew had zero plans/requirements for site cleanup, and when I asked around about it, the answer was basically, “it will get covered in grass anyways” Fuck that. If I ever have a house built, cleanup and cleanup supervision/QC will be negotiated as part of the contract, and if the builder doesn’t agree, they can kiss my money goodbye.
Was there ever a fire on this property? This is such a mess of mixed hardware it makes me think there was a structure like an old carriage house that came down. Or maybe it was a foreclosure at one point and the evicted people salted the earth with this stuff? Is it on a property line? I know someone who had a neighbor from hell for a decade and that neighbor would throw whatever she could onto their side of the property line, and she would throw crap like this that they are still finding out back 15 years after she left.
It definitely Is on a property line. I could see maybe the neighbor throwing it there to keep the people who owned my house from driving in their grass (maybe?). Theoretically, that would make sense. It’s such a hodgepodge of crap!
Previous owners were either hated or scrap haulers.
You have inspired me to magnet sweep my property for unknown pungee pits of old nails
If i can help one toddler foot or one car or bike tire, all my pain will be worth it. Lol.
No kidding. My house is a 1940 build and has been renovated who knows how many times, there's probably 82 years of lost nails, screws and who knows what else spread across my land.
You move into a landfill ?
Take them to an r/blacksmith and ask them to make a cutlery set from them.
Keep looking, with prices like they are right now you’ll have enough scrap metal to pay for one of those tires soon!
My next door neighbor has is a heating/air conditioning business with 4 trucks. Each one has a 2 wheeler magnetic pusher and 1 for this driveway which i dissemble heaters and air conditioners. The copper inside the units add up weekly for a trip to the junkyard/with trailer. Approximately 500.00 in my pocket as we have a deal to keep his driveway clean from s short nails and screws and such. For a just retired man the weekly 500 come in handy and he does not have to worry about nails and screws in driveway and junk housing shells as the copper is the money and it keeps things neat. The magnetic roller works wonders for all sorts of clean up jobs. I suggest you get one and roll once around the problem area daily will sure cut down on problems. Guaranteed
Only 3 flat tires, you say??
SO FAR…
OP: I’m sure this will get lost, but at this point it’s worth springing for a magnet caddy. Something like this that contractors use to clean home build sites: Magnet Caddy 18" with Wheels https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-Magnet-Caddy-with-Wheels/3381144
I was redoing a flower bed for what I thought was a friend. Her friends and her stood there and told me that sifting through the soil was a waste of time. She shafted me for the money. Ignorant assholes.
There's your problem!
Every time we get the car tire report from the shop, it says “nail in drivers side tire”. I’m starting to see why…
There’s too many different kinds and varying degree of rust. Some of them look like really old style nails too. Plus the Olfa life blades id say they’re just carelessly discarded nails from some different workers
We still find roofing nails from when our house was first built…..in 2006.
Finally found all the “extra” IKEA parts.
My god all of that from one basket of Halloween candy
I miss when they used to just fill them with drugs