Are you including the building materials into prepping?

[Taz Baby]

When you are out shopping and see a sale on food or clothes, you might pick up extra on those items. But do you go to Home Depot or Lowes or a lumber/hardware store looking for sales? When those items are no longer available what are you going to do if you need to repair your house or fence or build some new animal shelter? As you guys know we are building now so we are buying more of what we need now and finding as much free stuff as we can. What are you going to do in the shift if you can not buy building material? What are you doing now to prep for this?

[The Stig]

Excellent point and one that gets to the heart of being prepared.

Doesn't matter if your SHTF event is a hurricane, wildfire or total meltdown. You must be able to sustain yourself.

We keep a healthy amount of fasteners, caulks/sealants, tarps, extension cords, scraps of wood, some plywood, some left over siding from our closet addition, etc etc etc on hand for hasty repairs. It might not be pretty but I can handle most things short of catastrophic damage.

Also, whenever I tackle a home improvement project I have a tendency to pick a couple extra's if I think the needed component could be handy elsewhere.

Excellent subject.

[LUNCHBOX]

Taz, this is an overlooked area imo. Previously, I would pick up whatever I could get my hands on. Since the move I have had to limit myself to the extras I can keep around.

[ladyhk13]

We have all kinds of stuff saved. Dh doesn't throw anything away. He especially keeps all bolts/screws...ect. that are stainless steel since they don't rust. We will also be getting extra car alternators for our hydropower system and everything else that we can get doubles of in order to keep the system running. We plan on going solar first and once the hydro is up and running we will pack the solar away to save in case the hydro ever fails. Many parts can be bought at home centers and auto supply stores. Lotsa PVC pipe!!

[bacpacker]

Great post Taz! I have been working on this line for years. Like ladies DH, I keep most all fasteners that are worth reusing. When i was building the chicken coop, I bought double the nails I used. I have been able to store up over 1000 board feet of lumber, some dimensional (2x,4x), some siding, some plywood. Still got more to get, but stuff like that is on the list.

Areas I am short in right now, screws for wood and metal, hinges, hasp, fencing, post, steeples, wire, and insulators. I need more plywood as well. I'm also short on metal of various types.

[Echo2]

Yes.

[Katrina]

Oh yes and DH is having fits about the plywood, screws, nails etc. I keep around. He just has to clean out and organize the garage better, tee hee. I also want to keep the waterbed mattress now that we have the regular bed. Don't know what for yet but it may come in handy (Oh, Oh, pack-ratitis is striking again)

[Sniper-T]

I have enough material on hand to rebuild 1/2 my house if need be. I have everything from 1x2 up to 2x10, and throw in a stack of 4x4 and 6x8's as well.

add in about 40 sheets of osb, several rolls of poly, bales of insulation, etc

enough hardware to sink the Titanic (oh, wait...)

I save everything usable, and double buy everytime I need something

[Kodiak]

All ive got is several skids and a few 2x4's as wood goes and a few boxes of nails and screws. I have the typical garage stocked with tape, plastic sheeting, tools ect... Im not much of a handy man but can huckle buck something if need be in a pinch. Ive been wanting to build/buy a shed for awhile so I can start stocking up on materials, its on the to-do-list thats seems to be growing every day.

[slowz1k]

Unfortunately I only keep a few 2x4's and smaller lumber on hand for various projects. I keep quite a few wood screws, and nails of different sizes, and over the past few years, I have started collecting hand tools. Brace and bits, yankee drill, planes, crosscut and rip saws, hammers, etc...