Creating a composter out of old skids

Here’s a simple and quick way to make a composter out of old skids. This took me about one hour to complete. Not including picking up the skids and other materials. The first step is to steal some skids from an unsuspecting victim. Ideally, you would have access to a pickup truck to move the skids. Comme ca:

Preferably an antique with a big engine to outrun your victims. Failing that, any pickup truck will do. If you can’t source a truck, roof racks on a car will work too. But you might need to do it in two trips. You will need 5 skids in total.

Some kind of large flat bed bike trailer might also be an option. Though, that will probably be even more limiting to the number of skids you can move. Again, you need 5 skids. Count ’em 5 (one is buried in snow).

Now leave them outside for awhile and let them get covered in snow and frozen to the ground.

Or if you are smarter than me, you will make the composter in warmer weather. For this job, you will also need some tools (I will describe later) and to buy a couple more things. Most importantly, some wire. I would recommend 14 gauge galvanized fencing wire, one roll is plenty. This is strong, easy to work with and won’t rust. You will also need some chicken wire, a 25 foot roll will be more than enough. If you want to really make this composter for nothing, you could use old coat hanger wire. Easy to get for free from a dry cleaner. And omit the chicken wire. Though, I wouldn’t recommend that. The coat hanger wire is going to be a lot harder to work with. It will rust after a couple of years (even if it is painted). And more of the food scraps will fall out of the sides. Now that you have all of your materials. The first step is to scrape the snow and ice off of the skids. Hopefully, you are smarter than me and are doing this job in beautiful warm weather. If so, omit this step. You may also need a pry bar to loosen the bottom skid out of the snow. Particularly, if you broke your old rusty shovel which you tried to use first. A garage is pretty necessary for doing the next few steps if the weather isn’t agreeable. Get your skids set up in the garage or in the glory of the great outdoors. You will want them all with the top side (the one with the slats closer together) up. Get your tools ready.

You will need a staple gun, tin snips, wire cutters, 14 gauge galvanized wire, 5/16″ staples (a bit bigger staples are fine too), and a flat head screw driver to pull out your inevitable mistakes.

Get your chicken wire out. Fortunately, standard chicken wire is the same width as a skid (or close enough).

1. Staple the end of the chicken wire roll into the first board of your first skid. Evenly tack 5 staples in the first board.

2. Roll the chicken wire out to the other end and staple it down to the last board with 5 staples too.

3. Cut the chicken wire flush with the end of the skid.

4. Staple the top and bottom of the chicken wire to each remaining board on the skid then put a couple more in between the ends of each board. Repeat steps 1-4 for the next 4 skids. You could add more staples, if you like. The compost will push the wire into the compost bin walls. But the staples will hold the chicken wire up against animals from outside. So, I recommend more staples if you are concerned about animals. The chicken wire won’t keep out mice. Squirrels will probably find some spot to make it through too. It should hold off racoons. Staples won’t hold into ice, try to avoid the ice on the skids. Better yet, avoid doing this in the winter!

Beautiful isn’t it? Now you are almost ready to assemble the composter.

Put down some old newspaper or cardboard on the ground under where the composter will be. If it is windy (like it was for me), have some compost or dirt handy to weigh down the paper and keep it from blowing into your neighbours yard. This will help to keep weeds from growing into the compost and they will be all decomposed by the time the compost is too.

If you aren’t concerned about weeds growing in, you can leave this step out.

Loosely set up the skids in position. If the ground is flat, they will sit up on their own.

I prefer to arrange the skids with the boards positioned vertically. I feel like the compost gets better aeration and the look more aesthetically pleasing. It isn’t a very beautiful thing either way. This should be considered when locating the composter.

The corners should overlap each other like so. There will be a gap on either side of the lid. A couple of old 2x4s or 2x6s screwed into the side will close most of that.

Wrap wire around near the top and bottom of each corner. I recommend leaving lots of excess to twist the wire tight. This will make it a lot easier to take the bin apart when you want to clean the rich finished compost out.

Attach the lid along the top of the back skid in the same manner as the corners. I recommend choosing the best skid for the lid skid. It will both be nicer to look at when you are adding compost and hold up better to the extra abuse.

Finished just before sundown. Ready to fill up.

It is a good idea to add some topsoil or finished compost in at the bottom of the composter and periodically as you add more food and garden scraps. This will add extra microbes which will greatly aid in the composting. Periodically adding some leaves (NOT black walnut) or straw along the way will also be beneficial to the decomposition process. It may not be the classiest thing in my yard. But the garden sure will be classy with all of those good nutrients!