Rock or stone baskets

   / Rock or stone baskets #1  

AlanB

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Clarksville, TN, USA
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NH 1925
I found the posts mentioning "Gabions" but am looking for advice on something slightly different.

My wife is a landscaper and we are going to start selling stones. We have had a good source the last couple of years, and we normally have them brought in too the job site, but increasingly we are having people that just want to buy the stones.

Today she is having 10 tons or so dumped at our lot, and she wants to palletize them.

My current thought is that I would grab some heavy pallets, (readily available to me) then take some 4' high field fencing. Bend the field fencing into a square the size of a pallet, then bend over what would normally be the "top" or big hole portion of the field fencing, about 1 1/2 foot down and staple that bent part to the pallet. Then I would line the inside of that with some rough sawn oak that is available to reinforce the pallet and the wire.

What I should end up with is a basket about 2.5' tall on top of a good solid pallet, with a second layer of oak as a floor.

Anyone done this or can think of someway to do it better?

Should I join my fence ends at a corner or in the middle of a straight run?

And yes, I will take pictures tomorrow as we get going on these.
 
   / Rock or stone baskets #2  
I have recently seen just what you describe, on a travel trip out West and back across the southwest. Stone and rock are palletized in the quarries and shipped much as you describe. The stone can be viewed and it appears to stay on the pallet in a pretty neat package.
Some trial and error to get the right combination of fence, shaping, and securing probably in your future, but your idea sounds real good.
Do you sell the pallets of stone by the ton? Or do you have another way of measuring what is on the pallet?
 
   / Rock or stone baskets
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Well, that is the subject of debate at the moment. I think what is going to happen is that we will divide that (10 ton) pile into about 10 pallets, and call each one a ton, I will probably grab a scale and check a couple to see how accurate a statement that is, but realisticly, we will probably sell it more as "this pallet is X dollars" Then they can decide if they want it at that price or not.

It is kind of like selling "Yards" of mulch, or "cords" of wood. While truly accurate and dublicable measurments, you will find a wide variety of what folks give you for that amount. And as one of the nurseries that we work with was talking with me about, he figured out that exactly two leveled off buckets of his tractor were a Yard. (did the math etc.) but it was less than what the guy down the street sold as a "Yard" (two Heaping buckets) The fact that he was mathmaticly correct did little to keep the customers with him. Now when we go there to pick up (it is on the other side of town and it is sometimes cheaper to buy a yard there than to run across town to pick one up from our yard) We get two heaping scoops, and sometimes a little kicker when we get a "yard" of mulch.
 
   / Rock or stone baskets #4  
I suggest you not price it by the ton unless it's weight on a certified scale. Most states would consider it a form of fraud. Just sell it by the pallet, like you mentioned.
 
 
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