Nails! Nails everywhere!

Construction on my barn is finally complete (YAY!) but despite my warning to each and every worker to pick up after themselves I am finding nails ALL OVER! The aisle is going to stay screenings throughout winter and we will pour concrete in the spring, but in the meantime, I need to get each and every nail out of there or I’ll be a crazy, paranoid lady all winter! I think I found close to 30 just in one stall today!

I’m going to pick up a heavy duty magnet, but I know some of the nails are aluminum too. Any tricks or tips to get them all picked up? Or am I in for a tedious task for the next week or so?

Find yourself a young kid or two and pay them 5 or 10 a nail to find them. My dad did that with me years ago when the house was re-roofed and the old roof was torn off. It kept nails out of the yard, away from the driveway, etc. ??

[QUOTE=Donkaloosa;8413400]
Find yourself a young kid or two and pay them 5 or 10 a nail to find them. My dad did that with me years ago when the house was re-roofed and the old roof was torn off. It kept nails out of the yard, away from the driveway, etc. ??[/QUOTE]

:lol: Love it! I’ll just bribe the neighbor kids haha! We actually tried that after our house was built and we were trying to pick all of the gravel out of our front yard but they lost interest in the “game” after about ten minutes…darn! We tried…

Might be worth renting a metal detector–I believe they will detect aluminum. Still tedious, but better than scouring on your hands and knees. :smiley:

I bought an inexpensive metal detector for about $125 to check behind the builder. I found over 125 nails. I also got one of those wide push magnets on wheels. I still use that to go behind the farrier. The cost of the detector and magnet was much less than a nail in the foot.

Gathering nails is a job for a good magnetic tool designed for the purpose and a great thing to have around a farm for future building projects. :slight_smile: Try Harbor Freight first and if they don’t have, any type of industrial supply should have it or can get it. A metal detector is nice for finding them, but a strong magnet will not only find them, it will also pick them up for you. :smiley:

Rolling magnets are the BEST!

Metal detectors may or may not be helpful depending on what the construction site is like. My husband is an avid “treasure hunter” (meaning he’s one of those guys on the beach or in the park digging pennies) so I have my choice of high quality metal detectors to choose from. I’ve tried to use his to pick up nails-- it all depends on the situation. If it is a well groomed area with no other metal around, you can set the sensitivity to alert for only the metal in your nails close to the surface and it works like a charm. But if you’re in an area with lots of similar type metal such as rebar, filings/scraps/debris, or just trash… it will be alerting constantly!

Yes, I tried to use a metal detector to remove nails in a stall after the builders left - NOT an easy task. I ended up digging and digging and digging to find every last shard of metal, and never did feel safe in those stalls.

To make the magnets more effective, any section of ground that is tamped down should be raked to make it easier to pick up nails.

After the magnet has gone over the area I’d rake it then use a screen (from a window?) and sift the dirt/sand.
And I’d have my grandkids make a few bucks doing it for me!

If I ever have to build again, I’m writing in to the contract that every nail found will cost the contractor $x (25? 50?) off what I owe them. I swear, no matter how much you beg, threaten, cry, or plead, it doesn’t make a difference. I used a magnet and also a light (to shine around looking for the gleam of metal). I’d pick up nails every evening, and the next day we would show the guys, and I think that just presented a challenge for them, so they’d drop even more!

Make sure to check any parking areas/driveways too. I don’t know how they do it, but those will be littered with nails and screws as well.

We have several magnets, one that is a block of metal with an eye screw on top that we carry with a baling sting, swinging it along as we walk from here to there.
We have two of those with little wheels, that we leave where they are working and they are supposed to clean after themselves with it at the end of the day.
We also have a 6’ long one that hangs on the tractor or UV or pickup bumper and we use to go over again.

We still find nails anyway, some probably over 100 years old.
Also ends of welding rods.

That is on a place where everyone is really being careful, have a special can for welding rod ends when welding, etc.

The worst seem to be concrete contractors when framing, since those kinds of nails are the ones that we pick up by the handful.

The contractors charge 5c to their men for every new shiny nail they pick up after cleanup in the evening, but they still drop them.

Having lost a horse to a nail in his hoof, not picked up here, somewhere else, but could just as well happen here, we know too well how deadly that is for a horse.

I like my rolling magnet. It’s especially fabulous on dirt/stonedust floors because the wheels leave a little path that shows where you’ve been so you’re not guessing and doing the same area 5 times or missing an area.

You guys are full of super ideas! Thank you so much!! I found a rolling magnet on Amazon that will be here tomorrow, I didn’t even know rolling magnets existed! Thanks again, all!

The nice thing about the magnetic pickup thing is that you can use it almost anywhere it “fits”…including along fence lines post-installation, etc. It’s a really good thing to have around a farm.

The rolling magnet can also come in handy finding a lost shoe, as we experienced in the past, trying to locate one in new (so somewhat deep) arena footing.

Yup rolling magnet - picks up dozens in one swoop. We use it on our burn pile just in case a nail got in by mistake - every year. Wonder if you could rent one
during construction?