# Bulk storage



## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

What are you guys doing for salt storage/

I can store salt one of two ways during the winter? Either at my barn or at the job site.

Barn storage:
I can keep 20 to 100 tons or more under roof and concrete floor. Could sell salt to others and would do all my trucking during the summer so no salt runs (about 80 miles away) during the winter. Would have to buy another loader ( small used skid under $10k) for the barn because my loaders are kept on location during the winter. Can keep left over salt dry all summer for next year. My barn is about ten miles away from parking lots I do. I would have to plow my route with salt in salter until I put it down. Could use extra skid louder during the summer.

Lot storage:
Can only keep about 20 tons on hand. Would have to make salt runs in the winter. Would have to tarp salt, salt will get wet. Don’t need extra loader. Can’t sell salt to others in smaller than truck load quantities. Will load salt at the parking lot it was intended for. I will have to truck extra salt back to barn at the end of season. 

What do you guys do?


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## Clapper&Company (Jan 4, 2005)

Why not do both?


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

Both, hum, not a bad idea. No negitive in leaving 20 ton on site and have say 40 ton at the barn. Then if I need 20 more on site all I have to do is truck 10 miles. When keeping bulk under tarp, how much do you loose from heavy rain. How much of a PIA is it to keep it dry. Any ideas on the best way to keep it dry.


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## Clapper&Company (Jan 4, 2005)

Use a Sea Box, it will stay dry and you can keep other stuff in it too


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

Another good idea, wonder if the sea box folks mind you putting salt in the box, must be hard on the box. Or I could buy one, still I wonder how long they last.


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## Clapper&Company (Jan 4, 2005)

I know a lot of ppl who do, wouldnt be that hard on them, 

If the salt is dry it will not rust very much, also there on a ship with sea water and sea salt all the there lifes


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## Mike S (Feb 11, 2007)

The salt stays dry in them but the salt make the containers sweet so it still gets chunky so dont expect anything to special! They dont mind at all about you storing salt in them but make sure you get a tall unit so when crushing chunks and stacking you dont hit the roof. Ply wood sides are nice to easier to clean up!


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

John Mac;518533 said:


> Both, hum, not a bad idea. No negitive in leaving 20 ton on site and have say 40 ton at the barn. Then if I need 20 more on site all I have to do is truck 10 miles. When keeping bulk under tarp, how much do you loose from heavy rain. How much of a PIA is it to keep it dry. Any ideas on the best way to keep it dry.


We use to tarp 3 or 4 35 ton piles in a parking lot. We used heavy round bale tarps with skids around them. We did that for over 20 years and never had a problem. We probably had drier salt there then in our Coverall's. We even trucked the salt back home and stored it on gravel outside and then trucked it back down again in the fall. I would rather use tarps, then a sea container, much easier IMO.


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

Do you put a tarp under pile and over so water doesn't get under. I could keep salt at my barn outside and tarp it, my parking lot is made out of gravel, and load with my excavator. No need for another skid steer but starting excavator on those cold nights could be hard sometimes. The door height in my barn were I will could store salt will only fit a skid steer. The heated part of the building has 14' doors but I use that area all winter long doing maintenance for the summer.


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

John Mac;518607 said:


> Do you put a tarp under pile and over so water doesn't get under. I could keep salt at my barn outside and tarp it, my parking lot is made out of gravel, and load with my excavator. No need for another skid steer but starting excavator on those cold nights could be hard sometimes. The door height in my barn were I will could store salt will only fit a skid steer. The heated part of the building has 14' doors but I use that area all winter long doing maintenance for the summer.


I only stored on pavement in the winter and gravel in the summer, no tarps underneath. I never had any waste. keeping salt onsite is your best bet, load after plowing and if you need more it's right there. I found having a few smaller piles was easier then having one big one. Uncovering a small pile is easier to do because the tarp isn't so big.


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## SNOWLORD (Aug 10, 2007)

I personally use a 40 ft sea container at each large mall I think its much easier than a tarp and you can keep some stuff in the container when not completely full of salt this way all your product and equipment stays on site we can run an end dump of salt into the box in about 20 minutes and each 40footer will hold 2 end dumps easily I buy the boxes for about a grand and havent replace one yet but one downfall is the 40footers are a pain to move but the 20footers we can move ourselves this is the only way we store our salt anymore, but what do i know


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

Thanks for the advised guys, so a tarp or container. I see these containers at action alot, could buy one for $1000, or rent for $110 a month, checked into this for a summer site work job. I think you would have to build some sort of ramp to get into it but maybe not. I wonder if keeping the skid in the container with salt will speed up the rust on machine? How do you move container? I have a full size dump and equipment tag trailer so putting container on trailer with out my excavator sounds tough. 40' not possible. The container needs to have a 8' or 9' door height? How many tons in a 20' box? How hard to keep tarp from blowing off, I am thinking pallets, but I guess you could rip the tarp. You would think this is a very easy thing to make work, but I hate to do things twice after the first time was the wrong way. The container I could use in the summer if I could move it around or it would just sit at my shop and become an extra storage shed.


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

I personally have never used a sea container for salt storage, so I can't really comment on them. I do use a container to store my sidewalk machinery in. I personally would never store my skid in a container with the salt. Tarps are a pain when it snow alot or when it is windy. We didn't really have problems with the tarps blowing off or ripping because we used lots of skids and alway shoveled the snow off before removing the tarp. The best thing about using tarps is all you do is dump the load and cover it, no piling or anything, you don't even have to start a machine up. That's why we used seperate piles. We used tarps untill 3 years ago and used in excess of 1000 tonnes every year. When we started using 1500 tonnes the tarps we're just too much work and that's why we put a Coverall up at our shop and on one of our sites. I'm sure both will work well, it's your choice.


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

Thanks JD, I will try the tarp, what do I have to loose. Do you ever sell your salt to others? I am thinking about doing that next year also. No one does small loads the day before the storm and I think that could could be a good side gig. The trucking has about $700 gross profit in it so not bad for 3 to 4 hours in the dump truck. I could advertise small loads for around $90 a ton picked up and still make a very good margin. I would just have to load everyone before midnight. Boy 1000 tons, well you would know, I would love to use that much. I used 30 tons so far this year in bagged and could of used twice that much, but just got sick of putting salt in the salter so didn't put down as much as I should of. I charge extra for salt so bulk is better for me and the customer, and a lot less work so I will never do bagged again. You have to start somewhere.


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## Ultra (Dec 3, 2007)

What is a sea container?


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

John Mac;518776 said:


> Thanks JD, I will try the tarp, what do I have to loose. Do you ever sell your salt to others? I am thinking about doing that next year also. No one does small loads the day before the storm and I think that could could be a good side gig. The trucking has about $700 gross profit in it so not bad for 3 to 4 hours in the dump truck. I could advertise small loads for around $90 a ton and still make a very good margin. I would just have to load everyone before midnight. Boy 1000 tons, well you would know, I would love to use that much. I used 30 tons so far this year in bagged and could of used twice that much, but just got sick of putting salt in the salter so didn't put down as much as I should of. I charge extra for salt so bulk is better for me and the customer, and a lot less work so I will never do bagged again. You have to start somewhere.


If you have the right location selling salt would be alright but form what I hear getting paid for the salt is the biggest problem. In a perfect world everyone would load before midnight but most people will call when you've just crawled into bed. Hopefully it works out for you.


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

> If you have the right location selling salt would be alright but form what I hear getting paid for the salt is the biggest problem. In a perfect world everyone would load before midnight but most people will call when you've just crawled into bed. Hopefully it works out for you.


Getting paid, what are you talking about?
I here ya, same thing during the summer, we do trucking in the summer for gravel, stone, topsoil and I don't tip till check is in hand (COD) for anyone I don't know. I think for the timing thing I would just have to stick to my rules of before midnight or after 9am or go somewhere else.


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## JD Dave (Mar 20, 2007)

John Mac;518800 said:


> Getting paid, what are you talking about?
> I here ya, same thing during the summer, we do trucking in the summer for gravel, stone, topsoil and I don't tip till check is in hand (COD) for anyone I don't know. I think for the timing thing I would just have to stick to my rules of before midnight or after 9am or go somewhere else.


I have thought about selling salt many times, there is good money in it. I hope you make tons of money.payup


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

JD, yah I think there is good money in it. You have all that salt on hand and can keep more on hand if you need to. You have the loader to load it out, the people to do the loading, why not truck it in your self and sell it. I am always looking for a way to offset my costs and why not? I bet you know other contractors already that would buy from you.


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## Kingwinter (Jan 26, 2008)

Ultra;518779 said:


> What is a sea container?


a cargo container like those used on big ships from CHINA that all of our retail crap comes in.

We use one at the company i work for, works pretty good, however, the top of it limits how high you can stack, and it seems like we spend alot of time filling it, then unloading it.

But i'd rather be messing around in a bobcat, than in the freezing cold trying to screw around with tarps with the wind wanting to take it.


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## SNOWLORD (Aug 10, 2007)

We have kept a skidloader in a container with salt but wouldnt make it a common practice as far as selling salt to other small contractors, personally i dont think its worth the screwing around i used to do a little of this and in this business when you gotta go you gotta go and the last thing i needed was a line of little pickup plowing wanna be's waiting by one of my containers when I have 50 ton to lay down in short order but maybe it will work for you good luck


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## John Mac (Feb 5, 2005)

Filling small trucks could be a PIA but the money is in the trucking, so the more material you truck in yourself the better, have to find a way to sell, use it, once you truck in. I could sell just truck loads, that would be the best IMO. If i had 1000 tons on hand that I bought when the price was the lowest, during the summer and then sold it this month at over a $100 a ton you could gross about $60,000 just on the trucking. Maybe $10,000 in fuel and storage cost so net $50,000.


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