Before You Throw Away Old Tires, Check Out These Insanely Practical Uses!

old tires

Tires are tough, durable and long-lasting. Unfortunately, eventually, they do wear out. When that happens, what do you do with them? Turns out, you can do a lot of things. You can turn them towards your garden, improve your cabin or shed and even make a variety of projects around the home. Check out the list below for details.

Planters
Tires make the perfect planters, and you can either use them for horizontal or vertical planting. All you need to do is place dirt, nutrients and your seeds/seedlings into the tire and you have a self-contained system. You can also hang them vertically and use them for herbs and other edible green items such as parsley and cilantro that do not require deep soil in order to grow.
Steps
If you have a path that leads up a hill, tires are an ideal way to create sturdy steps that will make climbing safer as well as less energy-consuming. Simply flatten the ground, lay two, three or four tires next to each other and fill them with the material that you want to use as the “floor”. The next step is to level the ground about six to ten inches above the first row of tires and repeat the process.
Roofing Material
Tires can provide a water resistant form of roofing material that can replace shingles or clay tiles. All you need to do is cut out the treads into segments and nail to the roof in a manner similar to laying decorative Spanish tile.
Household Items
Tires are strong and durable, and they make the perfect choice for building chair seats and backs, tables, baskets and even belts. You can even fashion custom sandals from the rubber.

One of the best uses here is to reuse your old tires to create steps for a difficult hill on your property. Rather than having to purchase 2x4s from the hardware store or large stones from the garden center, you can simply turn your old tires into a foundation for your outdoor steps. Instead of sand or stones, you could even fill them with concrete to create a more solid foundation.

Another fantastic tire use from this list is to use them as a roofing material. If you were to store all of your old tires throughout your life, you would have ample supply of roofing material for when SHTF. This will be great when you don't have access to the conveniences of modern life, like being able to go simply to a hardware store and buy all of your shingles.

For more tips on how to use your tires go to Survival Kit.


Pages: 1 2

28 Comments

  1. John D. Wolfskill said:

    stuff like this just makes me madder at my state, we are not allowed to keep our od tires when we buy new ones. . . . .

    Reply
  7. Aaron Rollins said:

    Change tire shop then, an you won’t be forced to pay extra for recycling/disposal fee’s. About $5 per tire

    Reply
  8. Aaron Rollins said:

    Or a heavy duty floor mat.
    Cut out just the treads an screw down to plywood

    Reply
  17. George Miller said:

    Whoever put those freakin tires in the Arizona desert, needs a real asskicking. Paintball my$#%&!@* Go join the Marines if you want some war games, stud.

    Reply
  18. Vernon Lindbloom said:

    Tires are an eyesore no matter how fancy they are cut. One of the biggest mosquitoe breeding grounds.
    Industrial recycling is the way to go.

    Reply
  19. Ixora Roberts said:

    It is obvious somebody have been talking to the people of New Mexico….don’t spread the word….do you really want every other state lookin like some parts of NM where you pass miles of homes with rooftops covered with tires…!

    Reply
  21. Rod Coulon said:

    Bias-ply tires are required for these things and pretty much only trailers use bias ply and that’s rare anymore too

    Reply
  22. Chris Shambra said:

    Old tires are a major breeding place for mosquitos. If you want to have old tires around make sure they cant hold water or you will have tons of mosquitos.

    Reply

*

*

Top