Treasure hunting in skips: top tips

These days an increasing number of people are looking for bargains in skips. And for many of them, it's a great way of saving money.

Of course, there are stories of people who find valuable antiques or rare paintings just lying in a skip. But even for people who don't make a once in a lifetime find, it is nearly always worth rooting around in a skip.

As a seasoned skip-hunter let me give you some advice: you have to look in a lot of skips to find a significant amount of goodies. Also, most builders have a pretty good idea of the value of the stuff that they are discarding. So most of the valuable stuff is likely to be taken around to the auction house or sold to a salvage yard, rather than ending up on a skip. Nonetheless the following items are relatively common:

Fittings - locks, latches, escutcheons and window and door fittings usually get thrown away. If someone is putting in UPVC double glazing (yuck!) chances are that they are going to throw out the old windows and fittings. They may even chuck out the decorative glass. I recently picked up about 20 brass window latches from a skip. They were about 100 years old: modern reproductions of them cost about £20 each.

Bicycles - I have taken at least four kids bikes out of skips. They were all in reasonable condition.

Doors - builders invariably chuck out old doors. They do come in different shapes and sizes, but you can often find a big one and alter to fit the doorway you had in mind.

Flower pots - people often get a skip, when they are doing a garden makeover. In addition to the fencing, which is usually too rotten to be of much practical use, they often discard nice old pots.

Kitchen units - most of the ones that end up in a skip are pretty horrible, but sometimes you get lucky. And if you need units or an old sink for a garage or a workshop, skips can be useful place to look.

Fireplaces - although fireplaces can be sold at auction, you will still find them on skips. Keep an eye out for these prize goodies.

Kitchenware - a lot of people simply throw out pots and pans and casserole dishes, after a relative dies. I've found several really good casserole dishes on skips. In one skip I recently found a top quality stoneware flan dish, which would have cost me around £20, about half a dozen crystal wineglasses as well as three rare books on flower arranging.

Hi-tech equipment - you can find old computers, video projectors, scanners, monitors and just about anything else thrown into skips. Most of them won't work of course, but some is thrown out as it is just a bit old or in the way of a new office.

Building materials - you can got wonderful bits of wood from skips. A builder might buy a 12 foot length of wood, use about a third of it, and shove the rest on the skip. You can get planks, offcuts of doors, lengths of batton. If you're doing any DIY, it is always worth looking in a skip. Think srews too. Skips are full of them

Boxes of tiles - one box too many and it can end up skipped.

TOP SKIP TIPS

* Skips are full of rubble and rubbish. If you are going to look in a skip, it's a good idea to wear sturdy gardening gloves, otherwise you might get chunks of broken glass stuck in your hand. Also bring along a claw hammer and a screwdriver. These are useful for removing locks and handles from old doors and broken furniture.

* Some of things you find in skips are pretty horrible. My daughter was nauseated when I pulled the mummified remains of a fox out of one skip. Also check furniture carefully before you take it home. If an item has woodworm holes,  put it back in the skip.

* As long as a skip is in public land - ie on a public road or footpath - there is no real reason why you shouldn't help yourself to anything that's in it. However make sure that you don't make a mess. If you drop anything on the floor, pick it up. And if there are any builders around, be polite to them.

Happy skip raiding and good luck!