Junk Raiders 2 is the second season of the Canadian reality television series that airs on The Discovery Channel and ION Life. The series follows the titular Junk Raiders, a team of eight professionals as they attempt to renovate a site in Toronto's Don Valley (on Bayview Avenue) and renovate it to a two-story "clubhouse" in one month with only a C$5000 budget, as part of the Evergreen Brick Works project. Because of the extremely limited budget, many of the materials needed must be found by freecycling: finding something unwanted for free and reusing it.
The Team The team consists of the following members, both new and returning:
Geoff Woodmansey returns for the second season of the series. Besides from his work on this show and on Canada's Worst Handyman, he spends his time renovating homes in some of Toronto's most exclusive neighborhoods. Gordie Wornoff, the only other returning member, is a salvager who salvages as a way of life. He is skilled in carpentry, having built his house from repurposed wood, and he is also a freegan, regularly eating otherwise good food that has been disposed of. Andy Berry is the team's designer. He has designed residences, commercial spaces, and film sets. His ideals match that of the show, as his specialty is sourcing materials from junkyards and making them look pristine. Paul Graham is the team's tech expert. The president of OpenLuna, an organization that seeks to get folks on the moon, he is also the builder behind "Beer-bot", a beverage-dispensing robot that keeps beer out of children's hands. John Johnson is an inventor whose invention, the "Scoop-It Pooper Scooper", helped him pay for his first home. He is working on an invention that generates electricity from food scraps which he envisions could power large cities. Merv Lane has spent 25 years in the steel trades, having helped build some of the largest steel structures in North America. Tom Mourgas is a Greek blacksmith. He lives an old-fashioned lifestyle, from his way of life, not owning a computer or cell phone, to his way of plying his craft. Katrina Tompkins is a Sheridan college graduate from 2009 from the Crafts and Design: Furniture Program.
The team's client is Evergreen, a nonprofit organization in charge of the Brick Works project, a massive restoration project eight years in the making. Representing them is Martin Leifhebber, their architect, and Matthew Cohen, their senior project manager.
Synopsis
Episode 1 - Days 1-3 Original airdate: March 21, 2011
The team is introduced to a project from their warehouse in Toronto's west end: a clubhouse whose second story is made from two halves of a shipping container, with various artistic features adorning both floors of the site. The entire clubhouse will be built in their warehouse, and to be shipped over to the brickworks at the end of the project and assembled onsite. While Tom, Merv, and Katarina get to cutting the shipping container, Gordie and John are ordered to spend $1000 for of steel (much to both of their chagrins), used to reinforce the weakened shipping container. They head off to the site which had donated the shipping container, with instructions to haggle as necessary. The steel they need cost $60 more than what they have (if HST was taken into account), so they negotiate down to of new steel and various scrap fixings (intending to weld the rest together to make up the difference). Gordie and John also stop by Gordie's own shop for some of his stockpiled materials. The materials, however, disappoint Geoff (as he believes welded-together scrap will never meet building codes) and the rest of the team, and he takes out his frustrations on John (and less so on Gordie). Meanwhile, Andy gets cracking on the design of the living space, and Paul is tasked to start an online campaign to secure the recycled materials that they need.
On the second day, the entire team (with Geoff) visit the Brickworks, where they also meet the clients, who have slightly (but not significantly) altered their plans to include a feature known as the "firefly". They also take the opportunity to salvage unused material from the Brickworks for various projects: John has secured an old motor and fan that he plans to convert into a wind generator to power the lights needed for the firefly, while Katrina has salvaged a large pipe for at least two pieces of furniture. However, they are unable to use everything that they salvage: a set of stairs (which they cannot use as-is due to building codes) they had thought of reusing is found to contain lead paint.
On Day 3, Paul's online campaign has paid off, and he and Gordie secure parts from a local bicycle repair depot. While putting posters around the neighborhood (asking residents to donate useful materials for their project), they also spot a local contractor, who allow Gordie and Paul to scavenge from his dumpster. This junk haul helps the team cool off their tensions (especially between Merv and Tom, who briefly argue over one being a gofer to the other): John now can run his generator using the motor from a scooter rather than the older motor from the fan. Tom, however, is reserved about the use of some of the resourced metal, but he is assuaged by the fact that Geoff intends to sell off any metal that they cannot use. The crew spends the rest of the day inventorying the junk and finishing Katrina's and John project.
The clients arrive, and are impressed by the progress so far. However, they are reserved on Andy's design, and specifically requests that the fan blades on John's fan be made larger and that Katrina's wall-mounted table be clear-coated to a matte finish. The team is happy with the great results so far, even if only $4000 remains in their budget.
Deleted Scene: The deleted scene from this episode is from Day 1, where Tom is adamant that the bottle of special water that he brings from home each day is cold when he needs it. Geoff is willing to accommodate him, but Merv believes that Tom is being too much of a diva.
Episode 2 - Days 4-7 Original airdate: March 28, 2011
Day 4 begins with Geoff ordering Tom and Merv to continue the structural work on the containers, while Katrina and John are tasked with their projects. Meanwhile, Paul is tasked to search for free structural steel desperately needed by Tom and Merv, while Gordie and Andy head off with a hot tip on the junk hotline; apparently, an elderly handyman (who also abided by the freecycling philosophy) had moved into a retirement home, and all of his stockpiled tools and materials are up for grabs. While the trip proved fruitful, they are still short windows and structural steel. Andy promptly takes the recovered hardwood flooring for a table project, but Geoff is forced to dip into the budget for the desperately needed steel.
By day 5, they are still short on steel, and because Paul could not source the steel, Geoff sends Merv and Gordie to a scrapyard across the city (on McCowan Road in York Region) with $500 for the needed steel. They spend $300 on a series of older steel pipes to use as structural support, along with a series of truck and bus doors, intending to use them as the container's windows. However, they are short $90 on new steel, so he decides to pay the difference out of his own pocket. Meanwhile, Katrina and Andy finishes their project, and Paul is tasked on a project that would let people open the container door from the inside, using mostly bicycle parts. Andy switches gears and uses even more bike parts for a lounge chair as a recovered treadmill. When Gordie and Merv return, Geoff and Tom are concerned with the older (and possibly rusted) pipes, but Geoff is nevertheless forced to reimburse the $90 to Merv, and is sold on Gordie's idea to repurpose the truck and bus doors for windows.
Day 6 begins with Geoff getting Tom and Merv competing against each other to see who would finish restructuring their half of the container first. The general consensus is that while Tom may be faster, Merv is more likely to finish with better quality, and indeed this is the case when both finish - so much so that Geoff is concerned with the quality of his work. Geoff, however, is more concerned with Paul's project, as he believes Paul is working too slowly. Geoff also begins work on 4 crib walls needed on the first floor, but they lack the structural steel. Andy suggests that they make the crib walls out of wood (also in short supply) despite Geoff's reservations that the clients would insist on metal. Gordie and Katrina are off in search for wood, but find much more than that, including plywood, steel pipe, scrap metal, and chain-link fencing, all of which are desperately needed. Meanwhile, John's windmill is finished, with the larger fan blades taken from the cut-out portions of the shipping container.
Paul's project is sadly incomplete on Day 7, while Tom is tasked with a safety railing to accompany Paul's door opener. However, Merv also reminds Tom that he needs to finish his somewhat spotty work on the container. The clients arrive in the afternoon, and are immediately impressed with the windmill, which has also been painted yellow to match a sunflower found on the outside of the brickworks, as well as Katrina's chair/table combination and Tom's railing. They are also impressed by Tom and Merv's overall work, as Matthew's previous experience with renovating shipping containers had taken three times as long. They are less impressed by Andy's table, and is ultimately reserved on the windows from truck and car doors. They ultimately reject the wooden crib walls due to the industrial aesthetic of the brickworks, but is willing to concede a redesign so that less metal is used. To make things worse, the rusty pipes cannot be used for any project at all, rendering it a potential white elephant, which they cannot afford with $3410 left in their budget.
Deleted Scene: The deleted scene from this episode is from Day 3, where Paul shares his fascination with space travel to Gordie. Gordie is somewhat reserved in his reaction, due to his environmentalist ways.
Episode 3 - Days 8-10 Original airdate: April 4, 2011
Day 8 begins with Merv finishing the container, Tom on the railing, John and Paul on the door opener, Gordie to find sinks for a sink wall, Katrina on furniture projects, and Andy on more design work. While on the road looking for metal sinks and finding only cheap plastic ones, Gordie gets a hit on the junk hotline, where he manages to get 20000 smoke-damaged wine corks. The lack of anything of immediate use adds to Geoff's troubles, already at a high due to Paul spending too much time on the door opener. Geoff issues an ultimatum on the door: finish it or demolish it in two hours. After Gordie invites Geoff on a trip raiding the Canadian National Exhibition (Day 8 being Labour Day, the last day of the Exhibition) for possible crib wall supplies, Geoff leaves Andy in charge of the door opener's fate. However, Martin arrives unannounced just after Geoff leaves, leaving Andy to receive Martin's crib wall redesign. Martin also signs off on Andy's window layout, opening the way for Merv to install the window. Andy also approves of Paul's and John's work after one door is finished in the door opener.