“LONG post. Looking for advice from folks who have lots of experience with medium scale worm breeding and casting production” Most of us here do smaller scale. “I can already tell that much of the advice out there is like the advice on regular composting - easiest case advice that has been reprinted enough times that certain things become 'consensus' thus must be true.” The same thing happens here. Since you are asking questions about things we may not have experience with, expect more of that kind of advice. “the advice out there that says a worm population will double in 90 days is silly - under ideal conditions they could increase 100 fold in that time period.” The WEIGHT of the worm population can double every 90 days. The numbers will more than double, but many of the new worms will be babies. “My assumption is that the fastest way to get a large population going is to master the right conditions and then to have very low density. IE, a pound of worms in one bin is not going to yield the same population in three months as will the same pound of worms spread across 2,4, or 8 bins.” I have no idea how you come to that conclusion. Worms only breed so fast. Separating them from potential partners does not speed up the process. You want to avoid overcrowding the worms, but one pound in the kind of bin you describe is far from overcrowding. “Is there a minimum number you experienced breeders have found to be the minimum effective dose to ensure worms are finding one another and doing the horizontal worm mambo” Two. “or have these suckers been around a few million years because if there are two they will track one another down and ensure the survival of the species?” I don’t know if anyone here has really researched that, but conventional wisdom says that if your population is not dense enough, you will have less breeding. “For Bins, I am building continuous flow through bins using plastic garbage pails since they are cheap and large.” But are not strong enough to hold the weight of the VC, especially if you have cut a hole in the bottom large enough to facilitate harvesting. Bins made the way you describe tend to collapse under the weight of the VC “I figured the cranked spinning bar would likely just dig a groove above the grate and require some hand loosening anyway” That has been my experience. “I was thinking I'd use 'unfinished' hot compost. By unfinished, I mean it has been turned a couple times and there are still identifiable chunks like leaves that are blackened but largely whole.” This would make great bedding. If your hot compost has a balance of C to N, it would also be great food, and would require no additional food. “Am I right that unfinished compost, so long as it doesn't heat up is more or less perfect and would spur breeding since it would represent a mountain of perfect food source and stay pretty constant in terms of temp and moisture level with minimal effort?” Probably. “Food: I will quickly have more worms than I will have food scraps suitable for feeding them,” You are being optimistic. You may be right, but there can be a lot of surprises when you are raising live animals. “One of my favorite composting ingredients is to get coffee grounds in mass quantity from the coffee shops” This is not ideal worm food. Perhaps you would do better to put it in your hot bins and precompost it. “I have read that too many coffee grounds are bad for worms due to acidity.” A lot of people say that. I don’t buy it. “Is there another reason they would be bad?” Besides that worms don’t like to eat them until they have decomposed a bit? “I don't want to make feeding the worms a full time job so if I get sufficient numbers I know a nursery that will sell a truckload of horse stall compost cheap.” That may be the answer to getting them to breed faster as well. “It's a tad warm usually but I'm thinking that spreading an inch on top of the bins and lightly watering it would prevent heating and I've read that there is no better food for feeding compost worms and getting them to breed/mature quickly?” Correct, and correct.

If there's an Ikea in your area, a local handyman could build you very nice cabs using their stuff, it would have top notch hardware and install easily. You DON'T need to be a carpenter to put Ikea cabs together. If you have an electric screwdriver or drill, you can build a box in half an hour, and build 3 drawers to go inside in 15 minutes. But if you just aren't up for that, you could ask the Ikea if there are any local tradesman that do this regularly. HD and others carry pre-made boxes [not ready to asseble, like Ikea] that aren't hard to install, though from what I've seen they are nearly as expensive as the Ikea ones, but not as well made. For a laundry room, I don't personally think granite is worthwhile. you could either use Ikea, or a pre-laminated piece cut to size from HD or other company. Bear in mind that HD and Lowes can have some decent stuff, but a locally owned store likely carries a slightly higher grade of merchandise-- the big stores are more 'lowest common denominator'. I think your budget is do-able, but you will have to pay some attention, too: seems like the numbers can get crazy fast if you have to have any plumbing or ductwork moved.

Try a post on here for recommendations for KD, Cabinetmaker, Dealer in San Francisco. Make up a budget number- simply how much your comfortable with. You will be get better results if you walk in and say "I want to spend xyz" than simply "I don't want to spend a lot". In any case they have to figure out if they can help you get what you want and meet your budget. Make it clear that the budget is a priority. It is assumed that people hold back 10%. When I shop I don't, and assume that clients don't, but I'm a little different. IF they think what you want is a priority over budget they are likely to come back with a quote that is over budget. Why? Because everyone that walks through the door want more stuff than they want to spend for. So your leaving them with the choice of either not giving you what you want or not meeting your budget. The trick is to get as much of what you want for what you comfortably want to spend. Decide what is important- my favorite is 3 things you need and 3 things you want. It's a great exercise because you have to figure out the difference between the two. Have a target date for when you want to be done. Preferably a few months. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Kwanza, Groundhog day as deadlines are not the best idea. Then find 3 places to try. Call ahead and make an appointment, you will be taken more seriously. Appointments do NOT carry any obligation with them. Bring a dimensioned floor plan with you- it can be crude, the numbers are what matter. You do not need them to do floor plans yet. You may decide to avail yourself of the help here even if your not DIY. See what they offer, let THEM tell you what and how they do this. What can they offer to meet your budget. Try to look at it as fun, makes it easier. You are just shopping- NO commitment until you are comfortable. Concentrate on gauging who you are working with- what brand is secondary. It's kind of like dating- it can be fun, awful, tedious, absolutely hysterical, eventually you find someone to spend some time with and have a few laughs. The bad news is you don't get a free dinner, the good news ...your not going to marry any of them.

Unlike funkycamper, I got a little lost. I googled tilt out hamper and came up with thisIt looks like it holds about 3 shirts, but it may be OK for grubby soccer shorts, etc. Is this strictly a utility area or does it need to look "dressed up"? If it's utility, have you considered an Elfa system (from The Container Store)? I couldn't get their design page to work this morning, but it would look something like this next to the sink:The baskets are slide out, but I can't see that that's any less useful than the tilt out. We actually use 3 of these basket in our closet, one each small, med., and lg., for our laundry. We also replaced the overhead cabinets in our laundry area with Elfa shelving and it's a definite improvement. Just a thought.