Drying timber? -- lumber from an old barn for floors?

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I have a few questions: 1st -- how long will it take us to dry our timber after it is cut into lumber? We have really nice timber on our land and most hasn't been cut in 35+ years and we were thinking of using some of it for lumber for our house. We have oak, maple, pine and hickory. 2nd ? is we have an old barn and it needs to come down. The bottom 3 feet is rotten-sills are completely gone on two sides and the walls are gone up about 2 ft. but the upper floor and upper walls are beautiful oak. I want to have them re-planed and use them as floors in our house. Is this cost effective? I have checked the cost of old /refurbished floors and they are running about $10.00 a sq. ft. installed. Any ideas???? Thanks for the answers!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), July 30, 2001

Answers

yes you can plane the barn boards ,, My mothers useing them ALL the time. BUt paying to have it done may be another story,, hopefully you have one,, or know someone who does. Drying the lumber,, assuming you mean air dry it,, all depends on the humidity, air temp,, if any more water, rain, snow, ect, gets on them,, how much air circulation they get,, ect. After they are cut,, place them in side,, the barn might work if it keeps the rain out, put spacers in between every board. It wil take at least six months to dry.

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), July 30, 2001.

Debbie.

You can buy a planer that will handle the oak planks if they are not more than 2" thick. The cost of the planer is a fraction of the value of the oak you will be salvaging and probably less than hiring a mill to do it for you. They are fairly simple to operate and places like Sears or Lowes sell them. Do a search on the net for woodworking tools. You will also need a joiner to do the edges unless they are already T&G.

-- Skip in Western WA (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), July 30, 2001.


I am a wood worker and carver and as such I am always on the look out for good wood. The answer about planing the barn wood yourself is a good one. It still may do some strange things after planning but would be worth the problems. As for green wood if you cut it and stack it correctly in a shaded space with stickers between all the boards it will air dry at aprox one year per one inch. You can find books at libraries that will give you exacting details. Don't rush it, and good luck it doesn't work just like the book every time that is part of the fun.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), July 30, 2001.

Debbie go to the following:

http://www.logosolcanada.com/logosol/dry.htm

It tells you how to stack properly and such and comes with pictures.

-- TomK (Mich.) (tjk@cac.net), July 30, 2001.


I would be very aprehensive planing boards recovered from an old floor, it only takes one little speck of metal from a nail or whatever to nick the planer blades or worse. Even if you manage to remove all the nails and whatever what about the years of ingrained grit and such like?

If you intend to use the timber for flooring I suggest you consider hiring (or whatever) a heavy duty floor sanding machine.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), July 31, 2001.



Debbie, if you have timbering companies in your area you might want to consider selling that hickory. You will be shocked at what they will pay for hickory! Could be your retirement.

-- Karen (db0421@yahoo.com), July 31, 2001.

Debbie, If you buy a planer to do it yourself, you'll also want to purchase a wand style metal detector. Use this to find all the nails, tacks, staples, wire, etc. that may be embedded in that old barn wood. After you've removed all the metal you can find with the metal detector, run a 4" belt sander over the surface of the board to remove any non- metallic grit that will also be embedded in the surface of the wood. Once all that's done, you can run it through the planer. Take a little off each side alternating side to side. Take small bites as this wood will undoubtably be very hard because it sounds like it is very old. Buy an extra set of planer blades as you will surely nick them up despite all your careful preparation.

-- Steve in So. WI (alpine1@prodigy.net), July 31, 2001.

Thank you, all! I am really excited about doing this.. The barn is over 75 years old and I think it will be beautiful. It's random widths, approx 2" thick and very hard. We will, probably, have to drill holes before put the nails down! :)

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), July 31, 2001.

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