I have a few acres available near East Glacier, Montana and plan on building a small cabin. I really want to get a small mill and mill my own siding. I’ve been googling all night and have seen so much contradicting information about what to use and what not to use.
I have a couple questions that I hope your expertise could help me out with.
1. What kind of wood would be recommended for this area for horizontal lap siding.
2. If I do get a mill, instead of falling my own trees and milling and stacking them up to let them dry… is it ok to go in the woods to find trees that have just been laying on the forest floor for a few years? Seems like they already dried out?
I apologize if these are “stupid” questions… I’m just going in circles on Google.
Thanks everyone!!
Replies
Do you really have at least two years to season the newly cut wood that you felled on your property? I know Montana has a lot of woods but here in Ohio I know I'd get arrested if I started pulling downed trees off government property, shot if I got it off my neighbors. If you do all this on your own be advised you will be handling this lumber many times before it becomes siding. There will be a lot of waste to go along with that sore back. Just me here, but, I'd use that mill investment money to buy siding and enjoy the cabin.
Full disclosure; I've never milled siding with a milling machine but I have milled clapboard on my jointer-planner from rough stock.
I have the time and the property is private property of a family friend. No issues getting the already felled trees. Easily accessible.
I didn't word my question properly.. mostly concerned about the usability of dead fallen trees.
Thank you for your comments.
A dead or on the ground tree is not necessarily dry although if you plan for shrinkage you can hang it green. Lap siding is a slow process on a sawmill unless you have a siding fixture for it. Unless you have another use for a sawmill there is no possible way to buy a mill, handle the logs, and save money on a small cabin.
I'm doing this right now. I had some big old cedars that were right where the house needed to be. When I had them dropped I told the tree guy that we'd be milling the wood and so he cut the sections accordingly. Rather than buy a crappy mill setup or spend a fortune on a good one I paid for a guy who already owned a Wood Mizer to bring it to the property and mill the boards on site.
We're now almost two years down that road and ready to hang the board and batten siding. The boards are beautiful 16" wide, 20' long with some saw marks that I'm leaving in for character. I've already made the window trim from this stock and will be hanging the board and batten siding this month.
It was a lot of work vs just hanging store bought siding, and I can't say that it was definitely worth it or not worth it, but I wouldn't be able to afford this kind of siding any other way. If I wasn't building my own home, then no way would I have done this.
Awesome. Would be great to see some pics of your process and final product
No photos to post yet but I do have some so maybe down the road I'll put 'em up.
I will say that it's been a complete time suck doing this. If I bought boards or just went with fiber cement siding I'd have been done by now. And no way does this pencil out cheaper if you have to pay the labor or if you consider the opportunity cost of your own labor. The only way to justify it is for the personal experience and bragging rights.
Being dead and on the ground doesn't mean they are dry. But are you talking about lap siding or just 1 x 6" boards that you would lap? A pro mill would cut these to 1", dry them to probably 15% or less then mill them into lap siding. Cutting lap siding on a sawmill is a slow, tedious process, boards are much easier and less fussy. The guy who commented #2 did not make lap siding but board and batten, a totally different thing.
I have a lot of fun doing all the step from the tree to the finishedbuilding. I did it for my house 40 +years ago and end up with a sawmill business ! So for fun do it. For money I doubt you could save. Your question implies a lot of thing. What equipment do you have to handle the logs ? Is it just a one shot experience ? What kind of species of tree ? Might be more a sawmill question than a construction one. A lot of info on sawmilling, logging, wood qualities on the : forestryforum.com
There are a few siding styles you can make on a homeowner mill that you can install green. Flitch siding is the easiest to make and there are nailing schedules for green board and batten. I’ve installed both green with great results. You have to allow for a little movement and you may have to re-caulk after a few years. There aren’t any cedar trees here in the east so we use hemlock.
Since your real question is about using older logs, I'd say you're probably safe in Montana. Depending on the species, the climate is dry enough that most of the log will be sound. I'm in the east where logs will rot with ground contact, but putting them up on bunks is OK to let them dry. I've got oak logs that have been down for several years and are fine, but the mill might not go through them as quickly as green wood. I've also used maple with rot started, and often find nice spalted patterns -it's OK wood for finish work, but has no strength for construction. Another thing you may find is boring insects that have tunneled through the wood. Again, it's interesting stuff for furniture ,or even floors, but I wouldn't trust it for load bearing except for timber framing - if it's not too badly tunneled.