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Try old barns for sale. The rafters and second floor joists are ofter 3X and 4x maple, oak; yellow pine; spruce, etc.
If you make up your own beams (visible rafers), you can glue, clamp and rip them so joints are hardly visible. You can screw them together, counter sink the holes and fill them with matching filler — its a labor of love. Use exterior class nails and screws on visible timbers, even on interior build-up’s, so you don’t get corosion bleed stain. Bleeding will occur behind stains and paint, too.
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Can't beat salvage lumber for this. Old warehouse beams, etc. They have a great age patina, and often bear some interesting scars from their previous life.
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I'm going to be building a large screened in porch. This is on a very substantial house and larger rafters would really look great. I'm probably looking for something 3"x10". I need clean lumber, knots are fine, bark and grade marks are not.
I don't want to have something milled (I have done this before) because I don't want it to twist as it drys.
My lumberyard says they can get me anything but it will cost me.
I might end up sistering two 2x's together but would rather have one piece.
Any suggestions for getting this stuff without spending more than I have too?
*RyanC, You could look around your area and find a local sawmill and select some lumber the size you need from them. But unless what they have on hand is dry you may well end up with some twisting. It also depends on the wood. Eastern hemlock twists and warps less than other woods while drying in place. Probably the most practical solution (if feasible) is to run your standard rafters and tie in the oversize tail. By running it inside the wall and tying them to the rafters you can achieve the look of the rafter. But you would have to check your loads carefully, and you may find that the added labour costs outweigh the additional material costs for oversized rafters. Another idea would be to make a box sleeve of whatever you want the rafter tail to look like and slide it over the rafter tail. Using polyurethane glue and especially if painted it may well be indistinguishable. Just some thoughts Walk good david
*Double it and wrap it. Check the price vs. 4x(cut down) solids. Jeff
*Try old barns for sale. The rafters and second floor joists are ofter 3X and 4x maple, oak; yellow pine; spruce, etc. If you make up your own beams (visible rafers), you can glue, clamp and rip them so joints are hardly visible. You can screw them together, counter sink the holes and fill them with matching filler -- its a labor of love. Use exterior class nails and screws on visible timbers, even on interior build-up's, so you don't get corosion bleed stain. Bleeding will occur behind stains and paint, too.
*I'd look for salvaged materials. Around here(SE Penna), there are all sorts of stuff for sale. Much of it is from old barns, warehouses, etc. We pulled some really nice doug. fir beams out of a place once.
*ryan.. i've done some framing with site built-trusses using 4x10 DF.. it's the cat's meow.. but u will have to sand off the grade marks...this is a pretty standard item.. used to be absolutely common for dock building....pretty reasonable too....order extra.. so u can pick and choose..spec #1 & 2...
*Ryan, Got any building inspectors in your area? Do you need a permit for this structure? (Most likely yes if you have building inspection.) Using ungraded material in a structural application can get you in hot water in some areas. Check with your local building dept. to see how they view this issue. Sure, some of us can look at a piece of wood and know pretty well what it will be able to do in common applications, most of the world got built that way. Telling this to your building inspector as they frown upon looking up at your rafters may not help much. If using stamped lumber, don't sand off the marks until somebody official sees it, or unless you get some arrangement worked out beforehand. Depends on the "personality" of your local inspection office to a degree. Where I live, we go by CABO for residential one and two family, check out section 802.1 Identification and Grade in Chapter 8, Roof-Ceiling Construction. Hope this saves you future trouble.
*Thanks for the warning. I'm rural, inspections are pretty easy and the inspectors do have alot of common sense. And the larger framing is for looks and will be rediculously ovesized for the job.