Savings from building w/ own timber?
mjaeger
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
We plan to build a home on our land in the coming year. We live in Oregon and have ample timber on our land to harvest. The trees are straight, douglas fir of various sizes. I know the lumber will need to be graded also. we hope to mix some exposed post and beams with traditional framing. Does anyone have experience with the potential savings of harvesting and having our own timber milled?
Replies
From personal experience? About zip. You probably won't save a dime unless you do all the labor. Hiring someone else to saw, grade, and mess around with rough-sawn timber for a house is not going to be any cheaper than going to the lumber yard. I wouldn't do it again.
I've sawn several thousand board feet here. Brought in a band mill and sawyer for the occasions. Normally costs me .25/sq ft for the sawing. Notice I said sq ft, not bd ft. My time was bringing the logs to the mill, removing the lumber, and then stickering it. Big money savings over buying softwoods ready to go? Unlikely. I have hardwoods, a different situation.
What you will get is the satisfaction of using your own wood and the option of getting large timbers that might otherwise be difficult to find. If you only wanted a pile of 2x4s, probably not much point.
Check into the grading situation before you make any decision to go forward. Sometimes is very difficult.
On an outbuilding, I didn't need a grader for a 2 story post&beam structure here. It was great to use my own timber all the way up to the purlins under the copper roof. Have posts and beams here now to hold up a future tractor shed roof.
I gather this wasn't the lifetime opportunity you've awaited to buy a mill?
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
If the logs will yield timberframe-sized beams, a local timber framing business might team with a logger and sawyer to get enough stock for your home as a timber-framed structure.
My sister and BIL are having that done right now here, in white pine. They are building as phase one of their retirement place, a 24 x 36 barn that will be a garage, workshop, and guest bedroom loft.
In their case, the net savings was close to zero. The trees had to come out anyway, so the cost of the logging, clearing, trucking, sawing, etc., when figured against a timberframed package using purchased beam stock, turned out as a wash. Their own logs will provide about 80 percent of the materials required, including roughsawn siding and floor decking for the loft.
In the case of stickframe dimensional lumber, my guess is that you cannot do what you envision, because of the need for drying, milling, and grading.