OK, sold house and living in a rv for now. I have enough whitepine timber to build several houses. My decision is whether I want to or not. Anyways, Living in the RV my wife and I have came to the realization that maybe we don't need as big a house as we have planned to build. We always wanted a log house, Not timber frame, but I couldn't bring myself to trying to build a large house with logs I have milled. Drying, shrinking, bugs, etc, etc. Even starting to cut the timber now, time will be a issue. I could probably cut most of the trees I would need in a couple of days, and I would be able to leave them on site for the milling and stacking. Not sure how long it would take to actually mill the logs once the milling actually starts. Handling the logs or timbers isn't a issue.
I m considering cutting the logs this winter and stacking off the ground and letting the wood season ever how much it will thru this winter. I don't want the logs laying with bark for a long time due to the sawyers and grubs getting under the bark and boring into the wood, causing blue streaks and what not. By spring, I should have settled on a different house plan and I can start milling out the logs I would need to frame with. I would use bought lumber for the floor joist and probably trusses for the roof. My concern is the timbers will still be pretty much green.
Second plan is to stack the logs inside a plastic covered shed, sort of a solar kiln. This should speed drying of the logs, but they still wouldn't be dry enough by spring to build with.
Third plan, cut and mill as soon as possible and stack milled timers inside the solar kiln. I think this would be the best route and would dry out the wood the fastest, I don't have a material list of what timbers need to be cut. We don't have a house plan in mind yet, so even trying to estimate or a best guess is likely to be wrong. An option is to just cut and mill more logs than I think I need and sort it out when building actually starts.
Granted, I still havent decided to build the log house, but any opinions of the best course of action would be appreciated.
I m considering cutting the logs this winter and stacking off the ground and letting the wood season ever how much it will thru this winter. I don't want the logs laying with bark for a long time due to the sawyers and grubs getting under the bark and boring into the wood, causing blue streaks and what not. By spring, I should have settled on a different house plan and I can start milling out the logs I would need to frame with. I would use bought lumber for the floor joist and probably trusses for the roof. My concern is the timbers will still be pretty much green.
Second plan is to stack the logs inside a plastic covered shed, sort of a solar kiln. This should speed drying of the logs, but they still wouldn't be dry enough by spring to build with.
Third plan, cut and mill as soon as possible and stack milled timers inside the solar kiln. I think this would be the best route and would dry out the wood the fastest, I don't have a material list of what timbers need to be cut. We don't have a house plan in mind yet, so even trying to estimate or a best guess is likely to be wrong. An option is to just cut and mill more logs than I think I need and sort it out when building actually starts.
Granted, I still havent decided to build the log house, but any opinions of the best course of action would be appreciated.