Hemlock opinions...

[Super77Guy]

As some of you may have read in another thread of mine, i am planning on building a "smallish" size pole building (3 sided) for my tractors and other equipment. Anyway, I have access to numerous Amish owned lumber mills, so I was planning to use Hemlock as my primary wood source, other than the necessary PT lumber for the poles and ground skirt boards. I have used hemlock for other projects, and I know the Amish use hemlock for most, if not all of their out-buildings, but I always like to get the opinion of others on issues like this...

Thanks!!

 

[forgeblast]

I have it as the sheathing on my barn, coop, leanto etc. I find that its mostly sold "green" so i will warp, if they drop it off get it on the barn quick. I do a lets say 4'' board, then give a 1'' space, then 4'' board, and then i rip some boards in half and to an overlap on top of it. (board and batton)
looks great holds up really nice, and the price is right. I also have them as decking on my bridge and after two years of not being stained they are in great shape.

 

[ToadHill]

My barn is sheathed in Hemlock and it's made from a barn I took down. I reused the wood to cover my new barn and the barn down I took down was over 100 years old.

Keep it away from soil contact and it will outlive you and a few more generations.

 

[Super77Guy]

I have it as the sheathing on my barn, coop, leanto etc. I find that its mostly sold "green" so i will warp, if they drop it off get it on the barn quick. I do a lets say 4'' board, then give a 1'' space, then 4'' board, and then i rip some boards in half and to an overlap on top of it. (board and batton)
looks great holds up really nice, and the price is right. I also have them as decking on my bridge and after two years of not being stained they are in great shape.

I'm definately going the board & batten route... Any thoughts on using the dimensional boards for the framing? I know the Amish use it, and I have used it on a hunting cabin, but I was hoping to find someone who has and get their opinion... Thanks again for responding!

 

[Storm56]

I'm definately going the board & batten route... Any thoughts on using the dimensional boards for the framing? I know the Amish use it, and I have used it on a hunting cabin, but I was hoping to find someone who has and get their opinion... Thanks again for responding!

I just built a 20x40 equipment shed in August. I was going to do the sides in hemlock and after pricing it and metal, the 35 year warranty metal was about $400 less than the hemlock! I was going to also use it for my rafters and purlins, but it was almost the same as store bought lumber.

Now maybe the local sawmill here is greedy but it might pay to check it out.

Anyway about 12 years ago I cut a bunch of hemlock on my property and had a guy with a portable band saw come in and saw it up. Sorry to say it is all but used up now. But it made GREAT wood for several projects I used it for including framing.

 

[Super77Guy]

I just built a 20x40 equipment shed in August. I was going to do the sides in hemlock and after pricing it and metal, the 35 year warranty metal was about $400 less than the hemlock! I was going to also use it for my rafters and purlins, but it was almost the same as store bought lumber.

Now maybe the local sawmill here is greedy but it might pay to check it out.

Anyway about 12 years ago I cut a bunch of hemlock on my property and had a guy with a portable band saw come in and saw it up. Sorry to say it is all but used up now. But it made GREAT wood for several projects I used it for including framing.

It sounds like they might be a little greedy, because a few of the mills around here have priced out higher than the mill we use...

Here's a few examples of the difference between Lowe's prices and the Amish mill we buy from:

2x4x8: Lowe's = $2.98 Mill = $1.60
2x4x10: Lowe's = $3.29 Mill = $1.96
2x6x16: Lowe's = $9.44 Mill = $5.50
2x8x12: Lowe's = $8.82 Mill = $5.40
2x10x8: Lowe's = $7.98 Mill = $4.50


As you can see, there's a pretty significant difference, which obviously translates into a very nice savings...

Thanks for the feedback!!

 

[ElDorado]

A few years back I built a retaining wall out of hemlock, actually for my kids swing set/sand box. Local old timers say that's what was used before PT. I called local saw mill and ordered 8x8's.

Lessons:
1. A 16 foot, wet hemlock is a bear to move around alone.
2. It makes real good splinters, wear gloves.
3. I did not price compare. It ended up being $1200 for the material. I agree with others, commercial product may be same money.

One of our local mills sells a "waste by product" cheap. The product is called backer board. It is the back of live edge siding (called barnstorm around here) that they cut. It's 1/2 inch taper to paper thin and 12 inches wide. They sell it in lots of 2000ish lineal feet. I can not remember the exact price but it was less than $0.20 per lin. foot (I want to say it was $0.17/lin foot). Maybe one of your local Amish mills has a similar product. Let us know if they have a similar product in your neck of the woods.

 

[Storm56]

It sounds like they might be a little greedy, because a few of the mills around here have priced out higher than the mill we use...

Here's a few examples of the difference between Lowe's prices and the Amish mill we buy from:

2x4x8: Lowe's = $2.98 Mill = $1.60
2x4x10: Lowe's = $3.29 Mill = $1.96
2x6x16: Lowe's = $9.44 Mill = $5.50
2x8x12: Lowe's = $8.82 Mill = $5.40
2x10x8: Lowe's = $7.98 Mill = $4.50


As you can see, there's a pretty significant difference, which obviously translates into a very nice savings...

Thanks for the feedback!!

Thank you for the feedback. I felt my guy was a bit greedy, turns out he was even more greedy than I thought!

 

[Lloyd_E]

Hemlock is a great wood for construction. Use it green. If you dry it - it becomes very hard to nail or screw into. My house is close to 200 years old with 8x8 and 10x10 beams for sills. When I started renovating 20+ years ago I had to replace a few floor boards. The sub floor was a challenge to nail in place. I kept bending 4" nails that were going to hold a true 1x8 subfloor in place. A friend dropped by and said the beams were hemlock and given the age they would be like stone to work with.

I like the colour of hemlock when dried and have seen floors laid with hemlock. The boards were all drilled, screwed in place and plugged before sanding and finishing... great look but a lot of work...

Go for it...

 

[20 20]

Hemlock is used a lot around here, I have milled quite a few logs of it for myself and others. As someone said when it is dry it is hard and tends to crack when ponding nails. If your using it for framing you can use it green little easier to work with.

 

[Super77Guy]

Hemlock is used a lot around here, I have milled quite a few logs of it for myself and others. As someone said when it is dry it is hard and tends to crack when ponding nails. If your using it for framing you can use it green little easier to work with.

Thanks for the feedback. I will be using green lumber, as it will be coming from an Amish mill and they do not dry their lumber. Hopefully, I should be starting I'm the next couple of weeks, so I will post pics then.

 

[forester2]

I sided all my outbuildings w/ hemlock; love it. First barn used rough sawn dimensional hemlock for framing. Used kiln dried hem/fir for others. Rough sawn pain to work with as stated by others.

 

[miramadar]

I built my entire house, framing and siding, from hemlock that I harvested and milled. I love knowing that I made it all myself. That means a lot. But, as another poster mentioned, you do get dimmensional inconsistencies with local mills. This made for some interesting walls in our house. But it's ours and we love it.

But, as far as hemlock goes, it's a great material for building. It weathers well (1/4" deterioration per 100 years) and gets hard as rock over time. Unfortunately, in my area of the country anyway, there is an insect from Asia that threatens to wipe out the standing hemlocks. Soon, this very practical wood could be in very short supply.

 

[forgeblast]

hemlock wooly adelgid, its hitting PA pretty hard here too.
One local forest preserve that we have has a 500 year old hemlock, it was one of the few that was not harvested when they clear cut PA to build the masts on sailing ships.
Massive is not the word for this, it was a seedling when columbus set sail.

 

[Super77Guy]

I built my entire house, framing and siding, from hemlock that I harvested and milled. I love knowing that I made it all myself. That means a lot. But, as another poster mentioned, you do get dimmensional inconsistencies with local mills. This made for some interesting walls in our house. But it's ours and we love it.

But, as far as hemlock goes, it's a great material for building. It weathers well (1/4" deterioration per 100 years) and gets hard as rock over time. Unfortunately, in my area of the country anyway, there is an insect from Asia that threatens to wipe out the standing hemlocks. Soon, this very practical wood could be in very short supply.

That's pretty cool that you were able to build your entire house from Hemlock that you harvested. Were you worried about the moisture content of the Hemlock being enclosed within your walls?

I really haven't encountered any inconsistencies with the lumber I have been purchasing, but he is using a band saw, so I think that makes all the difference.

Here's the link to the thread where I am reporting on the progress of my equipment shed.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/184556-18x24-equipment-pole-building-question.html