Value of weathered oak boards

[dgeesaman]

I hope I'm asking in the right place...

I have about 150 oak boards 6'-8' long, 1x6" rough cut. They came from wooden horse fencing. Most are pretty straight and none have any rot. I have removed all of the screws. They are nicely greyed / weathered from about 20y outdoors. I don't have a project for this so I'd like to see them go somewhere useful instead of sheltering mice and snakes.

What kind of value would be reasonable to ask?

 

[MacLawn]

I'd think about $150-$200? But I don't know much. Depends on condition I guess. Not enough for anything but a small project, like I have! I'd want them if you were closer.

 

[rtimgray]

I see boards like that a flea markets selling (yes, actually selling, not just sitting there) for $5 to $10 apiece. A lot of people use them for decoration. However, that would be a long, drawn out way to sell them with a lot of aggravation, probably. Best bet is post it on Craigslist or in your local trader paper/show n tell/thrifty nickel for $100 obo. My opinion only.

Whatever you choose, good luck and take care.

 

[EddieWalker]

I had an old barn on my land when I bought it and was told over and over again how much that old wood is worth. What I found out is that those who are looking for old, weathered wood to use to make stuff to sell will only pay the very minimum for it so they can make a profit after they put their time into making into something. After a couple of months trying to sell it, I got tired of dealing with it and burned it all in my burn pile. Turned out that made my life a lot easier and I wish I had done that first instead of trying to make a couple of bucks off of it. It was just a waste of time in my case.

Try searching Craigslist to see if anybody else is selling it and what they are asking. Or just put a price on it that you can live with to get rid of it.

Eddie

 

[dgeesaman]

Thanks.

I had some folks say that because it was oak, and weathered, that it could be desirable for some things. I know if it were hand-hewn barn beams they would be extremely valuable. But to confirm what you said I don't have time to be in the reclaimed lumber business for hobbyists. Someone else can make a little profit too, if they can move the lot in one shot. With a little luck I can put the cash toward a new trimmer.

David

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I had a bunch of old boards taken from a house in Southern Oklahoma. These were old boards, made back in the day when a portable mill was brought to your location and your lumber was milled from your trees. Some of them were sixteen inches wide even.

Everyone ranted about how kewel and valuable they were. I eventually gave them away because no one wanted to pay anything for them. Eddie nailed it. Old wood is like old iron in that it gets its value from the hands for the artist that makes something with it.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I had a bunch of old boards taken from a house in Southern Oklahoma. These were old boards, made back in the day when a portable mill was brought to your location and your lumber was milled from your trees. Some of them were sixteen inches wide even.

Everyone ranted about how kewel and valuable they were. I eventually gave them away because no one wanted to pay anything for them. Eddie nailed it. Old wood is like old iron in that it gets its value from the hands for the artist that makes something with it.

The same thing is true here in KY.

 

[oosik]

AAHHHH! I had a very old - 1890 - smallish barn that a fellow would take down and pay for the wood. He gave me $750 and this was 25 year ago. He used it as wall covering in the rec room of a very expensive house he was building. I saw the room when finished and it was very nice.

The wood was sawn on my location and was Ponderosa pine. Most was 1" x 12" and in varying lengths from 8' to 12'.

 

[s219]

Maybe ask around among local high-end builders in your area. Right now, there is a craze for interior finishings that have anything to do with gray weathered barn or farm wood. In fact, if you google for barn door information for real barns, you're more likely to find everything and anything about hanging barn doors for home interior use (mainly for accents, but some are used as room dividers). I found that a bit frustrating when trying to design doors for my real barn recently!

The guy who built our house bought a truckload of old barn wood for use in his projects a few years ago. He parceled it out here and there, and treated it like gold until it ran out (unfortunately, long before he built our house). Someone like that is probably your best bet. Guys like that often mill their own lumber, and will see the fair value in what you have.

For our house, being the cheapskate I am, we stained some of our interior wood with gray stain to look old. We had a good local source of wide rough-sawn white pine, so I stuck with what we had and made it work! But if I had a ready source of real weathered wood (especially oak) I would have been all over it.

 

[oosik]

If I had that stash of old weathered oak and it was here in Ea WA; I'd be hiring Bruce Willis or the like to protect it. Like it is always said, location, location, location.