Hickman County Illeagal to build with green Lumber

[just_sawing]

I could not believe what I was told by the county goverment of Hickman County TN. If it is a cabin even one in the woods that you are only going to use during hunting season I was told that sawmill lumber is illeagal. This is a crooked traversty. I have been sawing for 15 years and the normal lumber that I turn out is above 84 lumbers best. I start with number two logs sawing poplar for use where it is legal to use what westeners call ---- fir.
I have no problem with standards that are fair but the trash that you are forced to use is not even comparable to what I sell 30 % less.
I imagine that Hickmans county officals probably own lumber yards.

[haypoint]

Rules like that are fairly wide spread. Boards from a commercial lumber yard have been strength tested. While the standard is fairly low, your lumber is un-tested. Lumber used in floor and roof trusses have high standards. As far as I know, you can still use "home-milled" boards for sheeting or other low stress areas.
Another case of our government trying to protect us from ourselves. It has to do with engineering. A 2x6 of construction grade lumber in a roof truss with 24 inch centers can support a normal roof load over a given length. If you put up a clear Oak 2x6 it is way stronger, but from a stack of untested lumber you could get a board that snaps. Nearly every aspect of home construction has standards and regulations.

[Ken Scharabok]

Plus you have the issue of uncured wood which can warp extensively.

I did some work for a friend who was using an old trailer frame to make a bridge across a small dry-run. Ordered saw mill oak. By the time he got around to using it about 1/4 of it was to bowed and curved to be useable on the bridge.

Yes, much of regulation is to protect you from yourself.

[MELOC]

oh...hogwash with the whole mess. it is just another method of both falsely invigorating the market/economy and pandering to the whims of the insurance industry. i have absolutely 0 faith in any strength testing alledgedly done on mass produced timber. give me a break...how in the world can each and every board be tested? if each one is not tested, what use is there for testing?

[Hillbillybob]

Yes green lumber will warp if not used right away. Once nailed into place however that lumber won't warp anymore than store bought lumber.
Also building with Oak or most hard woods saw mill cut around here is 3 or 4 times stronger than the white wood or yellow pine that you buy in the lumber yards.
And the knots in the white and yellow pine sure takes away from the strength of the wood.
I question about the tested point except to line someones pocket.
Hillbillybob

[Ernie]

Most of the "quality" wood I buy from Menards or Home Depot is crap. Plum Creek is probably the leading sawmill in the United States and their quality is just absolutely dismal. They can't even mill it to the lengths that it's supposed to be at. (When I buy a 1" x 12" I don't want to end up with a 1" x 11 1/4")

[edcopp]

How green is green? Who makes the decision? Do they have some published standards?

[Hillbillybob]

Originally Posted by Ernie

Most of the "quality" wood I buy from Menards or Home Depot is crap. Plum Creek is probably the leading sawmill in the United States and their quality is just absolutely dismal. They can't even mill it to the lengths that it's supposed to be at. (When I buy a 1" x 12" I don't want to end up with a 1" x 11 1/4")

I'm sorry but the finish with of a 1X12 is 11 1/4 inches planed all four sides.
If you want to get boards wider than 12 inches you are almost going to haft to go to a sawmill. My self If I building a table or something I don't want my table top boards much over 6 inches anyway to help keep down cupping of the boards.
You are complaining about something that is standard building practice.
When I buy a 2X6 I don't like buying at certain lumber yards as a finish planed 4 side 2x6 is supposed to be 1 1/2 inch thick by 5 1/2 inch wide. A lot of lumber yards will try and sell you a 1 1/2 thick by 5 inch wide. You need to look up the finish dimensions of standard lumber in the United States.
Hillbillybob

[CGUARDSMAN]

The family we stay with when we deer hunt(opening weekend gun season) framed their house with green rough sawn oak in 68' and finished it the next year. It is one of the most solidly built houses i have ever slept in. you don't hear a thing when your in it no thunder, wind nothin.

[big rockpile]

Originally Posted by Hillbillybob

Yes green lumber will warp if not used right away. Once nailed into place however that lumber won't warp anymore than store bought lumber.
Also building with Oak or most hard woods saw mill cut around here is 3 or 4 times stronger than the white wood or yellow pine that you buy in the lumber yards.
And the knots in the white and yellow pine sure takes away from the strength of the wood.
I question about the tested point except to line someones pocket.
Hillbillybob

Got to agree with Bob on this.I use mostly Green Oak,some boards have been up over 13 years and never a problem.

Have used some Pine from the Lumber Yard and cuss it every time

big rockpile

[WisJim]

Most building codes now require all structural wood to be inspected and graded, not tested. This is another case of most people (obviously not us folks here) being too stupid to know what they are doing, so for most sheeple it is probably a good thing.(??) Without someone to tell them which end of the hammer to hold, they wouldn't know.

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by just_sawing

I could not believe what I was told by the county government of Hickman County TN. If it is a cabin even one in the woods that you are only going to use during hunting season I was told that sawmill lumber is illegal. This is a crooked travesty. I have been sawing for 15 years and the normal lumber that I turn out is above 84 lumbers best. I start with number two logs sawing poplar for use where it is legal to use what westerners call ---- fir.
I have no problem with standards that are fair but the trash that you are forced to use is not even comparable to what I sell 30 % less.
I imagine that Hickmans county officials probably own lumber yards.

Maybe this is part of the reason that the old houses are still in good condition and the new ones have the roof sagging before they even complete the construction. If they force you to buy lumber and they own lumber yards, I'd sure as heck buy it somewhere else instead of from them.

[Selena]

So call it a storage shed.

[woodsrunner]

I work for a small hardware/home center chain. I'll take properly stickered and cured real lumber any day over the crap that we sell. When lumber comes in we draw straws to see has to deal with it. Not because it's bullwork, because when you cut those bands the pile usually flies every which way. I'd guess that a third of the "graded" lumber that come in is warped too much to use in it's origonal length.

[stonykill]

Originally Posted by Ken Scharabok

Plus you have the issue of uncured wood which can warp extensively.

I did some work for a friend who was using an old trailer frame to make a bridge across a small dry-run. Ordered saw mill oak. By the time he got around to using it about 1/4 of it was to bowed and curved to be useable on the bridge.

Yes, much of regulation is to protect you from yourself.

Uncured wood? Have you ever seen the sap pockets in the garbarge that the box stores sell? Have you ever seen how warped this trash is? And its certified. You can't use it, cause its crap, but its certified.

I mill only for myself, and can honestly say, my trash quality wood is better than "certified" lumber.

I did exactly the same thing for a bridge. sounds like your buddy stacked the wood on wet grass to store it, or in the direct sunlight, "certified " wood would have done the same thing.

I don't need to be protected from myself, I have this little thing called "personal responsability". I hold myself accountable for my actions, and my milled lumber, and if the government tells me I can't build with it, they will have to tear down any structures themselves.

[coalroadcabin]

Yep, the powers that be will regulate you to death when you're building. On our log cabin, they wouldn't issue a permit to start building until we submitted a TPI certificate saying our logs passed inspection; on top of that, they wouldn't guarantee that they would issue a building permit at all. So we had to go ahead and spend the money to have our logs cut, fitted and inspected before we were even sure that they would let us build the house. I don't know what we would have done if they hadn't issued the building permit. I could have kind of understood the requirement to submit the certificate before they would issue the final certificate of occupancy if all they were concerned about was the structural integrity of the logs, but why wouldn't they even issue a permit to begin building with out the TPI inspection? Of course, if we were building a stick-framed home with lumber yard materials, they wouldn't have made us jump through those hoops.............building inspectors hate anything outside of the ordinary 'contractor' building methods.

[WisJim]

In many areas you are allowed to do your own electrical work on the place you live in, even if you aren't an electrician and can't (legally) do it for other people. I wish they would allow that for other building related work, too, including the materials. If I am going to build the place, and live in it, I should be able to do what I want, within some vague limits to protect the neighbors.

[pcdreams]

what gets me is people submit to this kind of Sh*t.. If Its my property and I'm planning to do anything on it, I'm going to do it as I choose to do it, with the materials I choose to use, and built to My specifications. If the guberment don't like it fine. Send me a ticket. Don't mean it'll do em any good but if sending a piece of paper makes em feel better so be it.

I just can't believe ya'll as homesteaders put up with this kind of nonsense. Thought we were all smarter than that here.

[Ernie]

Originally Posted by Hillbillybob

I'm sorry but the finish with of a 1X12 is 11 1/4 inches planed all four sides.
If you want to get boards wider than 12 inches you are almost going to haft to go to a sawmill. My self If I building a table or something I don't want my table top boards much over 6 inches anyway to help keep down cupping of the boards.
You are complaining about something that is standard building practice.
When I buy a 2X6 I don't like buying at certain lumber yards as a finish planed 4 side 2x6 is supposed to be 1 1/2 inch thick by 5 1/2 inch wide. A lot of lumber yards will try and sell you a 1 1/2 thick by 5 inch wide. You need to look up the finish dimensions of standard lumber in the United States.
Hillbillybob

Hrm, you're probably right. I'm an amateur carpenter at best. However I just bought 30 1" x 12" boards and they varied in width by as much as an inch. The majority of them WERE 1" x 12" which is what led me to believe that was the standard. Either way, it's playing heck with my planning.

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

Stamp your wood with a well known name and call it done.

RF