Just starting

[RikBrooks]

OK, before y'all call me crazy - I know I am. I'm a computer programmer nearing retirement. I've always wanted to build my own house from nothing - milling my own wood from my own trees.

I'm finally in a position to do it. After a lot of reading I decided on the Granberg Alaskan Mark III. I'm also going to buy the Granbery mini mill just because they said I would really need it and appreciate having it.

I've heard over and over that my poulan pro 42cc will be way too small so I'm going to buy at least a 70cc chainsaw. I'll leave my Poulan pro for the branches.

I'm going to build a lumber kiln from a covered trailer

Most of my lumber will be hickory, since that's what I have most of.

These are purchases that I will make this week. I've bought a timber jack, sort of a hook and lever to get the trunk 11" off the ground.

I've watched a whole lot of videos of using the chainsaw mill. Almost ready to go.

Question 1, does what I want to do sound reasonable?

Question 2, wouldn't it be better to get the logs about waist height so I don't have to stoop over? If so, what kind of table do I need and how do I get the logs up on it?

By the way, I'm teaching myself masonry, plumbing and electrical work too. I want to do as much of this as I can. My wife taught herself how to design the house and our plans are approved now. We will do this thing. I just want to make sure we don't spend more energy than we have to.

Thanks for listening

 

[Andrew96]

OK...... call me crazy....build my own house from nothing.......I just want to make sure we don't spend more energy than we have to.

Thanks for listening

Well I'll call you misguided before I call you crazy. It's going to be a heck of a lot of work. My dad and I made a log cabin (15'x 20' ish) many years ago using one 60cc saw on a mill, some logging chains and an old 40s pickup ($25 but ran). Two summers worth of a hard working fun. A whole house? You need to remember why CSMs exist. They can be carried way deep into the woods and can make one tree into usable lumber while using up a lot of physical energy along the way (portability is the key). BSMs were created to 'efficiently' (speed, small kerf, low physical energy) make lumber but require the proper tools to move trees.
I love the idea you two are up too...but I think you have chosen the wrong tools to create your lumber. There is a better way. BSM. Oh...don't get me wrong here...you can do it..but it will take more energy than you thought it would...makes me sweat just thinking about the volume.

 

[dustytools]

Well I'll call you misguided before I call you crazy. It's going to be a heck of a lot of work. My dad and I made a log cabin (15'x 20' ish) many years ago using one 60cc saw on a mill, some logging chains and an old 40s pickup ($25 but ran). Two summers worth of a hard working fun. A whole house? You need to remember why CSMs exist. They can be carried way deep into the woods and can make one tree into usable lumber while using up a lot of physical energy along the way (portability is the key). BSMs were created to 'efficiently' (speed, small kerf, low physical energy) make lumber but require the proper tools to move trees.
I love the idea you two are up too...but I think you have chosen the wrong tools to create your lumber. There is a better way. BSM. Oh...don't get me wrong here...you can do it..but it will take more energy than you thought it would...makes me sweat just thinking about the volume.

I agree. As much as I enjoy getting out and hobbying around with milling my own wood for projects I would cringe at the thought of milling enough to build a house, especially one that is to be built from hardwoods. Good luck, Terry.

 

[RikBrooks]

Sure

The key here is that we don't mind if it takes several years to finish the project. We aren't going to kill ourselves over it.

 

[mtngun]

Glad you found the milling forum.

As said before, you need softwoods for framing and siding. Save the hardwood for floors and cabinets.

At least one retired person did build an entire house and shop and barn with a chainsaw mill, but he used a Logosol M7, not an Alaskan, and he was cutting softwoods.

Here's the link: John Herbert builds his home with a Logosol. 40 pages, but a good read.

Here's his Logosol.

So it can be done, but a used bandsaw mill would make more sense -- *IF* you have softwoods.

Or you can hire a portable sawyer to bring his bandsaw mill to your property and saw your logs. You will need to have the logs skidded to the cutting site, and have a means to load the logs onto his mill (a tractor).

Note how John Hebert got his logs up on the mill -- he has two boards ramping up to the mill. A cant hook was used to roll logs up the ramp. Works on small logs like the one he is sawing, perhaps a bit dangerous with larger logs.

 

[RikBrooks]

Looks like a book here

I may have to document our journey building this house. It might make a nice book.

 

[BobL]

Question 1, does what I want to do sound reasonable?

It depends on the size of the house you want to build. A small log cabin?- then maybe, anything bigger then it's definitely not reasonable. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life CS milling I'd say a band saw mill is a minimum for anything bigger than a cabin.

Question 2, wouldn't it be better to get the logs about waist height so I don't have to stoop over? If so, what kind of table do I need and how do I get the logs up on it?

Yes it is better. Tables get in the way because they fill up with sawdust. Unequal height saw horses, or even a couple of tall wide cookies with a V notch cut into the top work pretty well.

By the way, I'm teaching myself masonry, plumbing and electrical work too. I want to do as much of this as I can. My wife taught herself how to design the house and our plans are approved now. We will do this thing. I just want to make sure we don't spend more energy than we have to.

Great.
Can you show us a picture of your plans?

 

[huskyhank]

The key here is that we don't mind if it takes several years to finish the project. We aren't going to kill ourselves over it.

I'd rather be horse whipped than build a house using only a chainsaw mill for milling the lumber. (and I like chainsaw milling) The hickory that you say you have lots of is pretty tough to mill and pretty tough to nail. No way would I do that.

Living in Tennessee (not that far away from you) I can imagine having a lot of nice poplar (some pine where you are?) trees to cut, a tractor for moving them, a nice milling set up at the building site and the whole fall to build a small cabin. Throw in plenty of money, nothing else to be bothered with and a nice camping trailer or motor home on site and that just might be fun.

I don't think you will need to kiln dry the wood. The cost to do this will be more than you can buy the wood for. Put it up green like a barn. It'll have lots of character and you will have lots of skill at working over wavy framing by the time you are done.

If I had to do this I'd much rather cut softwoods with a bandsaw mill. If that's not reasonable then I'd buy the wood. Now's a good time as building material prices are way down. You will still have plenty to be proud of with all the other work.

 

[RikBrooks]

The house will be 1 bedroom 1,350 sq foot house. I guess that would be a very small house.

My wife tells me now that we are just going to mill the joists and girders. Guess I was wrong about the whole thing.

We have a family farm up in Jackson, Tennessee with plenty of pine and cedar. Think I'll do the siding with cedar.

I'll work on pics of those plans.

 

[HUCKLEBERRY]

Unanswered question.

I apologize if someone already asked and I missed it, but what method are you going to use to build the house? You have stated that you and your wife are willing to spend some time learning the skills necessary to do everything from scratch so here's a thought. If you like the style of building and the aesthetics of it, there are some really good timber framing workshops available for people just like you.

Another positive aspect of this type of building would be the possibility of milling your own timbers. Many of the home projects you see on the Granberg site are timber frames or post and beam style so there is no doubt it can be done. With a timber frame you could take pride in milling the timbers for the frame and purchasing the stuff that just was not practical to mill yourself.

In any event I'd like to see how things go for you two. I love small well planned homes with character. Please share your progress.

 

[jimdad07]

I apologize if someone already asked and I missed it, but what method are you going to use to build the house? You have stated that you and your wife are willing to spend some time learning the skills necessary to do everything from scratch so here's a thought. If you like the style of building and the aesthetics of it, there are some really good timber framing workshops available for people just like you.

Another positive aspect of this type of building would be the possibility of milling your own timbers. Many of the home projects you see on the Granberg site are timber frames or post and beam style so there is no doubt it can be done. With a timber frame you could take pride in milling the timbers for the frame and purchasing the stuff that just was not practical to mill yourself.

In any event I'd like to see how things go for you two. I love small well planned homes with character. Please share your progress.

:agree2:100%. Learn to timber frame and you might make it a whole lot faster. You may want to get a load of soft wood logs there if you have none on your property, and mill the hickory for flooring and cabinets. Keep us posted and good luck.

 

[RikBrooks]

A guy at work introduced himself to me. He just built his own house probably ten minutes north of my place. He bought the wood and paid $40,000 for it.

HOLY MOSES!

My house will be a timber frame house. We started to do stack log but I discovered at my age those logs are just too heavy to handle all day.

I know we are going to do the floor with hickory. We may do the framing with pine. The siding might be cedar or we may get tired by then and just buy it.

We bought a chipper yesterday. We figure we might as well turn the branches into something we can use --- mulch. Here's Marylynn looking dubiously at our new chipper just after we cranked it up.

Here's my wife using a cant hook to get a hickory log out of the work area... that's my pond in the background

And here's a hickory that I felled and we are limbing now.

 

[mtngun]

Love the pics ! Great building site.

Wish I could trade you some of my pine and fir for your hickory. Man, I'd love to have a hickory floor.

Glad to see you are thinking about your options and fine tuning the plans.

The wood for flooring will take a long time to dry. Do you have a place to store the wood while it is drying ? Maybe, as a first step, build a woodshed/barn type of structure on the property, if you don't already have one ? You'll need the storage, and it'll be a good learning experience to prepare you for building the house.

Exposed timber frame buildings look awesome, but you'll need either a barn raising party, or else heavy equipment, to raise the timbers.

Then you have to fill in the walls between the timbers. What are your plans for the walls ? If the filler is going to be stud and siding/drywall, then what have you saved compared to a stick-framed house ?

Not trying to discourage you, or say you are doing it wrong, just want you to think through the process and realize there is no easy, cheap way to build a house.

BTW, I am about 3/4 the way through the process of building my retirement home, so I've been down this same path you are about to walk.

Even if 100% of the lumber and siding and trim is free, you still have to buy windows, insulation, HVAC, plumbing, septic, well, electrical, roof, paint, varnish, etc.. So, you won't save that much. Still, you can save a little, and there is great pride in a house that you made with wood you milled yourself, from your own property.

Store bought hickory flooring would cost thousands. Store-bought trim for an entire house would cost thousands. Even if you only mill enough wood for flooring and trim, that would probably save enough to pay for an entry level bandmill. When you are finished with the job, you could sell the bandmill and recover some of your costs.

 

[RikBrooks]

Thanks - this propety is fabulous

We don't have a structure for drying the wood. We are considering our options. It's very hot here in Mississippi but we are sub-tropical so it's humid.

We are considering building a platform to keep it off the ground and just covering it with tarp. We are also considering a frame with tarp over and around it. We are also thinking about a covered trailer.

Those are the thoughts so far.

We aren't actually trying to save lots of money, that's not the point. We have about 12 years before we retire and we want to do it because it's our Mt Everest. As soon as it's done my next Mt. Everest is to build my own guitar. My last one was wood turning (still doing that. It's such fun). I also am learning beekeeping and have my first hive back behind that pond you see in the picture. That hive is doing SO WELL.

We are saving the big branches for railings since we are going to have a wrap around porch. We thought that would look awesome. Originally we wanted to leave the bark on them but then we read that bugs will get under the bark so we'll have to de-bark them. It was a good idea though.

Here's another. Take a small branch and debark most of it. Leave about 3 inches of bark on one end. The best back scratcher in the world.

I lived several years in Centralia, Washington. Lots of pine and fir. Here we have lots of deciduous trees. For softwoods I'm pretty much stuck with cedar. I'd love to have some of those straight pine trees.

Thanks for your input though. There is so much to learn. You wouldn't have a link so I could look at some of those "Exposed Timber Frame" buildings would you? I love looking at different ideas. My wife is learning SO MUCH. We'll drive down the street and she'll point out houses and say, "Look at how high that foundation is! or I think I'd put more overhang on that.

Cool.

 

[yukon7]

Here is a link to a fellow who did a project similar to what you are proposing. He did his milling with an Alaskan.
http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=46904

Jon

 

[huskyhank]

snipped......

We are considering building a platform to keep it off the ground and just covering it with tarp. We are also considering a frame with tarp over and around it. We are also thinking about a covered trailer.

Those are the thoughts so far.

Cool.

Don't cover your stacks with a tarp and especially don't cover the sides. You have to have airflow and plenty of it when you have high humidity. Just keep the sun and rain off it and it will dry.

I think the best bang for the buck is to build an open shed (pole barn with no sides - carport - roof only) and stack the wood on stickers so there is plenty of airflow around all the wood. The structure can become your garage, barn or carport later on if you plan and site it right.

Next best is to make each stack into its own little covered area with a roof on top of the stack. A bunch of stacks each with its own roof.

A concrete slab would be nice, otherwise level up some concrete blocks and start the wood about a foot off the ground. Put stickers (1x1" boards or similar) between each layer of wood you're drying.

There are a couple of pdfs out on the net on the subject of drying wood. I have a couple I'll send you if you will PM me your email address. Also do a search here for drying, stickers, stacking, etc.

 

[jimdad07]

To add to the above mentioned, don't use pressure treated for anything that will be exposed in the finish project for stickers, they tend to stain the wood.

 

[gemniii]

The house will be 1 bedroom 1,350 sq foot house. I guess that would be a very small house.

My wife tells me now that we are just going to mill the joists and girders. Guess I was wrong about the whole thing.

We have a family farm up in Jackson, Tennessee with plenty of pine and cedar. Think I'll do the siding with cedar.

I'll work on pics of those plans.

Well neighbor I'm going to be living just down 78 from you in Fulton. I've got several hundred acres of timberland around the county and a year or so ago was planning on doing similar.

But we bought a foreclosed home in a pretty fair neighborhood, 3 bedroom, 1 bath on a 1/3 acre lot, for $25,000. One block south of the city park.
It was a HUD foreclosure, and all but the kitchen and floors had been refinished before the poor owner ran out of money.

I originally wanted it (before I saw the inside) just as a large storage shed we could move our stuff into as we transition from Virginia. If I had taken out a mortgage it was very close to what the rental would have been on two storage units.

The dream of building with your own wood is great, and your wife was very wise to limit it to beams and joists.

But right now with the hold-off of the Toyota plant at Blue Springs, there is a lot of housing being sold at foreclosure. Many are like the one we bought, look like they were owned by investors who thought they were going to make money due to the 2007 housing boom and the construction of the new plant and all support facilities.

Good luck and be careful of your backs.

 

[HUCKLEBERRY]

Thanks for your input though. There is so much to learn. You wouldn't have a link so I could look at some of those "Exposed Timber Frame" buildings would you? I love looking at different ideas. My wife is learning SO MUCH. We'll drive down the street and she'll point out houses and say, "Look at how high that foundation is! or I think I'd put more overhang on that.

Looks like a very nice piece of property. Think I even saw a pond in the pics. Good for you.

Here are just a few resources for you to take a look into regarding timber framing.

-Timber framers guild - good website for anything timber frame.
-Ted Benson - many give him credit for the modern revival of timber framing, he has several books and they are pretty reasonable on Amazon. Tons of pictures, information and ideas.
-Steve Chappell- does workshops and writes, "A Timber Framers Workshop" is my favorite book on the subject.

Good luck.

 

[rarefish383]

Rik, the subject of "bark on" has bugged (pun intended) me for a while.I work for UPS in MD, just out side of DC, very humid here. One of my customers live in a beautiful log home, sitting back in the woods. It was built in the 1920's by some guys from WV. The logs are about 10" Poplar with the bark on. This house is almopst 100 years old and the bark is still tight. They said the guys had a secret process for treating the bark. I've spent hours on the web and asked at Log and Timber Home shows, and no one has a clue how they did it. It can be done, I just don't know how, Joe.