Soft Maple for cabin?

[TraditionalTool]

Nice looking project

Jim,

Actually that's not my project, this is what I'm building:

You can read more about it in this thread. While the logs I'm building with have the sides milled flat, and are planed smooth, they resemble a tree for the most part and retain the live edge of the tree after it is cut. This is important, and considered to be a handcrafted log home.

I had a friend help me start it, and getting a rental yard setup out in California where I will finish it. I will move the home to a piece of lakefront property I have in NorCal, a few hours from where my house is that I live in now. My plan is to leave this log home to my 2 kids, a son that is in his first year at UCLA majoring in Design/Media Art, and a daughter who is a freshman in High School. Recently I bought a sawmill, which you can read about in this thread in this forum.

I don't want to hijack this thread, but feel free to reply in either of those other threads if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer any Qs you have about how the work is done, the style, or anything else on your mind.

 

[timberwolf]

Nice looking building, I was also thinking on a log hunt camp project this summer. I have a few good pines some not bad spruce but would rather not take many few old pines (maybe one or two for shakes). My plan was going to use poplar logs. Far from ideal, but they grow like weeds and have hundreds of straight clear truncks to choose from. But in the end I am now planning on a more easily transportable structure. Rot was a concern for me when I was thinking of poplar, picked a nice dry rocky knoll and was going to put it up on peers.

And therein lies the problem, you need moisture for fungus and spalting. Any wood will rot with water.

Not trying to split hairs, but water alone is maybe not the problem. They are pulling decade old logs from river beds and milling quality lumber from them. Little oxygen and cold water slows the chemical breakdown. The water in that case prevents many of the normal wood to soil converting microbes from having their way. Old fence posts are a good example, they will rot off at ground level, the wood above may be sound and the wood a foot down in clay may be sound, but it's that area where they have both moisture and oxygen for the microbial action that gets done in. Some woods have dry rot problems too, the balsom poles in our 100 year old barn are crumbling while the cedar and ash are solid as day one.

What about moinsture content of maple, could that be a potential trouble? Maybe worth falling the trees before they fill with sap in the spring?

 

[TraditionalTool]

My plan was going to use poplar logs. Far from ideal, but they grow like weeds and have hundreds of straight clear truncks to choose from. But in the end I am now planning on a more easily transportable structure. Rot was a concern for me when I was thinking of poplar, picked a nice dry rocky knoll and was going to put it up on peers.

Many people have built structures out of poplar, and they have stood the test of time. Hard to find larger diameter is my understanding, but it is usually pretty clear. I have seen dovetailed homes out of it, as I have oak, pine, chesnut (lots before the blight), hemlock, etc...I think it gets down to what you mentioned before, people used what they had on hand.

It was once said, that with an ax, mule, and 5 acres of wooded land, you could build a life for yourself...

Not trying to split hairs, but water alone is maybe not the problem. They are pulling decade old logs from river beds and milling quality lumber from them. Little oxygen and cold water slows the chemical breakdown.

Sure, but most structures have to deal with air/oxygen, it's a given.

A friend of mine rescued these HUGE Doug Fir beams/girder-sticks from the Welland canal, they were under water for years...when they modernized lock 8, he was able to get them.

Here's what the flooring looked like that was milled out of that stuff, and this doesn't have finish on it yet...(a log home in Lake Tahoe)

The water in that case prevents many of the normal wood to soil converting microbes from having their way. Old fence posts are a good example, they will rot off at ground level, the wood above may be sound and the wood a foot down in clay may be sound, but it's that area where they have both moisture and oxygen for the microbial action that gets done in. Some woods have dry rot problems too, the balsom poles in our 100 year old barn are crumbling while the cedar and ash are solid as day one.

Absolutely! :agree2:

What about moinsture content of maple, could that be a potential trouble? Maybe worth falling the trees before they fill with sap in the spring?

Most all trees will be easier to get the bark off and peel if you fell them in the winter, so I'm told. I have done some drawknifing though and it's HARD work...the trick is to pull with your body and not your arms, but it takes some practice to get down...it will wear the best of men into the ground, in my experience...

 

[frogy]

Took the plunge

Well I took all your input and took the big step I got about 500' feet of 8"to 10" diameter soft maple logs cut and skidded to the site. Now I could use some ideas on how long to dry and how to store them if you would. Thx.