hello everyone tonight
hello Mikey
I have had some experience using hemlock over my career--hemlock boards become quite hard as they dry and possess good nail holding power especially for roofing boards, along with a resistance to rotting being from the cedar family
Timbers-well--if you can obtain good solid trees,- the timbers can be used to good advantage as mud sills, again because of their resistance to rotting,--I generally hewed them oversize for this purpose
put up a 3 bay barn at UCV a few years ago and being that I was copying the original structure I used what they did hemlock for the sills, and pine for everything else--remember that the network of timbers for the mud sills, all the cross ties, and other miscellaneous smaller timbers come up to a good percentage of all the timbers needed for the structure
it is my opinion that the timbers should be sawn or hewn and let cure at least 1 to 2 years (or longer) before being used to allow the moisture to escape as much as possible before being fabricated into the framework--especially the lower timbers that will not have a chance to breathe after being put into place
hemlock is notorious for shakes and the annular rings can come loose from the vibration such as hewing produces, this will be noticeable on the corners of the finished timbers, where some rings might separate--if the timbers are cut with the heart centred then the timbers even with some corner shake will produce good strong timbers
if the timbers are cut into boards, you will have a fair amount of shake in all of them as they cure, 2 inch such as 2by4's are not so bad and will cure better
well anyway good luck
hope this helps
NH
