use of oak

I have 26 acres 16 of which i am clearing for organic gardening the timber is old growth oak I was wondering if oak could be used for timber framing because i would love to use it in the house i am going to build any advise would be helpful thanks shawn"whitebear" :p

Red or white oak? Red oak is very common in TF houses and barns, as is white oak. White oak is rot resistant and great for sills. I would definately try to use it in your home. It is not as stable as White Pine, it will check and move aroud more, but is still desirable.

check out this UK builder, using green oak....
http://www.greenoakcarpentry.co.uk

Looks like maybe hes been at it for awhile

Of course you can use oak for timber framing ,it is wonderfully strong, but be sure to ask yourself it you really want to cut down 16 accres of "old growth trees",especially if it is truly old growth. There is very little of that left in the states but there is plenty of abandoned farmland. tb

by all means oak is a good buildings specie, just alittle hard to work with aspecially if it becomes a little on the dry side, and is knotty,

Over my career it has always been advantageous to do a thinning of a treed area to remove th mature trees and let the younger growth have a breath of fresh air and sun

I have called on the ministry of natural resources timber specialists to go through and prepare an assesment of the tree lot, and recommend and mark trees for removal, by all means just don't go in and start cutting and make a hole in the tree stand, --not good-- but done right is beneficial

NH

We use white oak for a considerable number of frames (we have a local supplier of high quality logs.) It does shrink and move around quite a bit, and, pretty much requires the use of a boxed heart timber of anything of substantial size. It works awesome green, and, is easier than most other hardwoods when dry.

It is quite rot resistant, and, there is quite a historical precendence of using it in frames. My one gripe, as an engineer, is that it isn't very stiff. Longer span floor joists / purlins etc can be hard to justify.

Red oak is stiffer, but, not as rot resistant.

Hope this helps,

Joe

Rupert Newman's excellent book called Oak-Framed Buildings would be a great place to start for ideas and practical directions.

Try http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oak-framed-Build...TF8&s=books

Rupert owns Westwind Oak in the UK....see http://www.westwindoak.com/

hope this helps.....Simon

gthumbus,
At U Ark, Fayetteville, you have a bunch of "dendrochronologists"... heck of a braintrust. There ARE old-growth trees in ARK, but they're few and far between. Most of the Ozarks is coppice. Still can be old, but most likely decades, not centuries.
That said, in a 100 year old white oak, on a rocky soil, you can have 20 rings to the inch... pretty stable stuff.

Oak is so phenomenally expensive, it might be more appropriate to use a less expensive species and reserve to oak for veneer, furniture, flooring, etc. Resource management.

It is somewhat overkill to use in a timber frame. Selling your oak might even pay for a softwood frame, plus some.

And, as said above, it will cure, check and twist, so the final result is open joints and untrue lines. Other species will better reward careful fitting.

But I guess people just love to say they have an oak frame. The name traditionally conveys solidity and strength.

Pete

Sad but true, oak is commonly used for cross-ties around here. Junk logs (those that they don't bother to "grade") sell for $200 to $300 per thousand bf - but most of these logs are actually fine for timberframing. Many are sold as "junk" simply because they don't exceed 14" in diameter. They will almost all make 6x8's, possibly 7x9's and often larger. Once cut into crossties, they bring about $400 to $450 per thousand b.f. Problem is that sawmills around here are set up to cut 8'6" timbers (for cross ties), and loggers will often cut "junk" (small) logs to 9' lengths.

Oak is valued most where it is least available. Here (eastern KY) it is not valued so highly. (a hickory, sycamore, beech, etc. 7x9 cross tie brings about $18 to $20 - they will pay you $1 or $2 more for an oak cross tie, which I think is a shame.) A land owner here often gets only 1/3 of the price that the junk logs bring at the sawmill. (if they're big enough to "grade" then the landowner gets 1/2) So, if you (the land owner) have smallish oak logs, you can give them up "on the stump" to loggers for $60-70/thousandbf., or you can try to do something useful with them. I chose the latter when mine came down in an ice storm.

-Thomas
my timberframe house web page