Dear Sirs, Has anyone had any trouble using timbers produced by a portable sawmill in regards to building codes? What I am wondering is, what "on paper" would be the difference between me purchasing oak (or pine) from a saw mill, and having it sawn up from local trees by a woodmizer operator. thank you, greg

Your building inspector will probably want to see the timbers graded and stamped if he is not familiar with heavy timber.

Hi gpalmer,

Where are you building? A lot of the towns out in the counrty are pretty relaxed about building codes. In the little town i live in Vermont there isn't even a building inspector. You can build just about anything with anything. Have you tried to contact your local building inspector to ask him what the codes are or do you already know the codes? Good luck....Zac Freeman

gplamer:
I don't have the exact details on this as I don't mill in NY State. But, there is a set of rules in New York state that will allow you to use your own trees to build your own building if the sawyer can verify the quality of the timbers he mills for you.
He has to sign a paper that says he's sure your timber are grade two or better.
You'll have to do some more research on this and find out the exact procedure to allow you to use your own timbers from your own tree. But it can be done.
Good luck with your project.
Jim
PS. If some one has a link to the info could the please post it? Thanks

The link to the New York State rules is as follows: http://www.dos.state.ny.us/code/pdf/lumbertext.pdf
The link to the form to be filled out by the producer is the same except replace "lumbertext" with "lumberform"