I was told by a guy that they had a frame 3 inches out of plumb because of the framer using too green of wood. The frame sat from last spring. It is douglas fir. The guy made negative comments to me about the framer. The guy would not tell me the name of the framing company. My take on it is that the guy was fibbing to me. I thought that the foundations made by him and his pals was out square or level. The guy tried to make himself out to be the hero. I never got to look at the frames. But my wife and I could tell that the source was not kosher. How much could this frame shrink or twist? The frames are located in Pacfic Northwest.

I'd have to see it to believe it....

Depends.
If they 'stacked' short posts on top of tall horizontal members (on one side?) then it could list to one side by quite a bit... I've seen this in a relatively new frame out of white oak - short post with horizontals stacked on top of it - and then short posts on top of that, etc.

A 12" tall oak timber, green, will shrink a ton, enough to push things all askew.

But, I'd have to see it, too.

3" out of plumb isn't much - depending on how tall the building is. If I recall, WTC 1 and WTC could sway 3' on a windy day.

Hi cedar:

Well I personally believe that there is no way that any type of wood will shrink enough in length to throw a frame's vertical posts 3" out of plumb.

I have worked with lots of "green" hand hewn timber of all types for many different purposes and the end shrinkage is very minimal. Now in retrospect wood will shrink drastically across the grain and continue to shrink as time passes.

One of the culprits could be the bottom of the posts where they sit on their bearing points, if they are just spread only slightly here the effect would be magnified at the top of the vertical posts, depending where the connecting girts are placed.

I wold like to throw a tape on this frame just as a matter of interest.

NH