Hi all!

I'm new here and loving it!

I can handle an inspector requiring an engineer's stamp for the plans. No biggy, but what about the grading of the timbers? I found a great local mill with all the wood I need at a great price. All wood is sound and looks good. Can some people please share their experiences with building inspectors on the issue of ungraded timbers?

Are they going to require the material to be graded? If so, how can I get that done?

Thank you for any info!

-Sam

Here is a link to a document about grading timbers: http://www.nelma.org/files/File/grb%206(1).pdf

Depending on your area, you need to contact the local grading agency, such as NELMA or whatever is in your area.

Most agencies have traveling graders who can come out to the sawmill yard and grade the stock there for you.
You will have to pay the graders fee, usually a one day fee, for him to come out and do the job. And they should give you a document that says they did the job.

If you are in NY there is another method of doing this.

Where are you located?

well you need to keep in mind an engineered plan means nothing unless the timbers have the ability to handle the loads of the design! hence the timber grader. your engineer may be willing to sign off on the timbers as well based upon a visual inspection of them.

ask your sawyer or call other sawyers for a timber grader contact to come out for a half day and do it for you.

In my area, the inspectors are allowing me to use ungraded timber so long as it is engineered assuming the "lowest grade". See what your building department will let you get away with.

I have a situation where an antique hand hewn post (red oak) was approved by a licensed engineer here in CT and after it was installed and we had our framing inspection, the building inspector would not accept it and says "it needs to be a graded timber". I've contacted NELMA and they will not grade antique timbers. They forwarded me to Timber Products Inspections, a company hq'd in GA. The nearest guy they have is out of Philedelphia and they charge a minimum of 4 hours @ $95/hr plus travel. Does anyone have any advice on how to resolve this issue another way?

In many states the word of the engineer is readily accepted by code officials.

Your best move is to have the two of them speak directly.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Had them speak directly a few days ago. Building Inspector is hanging his hat on the statute in the building codes that says each piece of stuctural framing lumber ultimately needs to be graded, regardless of what the licensed engineer is willing to take for responsibility. My hands are tied to the point where I've had to work with the engineer to come up with a solution that requires removal of the reclaimed timber and replace it with a new one and adding a Simpson connector. Customer is not happy! Thanks for the input.

This is terrible.

Maybe it could become an article for our magazine at least; a cautionary tale.

At Our shop ( Cabin Creek Timber Frames) we have a site license from timber products inspections to grade timbers. They came out and trained all the employees to grade timbers. Then they come out once a month and grade our grading. We must pass with a minimum of 95% correct to continue the site license. In return we get the TPI grade stamps for our shop and we can either stamp the timbers as graded or issue letters to building officials that the timbers have been graded by TPI. While this may raise an issue of conflict of interest with some. I feel that with us grading the timbers it makes us look at each stick more closely and in return for the extra work ( 5 minutes each stick) we put out a product that not only looks good but is structurally sound.