I want to build a new shop in near future. I have a lot of white ash at my disposal. How does it compare to the oaks in strength ect.Also might need to store timbers, any ideas how to store to reduce checking.

seal the ends of your logs as soon as possible after felling the tree(seasoning the logs a bit wouldn't hurt) and keep sealing end grain as you go along to reduce end checking....
Also we have had good luck storing timber outdoors but covered, under roofing steel, we use rocks and timber end cuts to keep the steel in place.

we have some old ash beams in our barn that have big face checks, bigger than the oak beams in the same barn...the old ash beams still look strong and are as straight as they need to be.
-Mark in Ontario.

Ash is excellent framing timber, very handsome and has high design values. It does check heavily, par for the course..

One way to minimize this, one which you had the potential to effect with time and planning would have been to reduce moisture content to some degree, on the stump.This would have been to girdle the trees and let the foliage evapo-transpire some of the moisture away, this window is now closing as the seasons change.

You still can effect this to some degree by letting winter fully set in before felling.

Always good practice, if bow and crown allow, to put the side closest to the pith out or up, burying the side with the worst checks against the enclosure / decking.

Your semi-heated shopspace will also check far less than a home would.

Be your best

Thanks for the info. Although I've needed to address building a new shop this one got pushed ahead a little, enter the Emerald Ash Borer and my father in law with woods 1 mile from quarintine area.If his ground gets quarintined the state of Mich. cuts the trees debark them on site and take them with no compensation. The other alternative is to sell to the loggers who are now offering $150/thou. But now back to the ash, one idea i had was to saw the timber and the put a coat of the cheapest latex paint available. I could always plane the faces that showed later.

Seal the end grain only, little or no good would come of sealing a whole timber and likely something no good. Nor is a layer of latex paint a significant enough vapor barrier to be worth the effort.

Besides, only softwoods milled to four inches or under dry to any degree in the short term. Rule of thumb is an inch a year.

I always concider drying time a bonus which is not normally an option, the caveat is it demands the use of a layout system which allows you to overcome any interem movement or milling oversize and reman-ing later and with most hardwoods you will be removing most of the seasoned wood neting you no real gain.