Wanted: local sawn timber in the north east.

[Guest Gimlet]

 

Edit: Sorry admin, I should have posted this in the milling section. Please feel free to move it.

 

I'm on the Durham/ Northumberland border and building a store/workshop, with a larger version to follow in due course and a dwelling in the planning for the future. In the first instance I'm building a small sectional store (5x3 m) which can be dismantled and moved at a later date. Basically timber frame walls, weather boarded on the outside and ply-lined inside on a timber and ply floor frame; pitched roof in two sections covered with pressed metal tiles (metrotile etc).

 

I was hoping to find some locally grown cedar or larch, which is plentiful down south. But I'm told all I'll get here is spruce which is not ideal. I don't want to buy imported treated timber form a builders merchant because it's rubbish and very expensive for what it is. As all timber is expensive now, I'd rather buy something decent. 

 

Anyone suggest what I could use and a source? I don't mind travelling with a truck within reason to collect it all in one go. Happy to travel into Scotland or down to the midlands but don't really want to go all the way back down south. 

 

Any suggestions appreciated.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Gimlet

[Ben Pinnick]

Try harelaw saw mill, they get all sorts in, sometimes have larch.

[Ben Pinnick]

Also worth calling ward timber, I think they probably do more of the regular stuff like Scots mainly, but for the really big stuff you might need for the structure, they're usually a good price. Depending where you are of course, if it needed delivering.

[MattyF]

When do you need it and what dimensions ?

[Vedhoggar]

It shouldn't be a problem sourcing locally ground larch, cedar may be more difficult but other species fine also fine for cladding such as Douglas fir. Tend to use treated timber if in contact with the ground with recycled crested poles particularly good, larch in my experience doesn't last that long in the ground, have used western red cedar posts placed on stones and they last well. 

[Guest Gimlet]

22 hours ago, Vedhoggar said:

It shouldn't be a problem sourcing locally ground larch, cedar may be more difficult but other species fine also fine for cladding such as Douglas fir. Tend to use treated timber if in contact with the ground with recycled crested poles particularly good, larch in my experience doesn't last that long in the ground, have used western red cedar posts placed on stones and they last well. 

It will be on a flagstone patio. It may not even be in contact with the ground. The wind barrels through horrendously in a storm so it will have to be anchored down or it'll be gone. It's a rented house so I can't dig up the patio, so what I'm thinking of doing is lifting a small slab on each corner, setting some galvanised scaffold tubes in concrete and socketing the shed into those with steel lugs which will be built in full height at each corner. When I leave and take the shed with me, the tubes can be nipped off below ground and the patio stones replaced. It should be possible for the shed not to be in contact with the ground at all. But, a bespoke shed won't be cheap to build, even given I'm doing it myself, so I want the timber to be durable so I can take the shed with me when I leave and use it again. Cedar would have been perfect. Nordic spruce might be alright but I don't think UK grown will be dense enough. 

[Guest Gimlet]

On 17/03/2022 at 08:18, MattyF said:

When do you need it and what dimensions ?

As soon as I've settled on a design I can pm you a cutting list. I'm not sure what to do about cladding. Feather edge weather boarding I guess would be quickest and cheapest, but I don't want them to cup and unpeel in the wind. 

Shiplap would be neater and make it easier to create a sectional build that can be readily dismantled again and moved.