Oak miling for frame

[Baxter]

Hi guys,

 

Unfortunatly ive had to fell a young (20ish) oak today in my garden due to building work. We are looking to use the timber as part of the frame for the extention.

What if any preparation should I be doing to the wood?

Should i keep it inside/outside, covered, aerated etc?

 

Thanks in advance

[tommer9]

Depend on the species of oak that it is.

For example, if it is q.robur or q.petrea then you wont need to treat it at all, and it will last for eons, indoors or out, whereas if it is q.cerris you cant use it structurally or out of doors.

For outdoor use you will want to ignore or preferably remove the 'sap'wood which will rot off.

[agg221]

As above re. species. If it is a suitable species, you really need to remove the sapwood. The sapwood on young oak may well be quite thick - a couple of inches or so, so reckon on reducing the section by 4in overall, which once you've squared it up may make it too thin to be of much use (by contrast, the sapwood on sweet chestnut would be only a couple of millimetres).

 

Given the above, I wouldn't look to mill it - if it's still big enough to use then I would do any squaring up with an axe/adze/drawknife and only try to make sides straight that really need to be. It will look quite rustic, but if you look at timbers in old buildings then this is often how they were prepared, for the same reason. In old buildings you used what you could get, carried it as short a distance as possible and used thinner sections rather than thicker sections as rounding up a small tree was a lot less effort than sawing up a big one by hand.

 

Alec

[Baxter]

Its Q. robur not cerris so thats good.

 

Great help tho guys, cheers

[Rob D]

Hi there any chance of some pics?

 

 

[tommer9]

Yep pics would help, plus diameter of tree.