Getting the best out of summer-felled timber?

[agg221]

Where I work we're about to start on a major site redevelopment. We're currently waiting on planning permission, but when it goes through (which it will) there will be half a dozen or so reasonable sized oak and elm to come down.

 

They're currently under TPO so can't be touched. The plan is that they will come down somewhere around July/August, which is obviously not ideal. So far I've always been able to use either timber felled when dormant, or standing dead, so any thoughts on anything that can be done to get the best out of them would be welcome. I could do with milling one of the oaks for exterior cladding, so pretty exposed use.

 

Alec

[Big J]

Far fewer issues with summer felled darker woods than with the white woods. Oak can be dropped at more or less any time of the year. Elm is very rare in your neck of the woods (I would imagine), so make the most of that too.

 

No issues as far as I would be concerned.

[agg221]

Thanks Jonathan - useful to know I can just crack on.

 

Elm is indeed pretty rare, although there are a surprising number of reasonably healthy, pretty large ones around this area (biggest I know of is over 3' dia and 100' high).

 

The ones which are coming down aren't huge, but I'll get an 18" dia x 12', reasonably straight length out of each. This will eventually become the upstairs floor in our house which will correctly replace the 16th century elm floor which was ripped out in the 1970s.

 

The oaks are a bit bigger - say 2' mid dia. on a 20' clear length, so worth the effort I think.

 

Alec

[delabodge]

sounds like some lovely timber alec,,,,

[Chris Sheppard]

Probably not practical on the site, but when we've had decent hardwood to fell later in the year we've laid it down and left it in full feather for a week or so til the leaves started to wither.

 

Definitely makes a difference on Sycamore as to the colouring - maybe not as white as it should have been, but not half as orange as it could have been.

 

Don't know how it fairs on more denser timbers though.

[wills-mill]

I get the feeling that there's more of a woodworm problem in summer felled oak. It might be best to be ruthless with the sapwood.

[agg221]

I get the feeling that there's more of a woodworm problem in summer felled oak. It might be best to be ruthless with the sapwood.

 

Cheers - I hate oak sapwood anyway and usually just leave the butt lying if I can until it rots away, which only takes a year or so. In this case I'll just lop it off. It should indeed be some decent timber, although it's open grown so I suspect the oak will have a rather wide sapwood band and there are more side branches on some than ideal. Still well worth the effort though.

 

Interesting thought on felling and leaving it lying - I might just get away with this. although the risk is that the firewood fairies just work their way down it into the useful parts.

 

Alec

[Big J]

Treat with borate solution - I've never experiences any woodworm issues on any timber with the exception of spalted beech.