how to check larch cladding?

[stuartyg]

looking for some help i am building a new house at the moment and planners have asked for larch cladding on half the outside of the house, painted grey,there are a few houses in scheme and others look ok once finnished,i am dooing self build so have limited funds, i have managed to get 40 japenese larch trees for fire wood but before i chop them up would they be any use to use as cladding,if so are there any thing to look at rings etc to give me rough idea or not, ni can get mobile sawmiller no problem but would need to plane, is it worth the hassle or not,i already have the wood, any advice tips gratefull..thanks stuart:001_cool:

[agg221]

What size are the trees that you have obtained?

 

Japanese larch as a species is fine for cladding - what you don't want are too many knots, so if they are clear to a good length and a good diameter it should be worthwhile, although before committing I would work out how much timber you need, how much you will get out of the trees you have (ie do you need to mill all of them, or do you not have enough) and how much it would cost just to buy it in. It is likely to work out quite well though.

 

Getting a planed face makes it more tricky. Is it plain sawn or featheredge? Plain sawn is pretty easy (just plane after seasoning) but for featheredge this is normally done by taking a board of the correct width, seasoning it, planing it to thickness (both faces) and then splitting it on the diagonal, which requires particular jigging.

 

If you have a planer/thicknesser it can be rigged up to plane one face of a pre-cut featheredge board (I have just done this for mine). This makes life a lot easier if you hire a miller with the featheredge attachment, or use tommer9's cunning trick, which I will dig out of the appropriate thread if required:001_smile:

 

Also worth checking on the current local situation re. Phytophthora ramorum and whether there are any restrictions on movement.

 

Alec

[stuartyg]

just plain strait boards not feathered,mostly between 14-18 inch diameter, not to many knots as out of planted wood,someone told me if they are grown to fast they might not be as waterproof as older trees,yea i need to work out if i have enough to do whole job,or not worth the hasle,thanks for advice,also trees have been cut and stacked for around a year if i mill and stack boards how long would they need before i could fit them roughly, cheers

[agg221]

Sounds promising on the stock you have - what length do you need the cladding and what is the diameter at that length (this has a bearing on the yield per log). Are they clean enough to get a second length?

 

Slower grown timber is usually higher quality, but I wouldn't worry about it too much, particularly if it's being painted. You should see the growth rate of some construction grade softwood! Some larch springs as it is milled, as there is quite a lot of stress in it, but it is hard to predict this and if it's straight grown in a wood that's the best you can hope for - just be prepared to possibly lose a few.

 

What size (width and thickness) do you need the cladding, and does it all need to be the same? This determines how long it needs to be dried, and how much yield you will get.

 

Alec