Building with green ash?

[Foord]

Hi folks

 

Whats fresh felled ash like to build with?

 

I'm looking at building a bridge at a local scout camp site, theres a lot of good sized ash and alders there.

 

What I'd like to do is go down with the alaskan and just mill some ash stems to size and knock the bridge up. Minimum fuss and cost sort of thing.

 

Good idea or bad?

[se7enthdevil]

ash wont last as a building material.

 

i believe alder is better but i'm not sure.

[Macpherson]

Hi, I agree about the ash, it won`t last outside and can be very unpredictable to fell, a dismantle is prob safest imo. Alder is supposed to last well in wet conditions, or standing in water as piles, but I don`t know how good it would be structurally. Cheers

[woodyguy]

Alder is only good under water, rots quickly out of water. You'd need oak or sweet chestnut to last a decent length of time.

[Foord]

Thanks for the answers boys, pretty much what I thought unfortunately.

 

Have to come up with another idea.

[Chris Sheppard]

I'd agree with the others but also the few times I've milled ash (fr race couse hurdles and top rails mainly) it's always had a lot of tension in it and produced plenty of bannana'd bits.

 

 

 

can be very unpredictable to fell, a dismantle is prob safest imo.

 

I'm more intrigued than anything, but do you really feel that it safer to climb and section fell every Ash tree than it is to club it off at the bottom?

[Macpherson]

I'd agree with the others but also the few times I've milled ash (fr race couse hurdles and top rails mainly) it's always had a lot of tension in it and produced plenty of bannana'd bits.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm more intrigued than anything, but do you really feel that it safer to climb and section fell every Ash tree than it is to club it off at the bottom?

 

hi, I would imagine that I have a lot less experience than you , and most on here, but I have learnt to be cautious around ash since I witnessed a very nasty incident with a big old tree some years ago when it all went wrong, thankfully nobody was hurt, that`s all I meant, cheers.

[billpierce]

agree with durability of ash/alder compared to oak etc. however if its free and you keep it good and chunky it should still last a good while! i've a friend with cleft ash gates which are 10+ years now!. mabe sit timbers on stone so there not sat in the wet as much.