Elm for building

[Dean Lofthouse]

I'm taking down a fair sized elm on monday and am doing it fairly cheap as I have something in mind for it.

 

Our lass wants a summer house in the back garden and I was going to drop an Oak and have it sawn up to build a green Oak framed one.

 

Is Elm ok for the same thing. I was going to have it swan green into 5x5 and build it out of that.

 

Has anyone done this before or knows about how stable it might be, would I need to stack it and dry it first

[Stephen Blair]

i would give the elm to rob d, drop an oak and get him to mill that for you to make to your summerhouse mate

[Xerxses]

I'm taking down a fair sized elm on monday and am doing it fairly cheap as I have something in mind for it.

 

Our lass wants a summer house in the back garden and I was going to drop an Oak and have it sawn up to build a green Oak framed one.

 

Is Elm ok for the same thing. I was going to have it swan green into 5x5 and build it out of that.

 

Has anyone done this before or knows about how stable it might be, would I need to stack it and dry it first

 

Not excactly, but felled around 100 elms couple years ago on a contract. Some of it was cut up and is now a lovely floor. Elm smells like a dogs dodo when it dries, you might want to take that into account...

[wildewood]

Green (Whych) Elm is great when its getting wet a lot, or submerged. When using for inside, for furniture or flooring it's best kiln dried to 12 or 13 % moisture as it's prone to a whole lot of movement.

Green Oak however has been used in construction around the world for thousands of years, for good reason. Lovely to work with, ages nicely, strong and sounds like it will be cheap!!

[Andy Collins]

My dads house (timber-framed) was built early 16thC using elm wood locally sourced from the nearby woods and it still stands today. Quite a testament as a building material IMO:thumbup1:

[Luke Quenby]

Great building material, but as others have said, will need drying and does tend to move a bit, even when 100's of years old. Elm was often used as flooring and framing in old houses, and the creaking and 'things that go bump in the night' can often be put down to the timbers / floor still moving. In most cases! But if you can get hold of some, definatley worth using, will make a lovely building, lots of charecter in the wood to. Good luck!

[Dean Lofthouse]

Thanks for the input guys.

[penfold]

Elm smells like a dogs dodo when it dries, you might want to take that into account...

 

could that be one of the reasons elm was traditionally used for coffins then, xerxses? i know it was used for ships masts as it was strong and flexed enough that it didn't snap under the tension and torsion of the sails.

[Rob D]

I'm taking down a fair sized elm on monday and am doing it fairly cheap as I have something in mind for it.

 

Our lass wants a summer house in the back garden and I was going to drop an Oak and have it sawn up to build a green Oak framed one.

 

Is Elm ok for the same thing. I was going to have it swan green into 5x5 and build it out of that.

 

Has anyone done this before or knows about how stable it might be, would I need to stack it and dry it first

 

John Shutler may be able to advise as he's a qualified chippie and has actually done a few oak frames.... I'm not sure you'd want to dry it first as green oak frames are obviously all done out of fresh oak. It'll take years to dry out 5x5s and then some may well move too much to be used... In the oak frame buildings they seem to like using 6x6s.

 

I know from speaking to John he said the frame can be green as it's the weight of the building that holds it in place as it starts to dry out.

 

A peterson mill would make a lovely job of cutting those beams though - shame you're so far away!

[Dean Lofthouse]

My plan would be to build the frames asap with proper pegged mortice and tenoned joints which should prevent twisting as they dry ??

 

A bit of twist will add character