Squaredy

Assuming your measurements are correct, that is 15 IBC containers full of polystyrene and vermiculite. What a nightmare to have to deal with. Even tipping it on a commercial basis is fraught with problems. How much of that will just blow around as it is being handled by the waste disposal station? How many millions of bits of contamination will eventually end up in the landscape from this one job? Almost impossible to avoid. This problem sort of highlights how important it is for the full life cycle cost of materials (including disposal) to be built into the initial price. If it had been, the guy who installed it years ago might have chosen a less problematic material. How many millions of houses have cavity wall insulation made up of loose polystyrene beads? Imagine the mess when any of these houses are demolished.....!

Nothing rubbish about Alder - great for floorboards as long as it is not a cricket pavilion or dance floor.

Alder for clogs. I would mill it up, but I have no idea what uses you might have for it. It is an attractive timber for indoor use. I think it is ideal as kitchen cupboards or coffee table/dining table. It could also be used as panelling in a room - it would be excellent as insulation and sound deadening as it is a very light timber. What it is not good for is outdoor use, unless it is only temporary. I know someone who used to use it for housebuilding - pressure treated.

Surely this is a question for a structural engineer? Yes trees do take moisture out of soil but those buildings need to be looked at by a qualified engineer or three not tree experts on a forum. That flank wall is clearly a much later addition so clearly built to different standards and using different methods, and maybe not compatible with the older wall next to it. I think this is quite a complex problem, and may be affected by trees and vegetation, but the fundamental problem needs to be assessed by an engineer on site.

Ah thanks Mr Slack, I will give you a tinkle.

I buy Poplar by the lorry load for milling, and of course I would pay more than biomass prices for decent clean 5m or 2.5m logs. I don't need huge quantities but one or two lorry loads would be good. I am in South East Wales - you didn't say where the estate is.

Yeah, I yearn for the bright lights of Rassau.....

Mmmmm I don't get out much.

If the scales are accurate, and the dimensions given correct, then that is almost a fully dry piece of Elm. Good fun, let's have some more!

Weight of partly seasoned Elm would be about 50lb per cubic foot. Based on the dimensions we have been given it is 16.33 cubic feet (as stated earlier). 16.33 X 50 = 816lbs divide by 2.2 = 371kg.

Very nice indeed. I like the nails showing like that - not trendy any more perhaps, but a very honest way of doing it, and at least you know where the nails are, unlike glueing or secret nailing.

Why not use a workshop heater - plenty of those about. Pot belly type, or shavings type seem popular.

I would put a carbon monoxide detector in the room which is affected most. Shared chimneys can be deadly if they leak. If you are getting carbon monoxide from next door that would be very easy to sort out with the help of environmental health.

I am not sure that would solve the problem either. I have never used that machine, but I suspect the boards would have to be pretty straight before moulding. I am not being negative but when you mill an 18ft board in Oak and then leave it to dry, by the time it is thoroughly dry it will be a long way from straight. It is always a challenge then to straighten it at that length. Of course to an extent you can straighten the boards as you fit them by bending, but only a bit.

Ah, I was assuming you didn't have a spindle moulder. I don't know the particular one you have, but if it is half decent it should be OK, but always the longer the board the trickier it will be to get a good result. I wouldn't fancy doing tongue and grove on boards longer than about eight feet unless you have an enormous infeed and outfeed table. Having said that, a lot depends on how good the power feed is. A heavy industrial spindle moulder with hefty power feed would probably be OK.

Yeah this is a good plan up to about 6 feet long (unless the bed of your planer is really long). I used to operate a 5ft bed surface planer and it was a real challenge to get eight foot boards straight.

Don't forget Andy, before you worry about tongue and groove you need to get the fully dried boards planed dead straight. Any thicknesser will plane the two faces, but you need to put one dead straight edge on the board and then make the other side match. That will be difficult at eight foot lengths. Not impossible, but you need to plan how you will do this, and only then can you consider tongue and groove. Also make the boards at least 25mm wider than you want to allow for straightening. Once the boards are dead straight and dry you could either buy a decent spindle moulder with a power feed (not worth it unless you have a lot of other use for it) or you could simply pay a joinery shop to do it for you. As an alternative you could use a router and clamp the board still whilst machining - it depends how much you just want to get the job done and how much you will enjoy faffing about with a router.

Doug Fir and Larch both similar for cladding, it will shrink a bit as it dries but allow for this in the design. Either use hit and miss cladding as suggested above, or but them up tight and expect a gap to appear as the boards dry.

They certainly look like Sweet Chestnut to me. Not sure about the posts, but I think you only asked about the rails.

The usual problem is the woodsmen simply sell it for firewood as they all assume it is no good for timber. Same with Birch.

Whilst it is possible someone has treated your fence posts and rails, if they are as you say cleaved Sweet Chestnut it is very unlikely. The whole point of using Chestnut is that it is naturally durable. I would say the most important thing is to be sure they are Chestnut. If you are in any doubt pop a couple of pics on here.

Now that is super-nice. I have milled quite a few logs with amazing colours like that, but it is the exception rather than the rule. Also the lovely colours do seem much less clear when the timber has dried thoroughly.

If you try and avoid knots you are always going to be up against it. They are a lovely feature are they knot? I simply dried it in the usual way in the air under cover with spacers, and I probably finished it off in a heated room with a de-humidifier. Certainly the wood will move plenty, just like Oak and Elm and all the other hardwoods, so you have to allow for this and try and get it as close to the moisture content you need as possible. Unlike Oak it dries quite readily though. I did TG&V the boards because mine are not fixed down at all. I would always avoid this if you can as it is a nightmare when you want to lift one, so you need to think through your fixing methods. Mine is simply a floating TG&V floor and it creaks a lot as you walk on it because it is not fixed down.

I fitted Alder floorboards in my bathroom about 7 years ago, and they are fine. The initial orange colour planes off totally when the boards are fully dried. But I would experiment with different finishes. I tried a sample years ago with Danish oil and it went pink. Here is a photo of it after I sanded it back and re-finished it with a spirit based varnish. My bathroom floorboards are treated with a water based floor varnish which keeps the nice light colour. Unfortunately the brand I used to re-do this about two years ago turns out not to be water resistant, so I will re-do this soon with a better one. I have a clock made of Alder hanging in my office which is waxed, and that has made it go a nice subtle chestnut colour. My kitchen cupboard doors are also Alder, and they are finished with Woodoc, and they have gone a bit orange, but in a nice way which I am very happy with....but some people might not like the colour. I have also seen mirror frames, sconses, cupboards, chalkboards and countless other things made using Alder, as one of my regular customers buys a fair bit from me and makes all of the above. In fact one of the first Coyote Ugly bar tops in the UK was made from Alder - I think this was a mistake though as dancing with stilettoes three or four nights a week was always going to ruin the surface. My advice is they would be great for floorboards for a bedroom, just experiment with finishes so you know what to expect.

I could do with a lorry load of Poplar logs near South East Wales. Nice clean stems needed, species not important. 2.5m or 5m lengths ideally.