Squaredy

Elm is very beautiful timber but has traditionally only had a low value. These days it is difficult to say, as for most of the UK it is not available by the lorry load so most sawmills simply don't buy it any more. I agree with @agg221 that it is worth around £5 per hoppus foot,maybe a bit less. Personally I would be more concerned about shake (especially ring shake) than colour. My experience of Elm is it is all beautiful, but can suffer from ring shake which will cause a lot of waste.

It sounds as if a full management plan needs to be drawn up, which will eventually turn the woodland into a productive woodland with good ecological benefits also. But I suspect the cost of doing this will far outweigh the timber value. Felling and extraction alone may be £50 per ton if it is all done by hand and with a skidding tractor. The resulting logs once processed and stacked to dry for a year or two and delivered to many customers will then be worth maybe £130 per ton. And to achieve this you will need a large yard, drying sheds, many strong crates, forklift, possibly a kiln, not to mention a firewood processor and a delivery vehicle. If the landowner wanted to do this for his or her own use and to make a bit of pocket money then maybe it can be done with minimal equipment. Or if it is to be done to improve the woodland (rather than make money) then it could work. As a business, a neglected woodland with poor access is no more valuable than the stone beneath your feet. Yes it has value, but usually far less than production cost. You could speak to Coed Cymru the timber charity as they will give free woodland management advice, and will know if there are any grants to help.

We were in Stratford-Upon-Avon at the weekend. Many exposed beams on the old Oak frame houses, all grey cracked twisted, and four hundred years old. Oiling is a good idea, but as others have said cracking and movement is all part of the deal.

It is worth remembering that softwoods of this thickness will dry in no time at all. Especially Western Red Cedar - in this weather you could get this dry in maybe a week or two.

Well to do this you would have to apply for the established use to continue including submitting detailed plans etc.

Can you post a photo so we get an idea of what it looks like? I suspect you will be fine, but I guess it is a reminder that perception is everything. If it looks s bit much and looks s but like a business premises it might upset people. You could take the approach of asking the council what they think is acceptable. They can’t exactly say that no tradesman can park a sign written van on their drive, so can they tell you what the limit is? If they tell you that only one van is allowed then you will have to comply with that.

I charge the same as I do for Beech - £27 per cubic foot including VAT. Odd that so little Birch gets milled in the UK. Such a good timber for internal work.

It looks to me from the pics and video as if they are decent quality, but a bit small. Are they about a foot diameter mainly? To get the top price I would say you need larger diameter stems. £150 per ton delivered seems a fair price, based on the limited information I have.

All depends on the grade. You say they are planking quality but also contain shakes. Shakes can mean an otherwise good log is just firewood. Can you be more specific? The photo shows a couple of decent looking logs possibly, though one looks knotty and another a bit too small diameter. If the quality is mixed, and given this is the wrong time of year for felling Oak for milling I would say £150 per ton delivered is a fair price. My last batch was £130 per ton delivered, and was pretty mixed. If on the other hand they are mainly top quality logs, then yes that is too cheap. What you need to look for are shakes, rotten knots, too many knots.

Well yes, though I haven't seen it yet!

Yeah it is Oak.

Yeah, initially I thought my customer was measuring circumference, but apparently it really is 8 foot diameter. It may well be hollow of course, but I said I would try and find someone who can mill it.

One of my customers has a need for some on-site chainsaw milling of a log about 8 feet wide. I can do about 6 feet but not 8. Anyone near Pontypool want to offer their services?

It looks as if the diameter of the tree could be rather important. The easy and accurate way to measure this is with a cloth tape (tailor's type) and measure the circumference and then divide by 3.14. Then you will KNOW if any of the trees are over 150mm diameter. I don't know but imagine it would be "breast height" which would be about 1.3 metres above ground.

I think it is well known that the UK is simply a place where conifers grow very fast, I remember reading years ago that outside of its natural range Sequoia grows faster in the UK than anywhere in the world. And of course fast growth does not generally equal quality timber. And of course as has so often been said UK forests are so often neglected. I know an estate near here (an estate that made its money from Coal mining in the industrial revolution) which owns several thousand acres, much of it is planted with conifers, and none has been managed this century. The owner simply has the view that there is no money in it, and focuses on the various properties he lets instead. So the hundreds of thousands of trees he had planted in the seventies and eighties are over-crowded, weak and knotty.

I just showed this to my boys, and they are laughing at me cos I thought it was real!

Is it a myth? I never mill Spruce so can't really comment, but I know UK grown Western Red Cedar is inferior to American grown.

Aaaahhhh I see I have missed the fact that the Sequoia milled and clad on the school was from a different poster than the original post. Apologies if I confused everyone!

Great result! Especially as you only posted the question 18 hours ago. I wish my workers could work at that rate....Fell, mill and fix in less than a day!

Sequoia timber (assuming it is Sequolia Giganteum not Sequoia Sempervirens) is very soft timber and a bit brittle. It is also very durable and stable and dries very quickly. I would say that if you get it slabbed the slabs should sell really well as outdoor furniture such as table tops, bar tops etc. I would value the timber at about £30 per cubic foot plus VAT once milled and dried if it is free from splits etc. Do be careful with your internet research as a lot of references to Redwood or Sequoia will actually be referring to Coastal Redwood which is a far superior timber.

If any logs are large enough and straight enough for milling (say a foot diameter and more) then they may be of interest to a sawmill and are worth more. Sweet Chestnut may be worth £110 per ton when felled and stacked at roadside (but only if decent quality) and Ash and Sycamore are worth around £70 or £80 per ton. A lot depends on quality of the logs which means how straight and free of knots the stems that are felled are, and if there are other faults like shakes. Also of course accessibility is critical - felling the trees may be easy, but they need to be economically moved to a track or roadside where a timber lorry can collect them. If you haven't already, you should talk to forestry workers to assess all this, as no matter how valuable the logs if they cannot be extracted then forget it!

I mainly buy hardwoods so rarely come across this term, and when I do it is not abbreviated. As a general rule I am offered a parcel of sawlogs, and usually then I get a log list giving measurements of every log. Just occasionally I buy hardwood logs by weight and as long as they are sawlog size I am not too fussy about top diameter. Length is more important to me - ideally multiples of eight foot or 2.5 metres saves me waste and handling. And of course quality - no-one likes knotty or shaky logs for milling.

Ah well if TDUB is top diameter under bark then I would say approx 200mm as a minimum. I would also need to know what lengths the logs are and see a pic or two to assess quality. I do not expect perfection, but I need to see I am not buying rubbish either!

No idea what TDUB means sorry!

If he can arrange haulage to South Wales I would pay a decent price for two loads of Alder and I would mill it.