Squaredy

Well yes, but I don't think the owner wants it to stay where it is as habitat!!

Let's see an up-to-date photo if possible. Based on the photo we have seen so far it is ludicrous nonsense. They might as well ask if a nicely cut lawn has damaged the house. That will dry out the ground more than the tree in the picture! And as Gary Prentice said what are they expecting the arboriculturalist to say? "Yes the tree looks healthy." He or she will not comment on damage to the house. Are you sure it wasn't another issue the bank want investigated? If the surveyor has identified a problem with the house shouldn't a structural engineer produce a report?

I have been contacted by a man today offering a large Sycamore stem, which judging by the pictures would produce some large characterful slabs. He isn't after money, I guess he just wants it gone. Whilst it is clearly not a nice clean milling stem I would think someone local with wide slabbing capabilites might appreciate this. It has apparently been down for a year, and is 16 feet long and up to 5 feet wide. Some of the smaller pieces in the photo are also available. If anyone fancies it PM me and I will pass on his contact details.

We are also a sawmill and have used Didac of Bristol. They do a crosscutting and maintenance course in one day and will come to your premises to do it - but you will need to provide a saw with correct safety features and all correct PPE and of course logs to cut. The cost is around £500 and this is for up to four delegates, so it is economical - if they still do it.

It doesn’t matter what you finish it with, the cats will totally ignore it and scratch your sofa and stair carpet anyway.

Freshly cut Oak logs take about a week or more at 70 degrees centigrade to really dry, right through to the middle. Even then any oversize logs could still be a bit wet inside. In reality as long as the huge majority of the logs are under 20% it will be fine. After all, a not quite dry Oak log is still mainly quite dry - just the middle portion which may be only a tenth of the log. I agree of course that air drying is best, but you need to have the space to store in well ventilated conditions under cover (in the case of Oak) maybe two or three years worth of logs.

Sorry for the late reply, but yes generally the logs are good. There is lots of Oak, and if you split a large one of these it is not really dry enough in the middle, but overall I think the claim that average moisture is under 20% is probably correct.

Just to let anybody know who is interested, this has now been resolved. I finally received from Surefire Logs a correct invoice which I have paid.

Bit difficult to comment without pics, but in my experience a 6m span is going to need a 9 inch X 3 inch beam with no big faults, and this is assuming it is taking no real weight - ie just roofing sheets and maybe some snow. If it is a floor taking any weight it will need way more than this. Their will be structural strength tables you can find on t'interweb, but it will be very complex and difficult to follow I guarantee.

Would leave the end of the board impregnated with oil so yes it may work well but at what cost? Best to not cut Oak in this weather or before the summer.

No you shouldn't worry. It is definitely a cube.

Thanks Ash yes I remember, but what you quoted me for was freshly processed. When I received an email out of the blue offering kilned and ready to burn UK grown I thought it would be worth a punt. I will happily give yours a go, but only if it is all UK sourced. I thought I read in one of your posts that you are using imported these days?

I measured the internal size of the bag - ie the usable size of the bag. The seller may have been measuring the bags including the seams as you suggest. The point is he offered to sell me a certain number of cubic metres of the product. It is up to him to ensure that is what I receive. If the bag he uses will not hold a cubic metre he should either use a larger bag or more bags to make up the agreed volume. It will be interesting to see what happens if I ever buy a walking floor lorry load from the company. Will they measure the outside dimension of the lorry to calculate the volume......?

No I am talking about loose measure as delivered and then when we measured.

Well the bags do bulge, and sag and stretch, so the smaller bags on the face of it would only give 0.512 cubic metre, but they are in fact yielding 0.73 or thereabouts. I guess if they were using 1000 X 1000 X 1000 bags they would actually contain about 1.2 cube. I will not lose out on this one as I am only going to pay for the volume they actually delivered. Luckily I did not pay in advance. If they are not happy with that they can take me to court, and I will go to court with all the evidence I need to prove my case. I mainly just wanted to warn other Arbtalkers what to expect as I have no doubt some have been contacted by the firm offering their products.

Not an entirely new subject I know but the answer it seems is when you buy from Surefire Logs. Up to now I have always processed and kilned my own firewood but I thought I would give these guys a go - wholesale log supplier already processed and kilned and even have the ready to burn accreditation. It is a new venture from a company called Bicester Woodchip who also trade as Chip Chip, so they have done woodchip and retail firewood for a while and are now getting into wholesale. The reason I was attracted to them is that the logs are UK sourced and they have a depot not too far from me. I was going to get a walking floor lorry load but this wasn't feasible to begin with for me. So I got a full lorry load of cubic metre bags at a cost of £71.50 per cubic metre delivered plus VAT. 61 bags on a curtainsider. Nightmare to offload but that is a learning curve for me. My real problem is they are not cubic metre bags. I did not necessarily expect them to be 1000mm X 1000mm X 1000mm, but I did expect them to be large enough to give a realistic cubic metre when filled with logs. There were actually two different sizes on the lorry; mainly 800 X 800 X 825 and a few at a slightly larger size of 850 X 850 X 850. We have measured and the actual volume of logs from the smaller bags is around 0.73 cubic metres and from the larger bags 0.9 cubic metres. So my expected 61 cubic metres of logs is actually about 45 cubic metres. I have of course contacted Surefire logs and told them the situation, which they are partly accepting. They are now trying to charge me for 50 cubic metres and I have assured them I will only be paying for the 45 cubic metres they delivered. I am not suggesting they are a bad company to buy from but I would stay clear of the bulk bags. I assume the volume would be much less open to interpretation for a walking floor lorry, so that is what I will try next time. The logs themselves seem pretty good, but I am still testing samples for moisture. Anyone else tried them yet?

Yes of course this is correct. And this highlights why you should probably not join the military unless you really trust the politicians who tell the armed services whom to point their guns at. I suspect some youngsters sign up with very good intentions and then have concerns over what they see.

If I get broken into I would be very relieved if they only steal bits of paper. But then I have very little to hide...

It is hardly surprising the establishment are working tirelessly to silence him. He has released millions of embarrassing bits of information. Trump loved Wikileaks when it was helping him find dirt on Hilary Clinton. Now he has changed his tune. Thankfully for us Wikileaks will continue even without Julian Aussange. A little bit of truth can be very helpful every now and then. Remember how hard our MPs tried to hide the truth of MPs expenses?

You can of course stack the milled timber and air dry it for years and then find lots of different customers, and this should get you the best price. Or you might find a bulk buyer (like me!) who will take the whole lot unseasoned at a wholesale price - I would pay around £170 per cubic metre for milled Sweet Chestnut of decent quality (milled to my spec).

Well worth milling unless it has ring shake as Mr Hewn said. Post some pics when felled and we can check for ring shake. If the trees are not too old you may be lucky. What would you mill for, do you have a use in mind?

One year on from milling the Poplar I started this thread about, I planed and partly finished a board to show off the grain. I think it is rather nice. I have sold some and will certainly buy more logs for milling one day.

This is the right time of the year to get a load of systemic weedkiller on them - Glyphos like Roundup. Treat them each spring (and possibly later in the year if more shoots come up) and you will soon get them under control.

All sound advice from Rough Hewn, just one more thing to add. Don’t get any nice warm dry weather for a few months as this will cause surface checking.

I think it is well understood and accepted that burning wood is carbon neutral (if you ignore carbon relating to processing and transport). The alleged issue is particulates. If this was not made clear it was a very poor article.