Morning, looking for some quite broad advice. I have a small copse of woods at the back of our garden, 1.1 acres. Mainly beech and a good number (maybe 15 or so) of pretty mature larch. Then a few ash (unfortunately mostly with die back), sycamore, field maple, one lonely small oak, then holly, some nice old yew, and a couple of lovely large corsican pines.
We are about to embark on a building project, with a wood clad large garage/shed plus wood cladding on the extension. That's a lot of money to buy wood when we have a whole load sitting right on site that needs thinning anyway. And further, the larch apparently had no value as it is in mixed woods and needs extracting carefully (local chap I would trust said he would take it for no cost, but if we leave it longer it might not be worth it once larch is tool old)
I'm considering 3 things:
1. Milling the larch for cladding on garage and house;
2. Milling one large beech to make floorboards for the sitting room ready for next year; and
3. Longer term, milling some of the larch to make a pole barn type structure at the back of garden one day
Now ... I am not an arb.
I am looking at the amount of wood we have and will need over time, and am wondering whether it makes any sense to invest in a saw mill, probably one on wheels to get up into the woods and mill in situ (as opposed to trying to drag it out of the woods)
Question - with a decent mill (e.g. woodlandmills.co.uk) how hard is it to mill cladding, and is it simply a case of stacking it under a tarp with spacers for a period of time or can you use it green /is it better green? Then on flooring, clearly the beech will need drying, so is it best to section to 1inch+ and dry with spacers and if so for how long, or does it need kiln drying as well and then putting through some sort of thicknesser or similar by a pro afterwards?
I LOVE the idea of the house being built from the woods, and then long term could sell the mill or indeed keep for the future. But if getting any form of decent result needs a huge level of experience, then I need to be realistic and know that as well.
Alternative is to find someone locally to come in a do the milling. Either way, it helps open up the copse a bit and start to get some new trees in there as well, am keen to get it a bit more diverse and add some variation like lime, maybe some cedar etc for the long long term future!
Many thanks in advance for all advice and comments!!
Al