Freshly Sawn Hemlock Lumber?

[luke]

I have some hemlock trees on my property, and I'm in the process of building a log cabin, I built the cabin out of yellow poplar logs off my land, and am chinking the joints now. I need some material for the ceiling, and I have many hemlock trees on my land, but will the boards shrink up, if I nail them down after they are sawed?

[Jeff]

We used hemlock for the same thing in one of the bedrooms at the cabin in da U.P.  yea, it'll shrink but do like we did. Board and batten the ceiling.

Something about that bedroom always causes me to wake up with a funny scratch in my throat. None of the other bedrooms do it except that room. "the bear room" we call it. I have always attributed it to the hemlock as its the only room that has it.

[Jeff]

The bear room. Dont show the ceiling though... :-/



 wall paneling is red and white pine with wide board hemlock ceiling

[solidwoods]

For $.15bf you can have lumber kiln dried.  If you use green lumber to build with you are taking a risk with your hard earned labor.
OR air dry it, put it in the attic or inside stickered when dry machine to ship lap or TG.
JIM

[luke]

Jeff B.,

since I don't have the time to wait for the lumber to air dry, I am going to use, 1/2" drywall on the ceiling. Thanks for the information.

[EZ]

Luke, 5/8 drywall on the ceiling is a must, if you use 1/2 inch it will crack at the seems and sooner or later sag. Sorry for butting in.
EZ

[luke]

EZ,

5/8" drywall on the cabin cathedral ceiling would probably be better, although it costs a little more, but it would have more of a sound deadening effect.  Might go that route.

[biziedizie]

  Me agrees with EZ. 8)  5/8 is a must.

    Steve

[redpowerd]

aghhh >:(
sh;trock in a log cabin? :'(
ive had some hemlock on the side of my garage for a year facing south and have not noticed much shrinkin, more shakin than anythin.
b+b cant look that bad, specially on a ceiling, i would think it would add depth. plus im plannin on doing the same ;)

oh, how did that popler work out on the cabin?

[woodhaven]

Jeff,
Are all of your interior walls finished off? No logs showing on the inside.

[blue_eyed_devil]

Plan on about 30% shake when you mill it.Atleast that's what I've read about Hemlock.
Anyone disagree??

[Oregon_Rob]

What is "shake"?

[beenthere]

OR_Rob
Normally, I think of shake as a separation of wood along the annual ring in a log (tree). A weakness in the wood thought to be caused by bacteria or stresses in the tree. Sometimes an injury to the growing layer between the wood and the bark will be enough to cause the 'weak' annual ring. Hemlock is one species that seems to have more shake than other tree species. I think Grand fir in the West is another such species. Regardless, it makes recovering lumber from such logs much more difficult. Sometimes the boards hold together until they are dried, and then the ring shake shows up in the dried board.
Shake is different from checks, in that checks are separations across the annual ring (or in a radial direction).

[Oregon_Rob]

Thanks beenthere, for that. Don't think I have seen it, but never looked for it!

[Kevin]

I use to see lots of that on the dance floor.  8)

[Tom]

Shake is another term for split.  Cedar shakes are split for shingles,  We have folks here that call any crack a shake whether it's in the heart (heart check/heart shake) or between the rings (ring shake/wind shake).

beenthere is correct with his explanation.

[Greg]

Shake is another term for split.  Cedar shakes are split for shingles,  We have folks here that call any crack a shake whether it's in the heart (heart check/heart shake) or between the rings (ring shake/wind shake).

beenthere is correct with his explanation.

I've heard (here?) that pin oak is notorious for ring shake.

Which is good for me, because most sawyers don't want to fool with for that reason - meaning I can get the logs for nothing - to cut beams out of!

Greg

[redpowerd]

im still wonderin about those poplar logs,
any pics?