Can yellow poplar be used for siding

[leggs]

    Can yellow poplar be used for siding?    im thinking one natural edge, 1/2 in thick x8". what do ya think.

[beenthere]

Yes, its been used for siding for 100's of years. Just select the quality that you want .

[DonE911]

Yep, just used some this year on the wifes cat house.   No problems at all other than the rain storm 30 minutes after I painted it. >:( >:(

I used an air nailer to hang it and it split if I let it dry a little.  Others have not had that problem and it hand nailed fine for the few pieces I did that way ....  if'n your using a nail gun you might want to hang it right off the mill.

[Ohio_Bill]

I am sure no expert on this, but I think ½ inch might be to thin and would split. I just made some 15/16 inch and put it up green as lap siding.  8 inch wide   boards with 3 inch over lap.  My wife has our camera tonight so I will try to get a picture tomorrow and post it.

[maple flats]

I sure hope so. I sawed a load of it for a customer this summer. Live edge i side about 8" wide x 3/4" thick. He was going to put it up with about 3" overlap because of the live edge he wanted to show.

[ohsoloco]

I hear about lots of people putting up green siding, but wouldn't that cause moisture to stay trapped between the sheathing and the siding  ???

[Don P]

Every lap is a place to let vapor out so it doesn't compost on the walls from what I've seen. My experience with hanging it greeen is that it cups pretty bad. The one side gets cooked by the sun and dries fast where the sheathing side dries very slow and "bellies". Get 10 people together and you'll get 11 opinions on that though. Poplar was usually cut about 3/4" for lap siding around here.

[D Martin]

Can't coment about the green issue but i can bout live edge. It in't as easy as it looks to install. Its real slow going compared to lap siding, not quite as bad as shingles but close. I helped my brother put some on one of his camps a few weekends ago with three guys, one cutting- two nailing  -one gable end one sidewall and a little trim. The guy cutting owns a siding buisness and does it everyday, commented that he'd never do it as bid work.

[maple flats]

You're probably right about live edge being hard to install, that is why I just saw it. 8) And it isn't that easy to saw either, would be easier to cut edged all the way.

[Frickman]

Yellow poplar works great as siding, most barns and outbuildings around here are sided in poplar. Live edge siding is hard to make, and harder to install and make look right, but is very beautiful when done correctly. It's hard to make because you're trying to get siding with some uniform width, like 10", out of a round log. After you slab one side you turn it 90 degrees and start sawing off boards. Every board gets a little wider as you take them off. You end up having to edge the wide ones down to your target width. Some customers think they should get live edge siding for cheaper as some bark is left on, but I charge more because there is more work and some waste. The narrow strips left over from edging are useful as stacking sticks, but they are not as valuable as they would be in a wide board.

[OneWithWood]

Yellow poplar or tulip poplar makes a very nice siding material.  I cut it on the 4/4 scale at 6" width.  Put the boards up one year and come back and put the batten strips up the following year after the boards have finishied shrinking.

At the end of this thread is my barn with poplar siding

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=1400.0

[leggs]

      Why is one natural side so hard to install?

[Frickman]

It's harder to install and make look right. You have to keep stepping back and looking at the whole thing to make sure the edges are unformily spaced up and down and across the wall. It is not physically harder to install, just harder to make look right than regular siding.

[D Martin]

Hard to install is the wrong way to put it it's slow going compared to lap thats all. we nailed up the corner boards every 5 inches an strung a dry line for  exposure guide on one wall, that seemed to speed it up.

[DelawhereJoe]

Bringing this back from the dead, I would like some new opinions.

[Southside]

A lot of buildings around here have had it hung on them for a long time, and I sell it, mostly to folks west of here as to the east the historical siding was pine so I sell them that. 

[Brad_bb]

You haven't said where you are located.

I learned a lesson.  I did a lot of asking about using white pine board and batten and everyone said yes, sure....   Well, I learned a very expensive lesson.  I still live in Northern IL.  We pretty much don't have carpenter bees up here.  I'm building south, where there are carpenter bees.  I installed the white pine.  The carpenter bees are attacking the heck out of it (and the trim and eave boards) from May -mid July.  I found out you can spray it or have it sprayed, but then you have to reapply it every year.  I don't know about you, but I sure don't want to have that kind of costly maintenance.  Replacing it with Hardie board and losing the cost of the original siding install and material etc. 

[DelawhereJoe]

I have plenty of carpenter bees here in Delaware, I'm very aware of what the little spawns of satan can do. I've been wanting to redo the siding on my house for some time now, cedar shake are out of my price range, but its what my wife likes the most. Board and batten siding is 2nd on the list, I've needing a reason to get a mill and this could be it, I may have about 20 yellow poplar between 18-24" all rather branch free and straight growing in a lot my mother-in-law just purchased that will need to be removed.

[mrwoodpecker]

carpenter bee traps solved the problem around eaves etc.  I also painted with coppo which they avoid.  Easy to make take a round section bore 1/2 hole down center end to end and at 45degree bore side shafts up to center shaft,  cap the top and put a jar on end and hang it.  The bees see the side holes crawl up, enter the center shaft and see light below head down and out and stay in jar till dead. I make them out of cedar about 6 inches dia 6 inch long. Even used treated post cutoffs seems like the thing that blows their minds is the hole they just can not resist going in.

[Brad_bb]

I made traps- one at every corner.  Caught some bees, a lot of flies, Some wasps.  Still a lot of bees boring on the building.

[moodnacreek]

The house I came from was large, 19 rooms, and 200 +- years old. The siding was 4" and 5" tapered to the weather. Eventually up high, south side, needing paint the carpenter bees ruined it. All the siding was tulip and if maintained would not be covered in vinyl today.   

[Oliver05262]

  You ain't seen nuttin' yet. Wait until the woodpeckers find the bee larvae are in your siding,  and they start putting windows in your board & batten pine !!!
 Two years ago they were terrible around here. This year, maybe because of all the rain, they weren't too bad. I'll try making the traps this spring and see how they help. 
  mrwoodpecker, could you put up a picture of your traps idea?

[moodnacreek]

 You ain't seen nuttin' yet. Wait until the woodpeckers find the bee larvae are in your siding,  and they start putting windows in your board & batten pine !!!
Two years ago they were terrible around here. This year, maybe because of all the rain, they weren't too bad. I'll try making the traps this spring and see how they help.
 mrwoodpecker, could you put up a picture of your traps idea?
Bet I had 200 swarming and drilling 3 yrs. ago. Sprayed all the holes several times and plugged the holes , replaced all the trim with tamarack [fascia with locust]. Now they are up at the sawmill.

[Woodpecker52]

I still end up spraying with a good insecticide each year.  Last resort I will get out the ole tennis racket and bb gun for some summertime redneck sports!

[moodnacreek]

I still end up spraying with a good insecticide each year.  Last resort I will get out the ole tennis racket and bb gun for some summertime redneck sports!

Tried shootem with 22 bird shot from a pistol, not much luck. Actually all those males flying around means nothing, it's the drilling, egg laying females that have to be killed.