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Where to find cabin logs in MI or IN?

Started by Timberline, March 24, 2019, 07:22:04 PM

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Timberline

I'm hoping to start building a small log cabin this year. Can someone guide me to find some logs? I'm in SW MI. Preferably some sort of pine, but I'll take anything I can get my hands on.

Thanks!

Brad_bb

Are you just looking for logs, or logs that are cut to your specs?   Sawn logs?  Hewn logs? Old hewn logs?  New sawn logs?  Or just plain old whole Pine logs?  Any reason you choose pine versus hardwood?  

Do you have any carpenter bees where you are?  If you do, then pine would not be a good solution.  In Joliet, I've not seen carpenter bees.  Down in Indianapolis area I have.  Carpenter bees will bore right into pine and make a 1/2" dia tunnel up to 4 ft long to lay their larvae in.  The next year the larvae will become a bee and chew it's way out.
Anything someone can design, I can sure figure out how to fix!
If I say it\\\\\\\'s going to take so long, multiply that by at least 3!

jimparamedic

And the woodpeckers will destroy the wood the bees are in.

florida

They are so common around here they grow on trees! :D

Sorry, I couldn't help myself!
General contractor and carpenter for 50 years.
Retired now!

D L Bahler

In our area in the northern half of Indiana, carpenter bees are present but manageable. I've used pine a lot and been fine with it.
Treat it with borates regularly and that will stop them pretty good. Lots of exposed pine on older houses around here.

If you want pine, you'll find it in Michigan. It's not present in most of Indiana, and where it does grow it's generally planted by the government back in like the 60's. Not the best wood for timbers but fine for log cabins (the government planted trees that is). When I look for white pine I look in Michigan and Tennessee usually. I just try to find sawmills that have access to it.

Sorry I can't get more specific than that.

Brad_bb

When I was working in Indy, there were too many of them.  I would not use pine there.  Treatment with borates would have to be every spring and thorough.  The cost and work would add up quickly over the years.  I decided it's better to pick a material that they will not touch - like hardie board.  The added cost of the hardie would be equal to or less than the treatments over time.
Anything someone can design, I can sure figure out how to fix!
If I say it\\\\\\\'s going to take so long, multiply that by at least 3!

Don P

Borate does not deter carpenter bees, they do not ingest the wood.

D L Bahler

I don't want to hijack this post, but the whole bee conversation is interesting to me. 

I've built projects for myself out of EWP. My Chalet, for example, all white pine fully exposed. I had a little bit of a bee issue one year, but nothing major. 
I'm looking at another project that would have a lot of exposed pine, or maybe fir, or both. This would be a frame, however, and bee damage could present a more serious problem. 

I wouldn't say we have a terrible carpenter bee problem here. We have them. You're not guaranteed to get a problem, and they generally don't attack in large numbers. But still, they might. 

A lot of the cabins built around here are made of white pine, but they seal them off with some kind of heavy varnish. In my project the wood might all be painted. On the varnished cabins, I've never seen a bee problem around here. I'd be interested in knowing what level of sealing is required to stop the buggers? 

Don P

As much as I dislike Sikkens, it or thick paint seem to be a tough enough film to deter them. Generally but not always they prefer to nest just under an overhang, the first point out of the drip line up high. That said they have hit white pine boards on my barn siding in the field of the wall and they seem to pick specific boards, I'd like to say they generally seem to prefer sapwood over heart. I've built something over 50 log homes out of EWP with some but not many carpenter bee problems. I've also seen barns here that are riddled and they are working on my TF shop and the outer purlin on our entry porch. One barn here supports local lore, it has a mix of EWP and hemlock, they have riddled the pine and barely touched the hemlock.

Carpenter bee young make their way back out the entry hole, not chewing a new path. They will frequently return the next year and use the same hole, making a pair of 90's and extending it. The life cycle is, mother excavates and lays eggs in a brood cell that contains "bee bread" nectar and pollen that sustains the larval and pupal stages, then the young bee emerges from the brood cell and makes its way out through the mothers nest gallery.

Borate, which really doesn't do much to carpenter bees is a one time application typically. Yes you might have some incidental kill from their grooming but it isn't that effective with them. Once borate dries it is pretty crystallized in the wood and it is more difficult to rewet and get more in from my experience. A few drops of dawn, and glycol in the mix do help with wetting. Once you put a finish on wood it is impossible to borate, it cannot penetrate through a finish, so it is generally a one time, preferably green from the saw, treatment in most cases. As I say that I've been on the phone this evening, we are sawing out a framing package for a friend. Michelle brought home another 100 lbs of Solubor today, he is coming out this weekend to borate the lumber. We will then dry, plane, straight line, frame and then he will spray the frame once it is dried in but before the trades arrive. We are approaching the beetle hatch so need protection now, we will then compromise the coating in secondary processing and so will hit the frame again. We did that last year on the log barn project, so there are different ways of looking at it but it really should not be thought of in terms of an annual process, it is not that type of chemical.

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