Hi all,
I have a friend who owns a house in New Jersey and part of the building is constructed of pecky cyprus wood, which is supposedly very rare and expensive. I would be obliged if anyone could tell me if this were true and what would be its worth?
Cheers, Ed
Yes, it is valuable. It is one of those woods that is either loved or hated. People in the market will pay premiums for pecky because of its inaccessibility. I wouldn't say it is a rare wood. It is difficult to find because so many sawmills see it as rotten wood and throw it away. Some just don't have the market and aren't willing to build or wait for one.
What it is worth is dependent on so many variables that I would be pulling your leg if I offered a dollar amount. If it is being presented to the pecky market, it will generally be worth 10% to 50% more than the same cuts in green boards. In the old wood that is salvaged from rivers and from deep in mud bogs, the same aged "Heart" cypress and Pecky begin to even out in value. This old wood is usually of high value anyway.
I just bought some air dried pecky cypress on Friday. I paid $2.50 a bdft for it. He had a few big stacks of it at that price. These were 1x6's. He had smaller and bigger. It was a place just outside of Sanford Florida called Cypress'n things ( I think). Now, where's this house in Jersey and do you live in jersey????
Thanks for the response to my question. No I`m not from New Jersey, but London, England. I once worked in the building trade as a chippy but my girlfriend has a house in a Sussex, New Jersey, which has some of this Pecky wood built into it and was told by the inspector that it was worth alot of money because of its rarity.
What is pecky wood? I am thinking wood that had bugs and the woodpecker got to it?
Here is a Federal Site that has a good article on Cypress and notes on Pecky.
Manual on Baldcypress(link) (http://www.na.fs.fed.us/Spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/Volume_1/taxodium/distichum.htm)
Peck is an oblong deterioration of cypress heartwood caused by the fungus Stereum taxodii. According to this article, it gains access in the crown of the tree and develops downward destroying the heart as it goes, mostly in the butt of the tree. The fungus stops when the tree is felled.
Boards cut from pecky cypress are ornamental and have "lens" shaped holes that follow the longitudinal axis of the log. Prized for paneling and ornamental timbers it draws premium prices. Some boards may have so much "peck" that it takes several men to carry it and provide support to keep it from falling apart. It will stiffen and strengthen some as it dries.
Pecky cypress is found more commonly in "over-mature" trees and those not-in-the-know may reject it as just another rotten log.
Thanks for the info Tom. :)
I just had a timber sale that was cut in September in the SW Indiana bottoms that included a fair amount of baldcypress (northern end of range). This is seasonally flooded Ohio River backwater or slough type ground. Just as you mention, I observed rot in the upper portions of the cypress trees in addition to some heartrot in the butt logs. This phenomenon of rot starting at the top of the tree and moving downward is the opposite of hardwoods where rot starts at the bottom and moves upward in response to some past wound or flooding damage.
The buyer of the timber (a sawmill) dosen't deal with baldcypress much and had some trouble moving the lumber. They also had to seperate out the chips from standard hardwood chips. After it was all said and done he said to me "Joe, don't mark any more baldcypress." So up here in the northern end of the range, it seems to be a speciality market.
One other comment about baldcypress. I planted a seedling in my parents backyard in cental Iowa in 1989. It has grown like gangbusters on that rich, black prairie soil with no cold or ice related damage. Northern sourced baldcypress has good cold hardiness and makes a very nice yard tree thourghout much of the USA.
Years ago, when I was sawing in the mulch mill in Folkston Georgia, I was approached by more than a few in New Jersey who wanted Cypress lumber. They said they couldn't get it where they were and were willing to meet me half way if I could get them a load. My willlingness, at the time, was to saw rather than transport and I let the opportunities go. Apparently there is a good market for cypress in the furniture businesses up there.
You can't imagine Tom, you can't imagine. If you could get it here a few thousand bdft at a time I'd bet you could sell a load within the day.