Green Oak Board and Batten?

[Lee44]

Hi everyone, I wasn't sure which forum to put this in. This one seemed like perhaps the closest match, as it is building oriented. Here goes----I am thinking of using board and batten siding to cover a workshop, and I was wondering about the advisability of using green oak. I am thinking to use stainless screws to secure it, and I'm thinking that with green oak it would not be necessary to predrill the holes. Is that correct? But I am concerned that as the oak dries, it could develop splits at the screws. What do you think? The oak would be about 1" thick. Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

[PineHill4488]

The splitting you're concerned about is from the relatively fast drying of the oak. This can be moderated by using Boiled Linseed Oil but may be a little thick to spray. Recently, a recipe was posted suggesting 10 parts diesel, 1 part new motor oil, and 1 part BLO. This should slow the drying, preserve it, and keep that new look for a bit.

[Lee44]

I'd been thinking to maybe go with milk paint, with linseed oil added to it. Or maybe pine tar instead of milk paint. But I wasn't sure if in either case you'd need to let the wood dry before you painted it.

[PineHill4488]

IMO, use the mixture then a couple years hence do the milk paint.

[Roger Nair]

As to splitting, how the screws are spaced and driven will effect splitting.  I would put two screws into each wall purlin spacing the screws at one third distance from the edge on the base siding boards and one screw in the middle of the batten.  In this manner the edges will be free to move as the board dries and the splitting potential is limited to one third the width of the siding boards.  I would urge preboring, so the screw is free to spin in the siding and will pull the board tight with less fight.

For coatings, I would stay well away from diesel and motor oil, bad for skin and lungs.

[Lee44]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I appreciate it.

Yeah, I have to be honest, I'm not likely going to do the diesel and oil mix. I treated a poplar fence once with a used motor oil mixture, and man was that unpleasant. I have no doubt it works, but I can't see myself doing that to the siding for a whole building.

The more I think about it, I may go with another wood entirely. It is tough to decide. I also have access to inexpensive pine and poplar, kiln dried and not green. Either one would be easier to work with than the oak. I'd been thinking about oak in large part based upon this article here. http://www.fs.fed.us/eng/bridges/documents/tdbp/decayres.pdf

I can't find or afford pure heartwood of any wood really. Their figures for pine and poplar sapwood aren't that impressive, but that's also for untreated. Mine would be treated in one way or another to discourage rot.

If you treat wood with pine tar, do you guys know about how often it has to be reapplied?

Also, I have seen that pine tar is often mixed with linseed oil. I'm curious why linseed and not tung? I know that linseed oil can actually promote mold. But it also doesn't dry as hard as tung, so maybe that bit of flexibility is the reason it gets mixed with pine tar instead of tung?

On the other hand, people using milk paint tend to use tung oil as an outdoor additive. Kind of interesting.

I'm in Central Ohio, if that helps.