tamarack for timber framing

[shiver_me_timbers]

apparently, you have to pick your trees to avoid major twisting. Most trees have a spiraled grained going counter-clockwise. Some have a grain which goes clockwise ,and those ,you should avoid. Also, you should pick your trees without much twisting( not always apparent). Someone also mentioned treating tamarack like it is tamarack. Meaning, you have to know how it behaves and processes it accordingly.

[Dave Shepard]

Hilltop366, was that deck treated with anything?

[Hilltop366]

No, it's natural

[SwampDonkey]

I hope it lasts. I've seen many try to thwart mother nature and had to replace deck boards after 10 years. ;)

[Hilltop366]

I hope it lasts. I've seen many try to thwart mother nature and had to replace deck boards after 10 years. ;)

It's ok I know full well the decking will rot but I figure it will out last untreated spruce , the whole idea was to not use pressure treated decking while our daughter is young.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, I would hope so. However, I like a roof over me, keeps the hot sun and rain off by bald head. ;)

[Hilltop366]

I too do not like sitting in the sun, my spot is over on the right under the roof.

[SwampDonkey]

Ah ha!  ;D

[Billbob]

Hi SMT.  I have used a lot of tamarack over the years for different projects.  Tamarack is the most dense and strongest of the softwoods.  It is better than cedar for any project that involves the wood to be in contact with earth.  When its dry it is as hard as concrete and you need an arm like Popeye to drive a spike into the wood.   It will split if you drive a nail to close to the end of a board. If you are going to use it as a fence post you should let it dry for a year before putting it in the ground.  It'll outlast cedar posts.  I have 5 inch cedar posts in my pasture that have rotted off after 15 years.  I have tamarack fence posts that have been in the ground 10 years and show no sign of decay.  I use it for framing doors and windows in my horse barn.  It will twist and curl (not bow - curl!) if not bound tight in a bundle or lift as it drys.  It would be fantastic wood for timber framing if you can keep it straight as it drys.  Incidently, tamarack makes beautiful finished flooring for the house.  I'm fortunate as I have a fair amount of tamarack in my woodlot.  I've used up most of the really big stuff (20" -24") but have lots of smaller trees.  Tamarack trees do not like shade and do not like to be crowded.

Bill 

[Dave Shepard]

A friend of mine told me that he saw a lot of untreated tamarack power poles in Upstate New York when he was building hydro plants years ago.

[SwampDonkey]

Close to 20 years ago there was talk of using untreated tamarack for cesspools and weirs and someone from either southern NB or PEI was calling around to source some large straight ones. Tamarack is not real abundant here, it's around, but be hard to get real big stuff in large quantity. It's usually cut to try and get something else to grow instead. The only tamarack I have is what I planted and some seeded in on abandoned acreages around. I think there is a wild one or two behind the house in the old orchard. Crooked as a corkscrew to and 20 foot limbs. ;D

That being said, I've never seen cedar posts rot in 15 years. I've got one over 40 years old out by the well head holding a air line that goes down in the ground. Everyone around here had cedar posts for decades and lasted eons. I can even find cedar rail fences well over 100 years old. Dad and everyone around here cut them up for good dry fire kindling. And there is still an old cedar telephone pole standing, untreated, since the 40's up by the bridge. I think if you use young cedar that is all sapwood, they will certainly rot quick.

Our tamarack here does not behave at all like western larch. And European larch and Japanese larch are different to. You do see a lot of European larch used for floors. I wouldn't try it with our tamarack unless it's a shed or grainery floor maybe. There are some European larch plantations in NB. Forestry Canada experimented some with tamarack and has trials all over the Maritimes. Any I was sent to measure was crooked looking stuff.

Tamarack doesn't stand very long when it's dead, just look at Jeff's thread on his bug killed tamarack. It don't last. A cedar snag will stand for my lifetime.

[Billbob]

Close to 20 years ago there was talk of using untreated tamarack for cesspools and weirs and someone from either southern NB or PEI was calling around to source some large straight ones. Tamarack is not real abundant here, it's around, but be hard to get real big stuff in large quantity. It's usually cut to try and get something else to grow instead. The only tamarack I have is what I planted and some seeded in on abandoned acreages around. I think there is a wild one or two behind the house in the old orchard. Crooked as a corkscrew to and 20 foot limbs. ;D

That being said, I've never seen cedar posts rot in 15 years. I've got one over 40 years old out by the well head holding a air line that goes down in the ground. Everyone around here had cedar posts for decades and lasted eons. I can even find cedar rail fences well over 100 years old. Dad and everyone around here cut them up for good dry fire kindling. And there is still an old cedar telephone pole standing, untreated, since the 40's up by the bridge. I think if you use young cedar that is all sapwood, they will certainly rot quick.

Our tamarack here does not behave at all like western larch. And European larch and Japanese larch are different to. You do see a lot of European larch used for floors. I wouldn't try it with our tamarack unless it's a shed or grainery floor maybe. There are some European larch plantations in NB. Forestry Canada experimented some with tamarack and has trials all over the Maritimes. Any I was sent to measure was crooked looking stuff.

Tamarack doesn't stand very long when it's dead, just look at Jeff's thread on his bug killed tamarack. It don't last. A cedar snag will stand for my lifetime.

Wander over to my place and I'll show you 15 year old rotted cedar fence posts!

[SwampDonkey]

Lots of rotten sapwood to from being the top rail or pasture cedar. You gotta use the good heartwood stuff. That 100-140 year old 5"-6" diameter stuff from the cedar swamp. ;D

[thecfarm]

I think there might be a few cedar rails from who knows when kicking around here and with moss all over them on some stone walls. We always peeled the cedar and seem like the split ones last longer,no sap wood. The round ones might start out at 6 inches,but with the sap wood gone,they would be down to 4 inches.

[Billbob]

I have no idea where my cedar posts came from.  I bought 250 of them from the Co-op years ago.  They all average about 4 inches in diameter so it is quite possible that they are pasture cedar as you say.  Most of them have rotted at the ground level to point there is only about 2 inches of wood left.  I have several 6"-8" posts to replace the worst ones.  And I have a nice cedar swamp at the back of my woodlot.  Lots of big stuff there.  Gotta figure out a way to move the logs out because it is all black muck and roots!