Sweet gum barn siding

[scsmith42]

A question was posed in a recent thread on FF about the suitability of sweet gum boards for siding.

There is a farm down the road from me just south of Raleigh North Carolina that has an old barn sided with sweet gum.  According to the farmer that lives next door, the barn was build by his father-in-law back in the 1940's, and the exterior siding and interior floor boards were all cut from sweet gum trees.

The father-in-law operated a sawmill back in his younger days, and according to his son-in-law he swore by the use of sweet gum for barn siding.

Below are some current photo's of the barn.

The first photo shows an overview of the entire barn.  Note that the structural lumber and the siding under the eaves is pine; the rest is sweet gum.




This next photo depicts a close-up view of the siding.  When I saw the bright white splotches, I was not sure that it was gum...




This photo shows an inside view of the board siding.  It is more readily identifiable as sweet gum in this photo.




The next photo was taken of the underside of the second floor, as seen from below.  There is a board that still has part of the bark on it, and it along with the board next to it also appear to be gum.




This final photo is of an exterior corner.  As seen in the photo, the siding has stayed relatively straight over the years.  Based on what I've seen of sweet gum and the fact that the gaps between boards are relatively narrow, I would estimate that the boards were thoroughly air dried prior to installation.



Regards,

Scott