Built a hayloft from native lumber

Got a call from my father in-law Saturday night asking me to pick up screws at menards, telling me he wants to build a hay loft in the old corn crib we converted to a goat shed for mother in-law. Ok I think, got the screws he asked for and on Sunday morning I head over to deliver screws and help out. Show up and have a cup of coffee and talk over the build. He tells me it's going to be built out of native lumber he had milled on Saturday. He had a load of 2x8 oak, 1x 10,12,&16 oak, and 1x 8,10,22 & 14 ash. Well a few hours, a lot of heavy wood, and a really sore back but the loft is done, Just gotta add and access hatch and a bale door.



Sorry no pics of the finished loft, way too dark in there, but here is a pick of the load of milled lumber.



Oh and my payment for the sore back, half that load of oak and ash lumber. Funny thing is the whole time I was working on it all I could think is how much heat all that lumber would have made.

Around here something like a hay loft, shed, etc. would pretty much only be built out of softwood such as pine, fir, spruce, cedar or hemlock . . . the hard woods would be saved to sell for lumber (think inside flooring, furniture, etc.) or used as firewood.

My wife's uncle's house is built entirely from (true) dimensional lumber milled from his property. It is mostly oak and hickory. Build with what you have available.

Fresh milled lumber huh? Be prepared for bowing, cracking etc. Great project, but to build with fresh milled lumber..... things are bound to move as it dries.

Most all old barns around here are made from Oak. Grandpa had a sheep barn made of all Walnut. My house built in 1897 was built of all Oak harvested from this land, The studs are 2 1/2" x 7 1/2". Not a lot of SPF (spruce, pine, fur) around here to mill.

Hog, I know this stuff is going to move a bunch as it dries, but FIL is not the most patient man, and was adamant it had to be used green?!? Ya should have seen all the moisture come out of the screw holes!!

On a side thought, if it takes 2-3 years to get CSS oak down to 20% or less, how long will it take to get to 5% or less on that lumber?

General rule when air-drying lumber is 1 year per inch of thickness.Unless you live in AZ or other very dry climate with air drying you wont get much below 10-12% in the midwest.For construction purposes you dont need it to be super dry(6-10% preferred) like when building furniture,cabinets & interior millwork.And humid summer days it can measure 16% sometimes.Wood is hydroscopic,it absorbs & loses moisture in relation to its location,its never truly 'dry'.I've seen wooden beams,rafters & other timbers in various castles,cathedrals in Europe that were up to 1000 years old.Unless they were near a damp spot like a stream or river,none was over 14%.

My cabin (at least the old part) is built from local American chestnut, all cleared when the blight was killing all the trees back in the 1920s. Beautiful wood. Repairs and an addition had to be framed with modern lumber, but the outside log facing is original wood s from another cabin of the same vintage that collapsed under last year's big snows.

I think that will dry faster than most think. It is a shed, I imagine not the tightest structure in the world, so it should dry fairly quickly. I bet juice was running down those boards with each screw or nail that was driven in LOL. If he used maple, you prolly could have gotten some syrup going on.

My dad would rush us to get fresh sawn oak nailed up straight from the sawmill. His theory was it would be held in place and not twist as much as it dried.