plausible using backyard oak to make something ?

I am wondering if it is plausible to use the wood out of an oak tree=20 in the backyard to make something ? How to go about it ? or just forget about it ?

Short version ...

A living oak tree (i think it is a white oak) is in backyard. The=20 base is 10 feet circumference (3 feet diameter) and it is=20 approximately 35-45 feet straight up to first big fork. Tree is too=20 close to house and needs to come down due to a remodel addition. Tree=20 is probably 250-300 years old. Thought it would be cool ( nostalgic ) to make some flooring or=20 furniture or something (ideas ?) out of the wood from the tree since=20 it is so massive.

Is this plausible any other useful ideas welcomed

robb=20

Reply to
robb
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Short version ...

A living oak tree (i think it is a white oak) is in backyard. The base is 10 feet circumference (3 feet diameter) and it is approximately 35-45 feet straight up to first big fork. Tree is too close to house and needs to come down due to a remodel addition. Tree is probably 250-300 years old. Thought it would be cool ( nostalgic ) to make some flooring or furniture or something (ideas ?) out of the wood from the tree since it is so massive.

Is this plausible any other useful ideas welcomed

robb

I cut a oak like that in my yard into 10 foot logs and sent them to a sawmill. One of things I made from the lumber was a bathroom vanity cabinet for the house.

Reply to
Pat

It's a crime to cut down such a tree.

I hope you burn in hell after you die if you cut it down.

I hope it falls the wrong way and cracks your skull on the way down.

Bastard.

Reply to
Home Guy

Find a sawmill in your area and find out what they recommend for cutting it up. Then do as the previous poster said for cutting it down. Shame!!!!

Reply to
hrhofmann

Short version ...

A living oak tree (i think it is a white oak) is in backyard. The base is 10 feet circumference (3 feet diameter) and it is approximately 35-45 feet straight up to first big fork. Tree is too close to house and needs to come down due to a remodel addition. Tree is probably 250-300 years old. Thought it would be cool ( nostalgic ) to make some flooring or furniture or something (ideas ?) out of the wood from the tree since it is so massive.

Is this plausible any other useful ideas welcomed

robb

Build the remodel around it. Now that would be cool. Have a friend in New Mexico that did that, built a circler home around it. Really neat. The trunk was only about 20 inches in diameter. Center room has a tall ceiling. Think TeePee look. ww

Reply to
WW

If it is a healthy tree, it would be rather sad to take it down for a re-model. After a few hundred years, of life, no way would I touch it .

Yes, you can cut it with a portable sawmill and dry the wood for a year or two, then use it. Criminal though, just to add a few feet to the house.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

So is there a roof over the tree now? Doesn't that hamper its growth?

Reply to
mm

I felt bad about cutting down a 60 year old maple that was rooting over my sewer line and clogging my roof gutters. Don't think I could bring myself to cut down that oak unless it was threatening my life.

--Vic

Reply to
Vic Smith

Redesign your remodel, if it isn't built already. Assuming it is healthy, cutting a tree like that down is a sin. Healthy mature trees are also a big plus at sale time.

Reply to
aemeijers

Leave the tree alone and add a second story to the house. Ask a qualified arborist to estimate the value of the tree...you may be quite surprised. Losing the tree may in fact reduce the value of your property.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

What if he allows you to hug the tree first and reassure it that it will go to lumber heaven after its execution. You could hold a tree service at the saw mill to see the tree's corpse off on its journey to a better place, um places. ^_^

TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

When my father had just died and my mother was feeling poor, and we certainly were poorer than before, some gardener type told her that the oak tree in front of the house had to have a hole dug around it, 2 or 3 feet deep and about 18" or 24" bigger in radius than the tree. She'd never heard of such a thing and wondered if it was just a way for him to make money. But she did it.

We moved a year later, but I've been back 50 years later, and the tree is flourishing, obscures the entire second floor. The hole is still there too but more of the center is filled in. (I wonder if they enlarged the hole.) The house was built about 75 years ago. The tree might be older. I don't know if they cut down all the trees in those days to build a house.

Reply to
mm

  1. Cutting it down will likely diminish your property value more than an addition will increase it. I'd rework my addition ideas.
  2. "White" oak (and "red" oak) tell nothing about the species of the tree as each color has many species in it and the characteristics of the species vary widely. I have around three dozen "white" oaks about the size (or larger) as yours on my property. They are live oaks - Quercus virginiana - and the wood is only good to burn; it splits, checks and twists as you wouldn't believe if you try to dry it. Doesn't burn real well either; hot but not pretty because there are precious few things in it to gas and make flames.

Trees like mine used to be good for ship building because the trees don't know the meaning of growing up...the limbs twist and flop around like an amnesiac, often bending down to the ground, and the ship builders could cut out curvy stuff.

They are messy too. They just finished dropping tons of leaves and millions and millions of acorns; they will start dropping blossoms soon. Those things end but the dropping of twigs never does. All of which means I have to blow off my courtyard bricks at least twice a week. They also drop *BIG* limbs from time to time. I'm talking limbs that weigh many tons...they split off the main trunk due to rot and/or weight...they get hit by lightning. Fortunately, neither I nor the house has ever been under one when it fell.

Despite their messiness I wouldn't cut down a single one.

  1. You might get lumber out of it, depends on what it is. Ask a local sawmill.
Reply to
dadiOH

Over-react much do you? Trees like that are past their prime, this one is in the way and will (if uncut) eventually fall on its own.

Let me guess, you think that thinning trees so they grow better is bad, that noone should ever be allowing into the national forests for any reason, etc. etc. etc. Bet you have card #1 in the greeny movement.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

And a big negative at sale time if they are in the wrong place and a hazard.

Harry K

Reply to
Harry K

Sell it. It might pay a good deal towards the addition.

Reply to
Thomas

Seen that done. One person that did it then had squirrels getting into their house. Another had the tree die and then had to pay to have it lifted out of the house with a crane. Stupid idea. Trees belong outside.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

"robb" wrote in news:FKCdnWo94PPVmx3QnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

I've seen chainsaw mills that cut the trunk into slabs,then they get stacked,stickered and dried for about a year,then need to be planed down flat and to working thinkness. You can also hire people who own portable mills to cut up your tree into planks,they need to be stacked,stickered,and dried for about a year.They usually work for some percentage of the finished wood,or charge a fee.

Wood magazine also ran an article about using a shop bandsaw(a large one) to cut small,short sections of tree into planks that still need to be dried,planed flat and to thickness.

also,"green",undried wood is good for lathe turnings.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

It wasn't in the wrong place until somebody built the house too close to it. Just sayin'

Reply to
aemeijers

Making lumber is something you can do yourself, but it is time consuming, labor intensive, and messy. On the other hand, it is grandly rewarding. Here is some info and pictures of some Burr Oak I did:

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Reply to
ed_h

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