redwood framing in 70-year-old house

[old dirtbeard]

I'm having some plumbing problems (in another thread), but over the last couple days, I have spent some time on my back in the crawl space of my 70-year-old Los Angeles house with a good lantern, when I made a realization.

This house apparently is totally framed in redwood. I knew that the window sills were redwood, but as I crawl under/through this post and beam construction, it appears to be all redwood (beams, joists, studs, etc.)

We have termites here in Southern California, and I suppose this is why they used redwood. Everything seems rather rough hewn, and oversized, but I am curious as to whether this was common practice, or whether this house is an anomaly?

best,

doug

[ameijers]

Don't know how common it was, but there was a time when redwood was cheap and we thought the supply would last forever. As a kid in Indiana, we used to routinely use clear-grain redwood for outside trim, even under paint, just because it handled weather so well. I could cry thinking about all the leftovers I used to throw on the burnpile. Who knew? The stuff is like gold now, even the finger-jointed stuff.

You should send pictures of the bottom of your house to This Old House magazine/show, in case they ever do another California project. They love little historical sidebars like that. They could probably also answer your question about how common it was.

aem sends....

[Who Me?]

California is the state where most if not all redwood trees are (or were). So, I don't doubt it..... In those days they used the local resources, because there was no Home Depot to shop at.

[Tom Young]

My house in Berkeley was built in 1904 -- hard, dense redwood for all the framing, measuring 2 actual inches thick. The floorboards are all quartersawn pine or fir. The house isn't exactly a palace, but it seems even the crackerboxes were built sturdy, back then.

-Tom

[MSH]

San Francisco was re-built with redwood after the 1907 earthquake. Easily accessible from just down the road, redwood is one of the most sustainable woods around, if not the ideal framing timber(by today's standards).

[Mari]

replying to old dirtbeard, Mari wrote: My San Diego home, built in 1956 in the mid-century modern style, while small at

867 sq ft is solidly built completely out of redwood. In the crawl space, the wood looks just a few years old. Amazing really. No way could you build a house for under $400 per sq ft today if you used redwood, but I guess it was done, at least in CA back then.

[Thumper36t]

replying to ameijers, Thumper36t wrote: Indeed it was used to build most of my area of Bakersfield CA in the 40s which is anything but glamorous! Roughly 900 said ft close to the oil patch...very common in those days. Redwood is thought to be off a termites menu I hear. Well I can assure you one leak in the roof and kiss your redwood goodbye! Looks like red swiss cheese...FML

[Thumper365]

replying to Mari, Thumper365 wrote: Indeed it was used to build most of my area of Bakersfield CA in the 40s which is anything but glamorous! Roughly 900 said ft close to the oil patch...very common in those days. Redwood is thought to be off a termites menu I hear. Well I can assure you one leak in the roof and kiss your redwood goodbye! Looks like red swiss cheese...FML

[jay]

Cliff May used redwood for the board and batten siding on all his mid century ranchos in Long Beach, Vista, Pomona, and other developments. When we needed to paint our 1955 Cliff May, we found it was easier to remove and flip the boards rather than scraping away years of paint. They was like new underneath.

[Lee]

wow that is so interesting. you literally removed the exterior board and batten and reinstalled it paint-side-in and exposed the raw redwood and painted that? I have a 1950 redo project coming up in L.A. and hadn't thought of that.