Notre Dame and other high buildings

The great point of that idea is that they are then beautifully conditioned and ready to use.

That's amazing! Sometimes the French do astonishingly sensible things.

(Unusual example of a superfluous apostrophe.)

Apparently an Oxford college was looking round for some replacement oak beams when it discovered it owned a small woodland somewhere and there were some 500-year-old trees that had been planted when the college was built, for that purpose.

That's planning ahead.

Owain

At Balmoral, a few years ago, a new wood was planted and the factor (land agent) said harvesting would happen in about 500 year's time.

I think that's actually an example of the durability of chestnut :)

Assuming it's been pollarded (?) and attended to correctly ???

pollarding oaks? I don't think so.

Hence the "?". But I'm sure there's more to providing the timber suitable for such buildings (or the old oak built ships) than leaving a few acres untouched for centuries. So my point stands. If you lose that skill, you've lost the timber.

In message snipped-for-privacy@bancom.co.uk>, tony sayer snipped-for-privacy@bancom.co.uk> writes

Surely you mean hot dipped galvanised?

Painted to protect it from acid and sulphides in rain, that should last for ever. Not totally sure about coated ally, having had two Land Rovers.

'Well we tried to cold dip it, but encountered some resistance'

Galv is good but no hope of it lasting a century, let alone several.

NT

What do you think is going to happen to proper hot dip galvanised struts inside the dry roof space?

condensation.

NT

All I know is that the fabricated steel fittings on our boat were welded up and hot dip galvanised getting on for 35 years ago. They are mostly painted, and show no sign of any corrosion, in spite of it being moored or stored in the open in, often, pretty wild places.

Most of the galvanising was achieved by going to the back gate of the galvanisers and offering cash to anyone who would sneak it in with the next big job. For this reason, I don't know the thickness of the zinc layer.

To be fair, the stainless fabrications have all survived as well, but with some slight rust staining at the bolt holes. The stainless (all 316 ish) came from scrap yards.

A lot of people judge the effectiveness of galvanising by the state of galvanised Iron Sheets on a barn or shed after a couple decades. What has often happened with them was the coating was damaged upon installation by nails banged through them or rough handling exposing the steel underneath. Handled properly it should last a really long time but in a large building it would be inevitable that eventually some tradesmen would drill a hole for a cable,pipe or to fasten something.

GH

Oaks grown close togther are long tall and straight. Oaks grown alone start to branch as soon as they get above deer browse level.

If its beamns you want, cut the low branches off.

Or plant close togther.

For knees, plant alone..

In article snipped-for-privacy@end.of.the.universe>, Bill snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com scribeth thus

Did indeed, stand corrected!..

Dunno re that, was looking at some steelwork been in use 70 years looked mint the steel underneath. They might have better coatings these days anyway!...

This is proper Galvanising around 1959 "ish" around 2:50 in..

The said structure is still sound:)