Oak or ash for casing and baseboard or what else?
jonp9576
| Posted in General Discussion on
We’re building a house and we have to take down a few trees on the lot first. There are a few oak and ash trees. All over 24” in diameter. I’d like to get this wood milled and use some of it in the new house. I have very little skill with woodworking. I was thinking I could make some of the open kitchen shelving that my wife wants. We were also considering using the wood for the door casing and baseboards. It’s going to be painted white. Is it a waste of wood to use it if we’re just going to paint it? We’re also looking for ways to incorporate more of this wood. Possibly having some mud room cubbies built. And some eventual built in book cases. Other ideas would be appreciated.
Replies
Look at the cost to kiln dry it, then mill it, and all the transportation between kiln/milling --and then installing-- You may find that the beautiful wood will require a lot of work. Shelves and accent pieces -I would say: go for it-- get the widest boards and make something beautiful with the help of a carpenter that understands these are legacy pieces from "witness trees" that have witnessed the land and its changes; I have fallen victim to this logic and probably worked for damn near free. Good luck, and I hope to see beautiful well, crafted work.
-AR Hirsch
Nashville, TN
Don't paint it. Give it to someone that will appreciate the wood
I'm a hobbyist woodworker, I will warn you that milling, drying, rough cutting, re-milling, shaping, sanding, fitting, nailing, and finishing casework is more than almost anyone with sanity would do. There are some good YouTube videos (e.g. Matthias Wandel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDb6Ibsko6Q) on making baseboards. He used rough cut oak. You can see how much work it is for an expert woodworker to do. The components in and of themselves are not super challenging ; it's a big endeavor simply because of the volume and consistency required to do it correctly.
Unless you're gung-ho to turn trees into trim and moulding as thing in itself, I recommend you to just save up and buy by the linear foot. By the time you've bought all the machines and figured out your systems, you'll have spent a boat load (likely more than you otherwise would have spent), not to mention the painstaking and repetitive time and effort put into it.
Red oak and ash are open grain woods, which makes them a poor choice for paint without a lot of prep. As others have said, along with the "sin" of covering up hardwood with paint, by the time you factor in the time and expense of getting it ready to use it might be cheaper to buy poplar, which makes great millwork. I say this as someone who has a sawmill, and all the necessary machines to turn my own ash and oak from my trees into lumber. One suggestion might be to have the trees milled and stacked to air dry, and then sometime down the road turn some of it into furniture. If the oak is white oak you could make some nice outdoor furniture.
Thanks for the input everyone. I have a local guy with a portable mill. His prices were great. And I have some garage space at work to stack and air dry everything. Maybe the time it takes to air dry will let me get past the “I have to use these trees during construction.” Hopefully I can put them to good use or at least sell them to cover the cost of the milling so someone else can use them.