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I have gotten the impression that only fir or pine lumber is permitted by code for construction but I don't know where it is spelled out. If this is true is it because store bought lumber can be shown to be officially treated against termites? I had a fire come through my property a few years ago and there are still a few dead Ohia trees standing and laying about. It would not be impossible to get a portable mill and make some lumber out of them. Granted, I understand that douglas fir is truly an excellent building material if you discount rot and termites so I understand I am not going to get better quality material. I could get cheaper (almost free?) material that has a lot of character.
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Doug Fir is well understood for strength in relation to size by engineers, architects and building officials. Many woods are stronger but expensive - oak for example.
I do not believe that termite treated wood is required by the county. Personally I think that wood is the poorest value for the building dollar but so what?
Ohia is stronger than DF but to be accepted the architect or engineer of record needs to sign off on the material. It is legally used, very often, for posts and if you have it is certainly cheap.
Standing dead wood is often difficult to mill. Lumber is usually milled "green". The moisture content acts as a coolant and lubricant for the cutting. Heavy dry wood is hard on the blades.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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We used 2 ohia posts (unmilled) as structural supports in our house. They were identified on the plans by size and how connected to floor and the beam they support.
I also use milled ohia in my cabinet work, but that isn't part of the inspected, permit work.
David
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In my dreams, I am picturing some type of masonry structure for the walls of the house with wood roof framing and steel roof decking. That would minimize the wood and put it up high away from the ground. If I had enough trees of large enough size I would consider trying to mill all the lumber from the trees. I assume that Ohia would not need to be larger than Douglas Fir since it is stronger, although it is also heavier. I am therefor talking about replacing fir 2x4s, 2x6s, 4x8s, etc, with Ohia of the same sizes. Probably totally unrealistic, like so many of my other rather hair-brained ideas, but at least I am looking ahead to what the problems would be. So that is my real question. Without regard for whether I could really come up with all this wood, is it legal to use Ohia as you would DF?
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I've got a couple thousand ohia trees and I want to use the ones I clear for the house to build furniture and cabs with. It's kind of plain, but I think it would be nice to use the trees instead of burning them.
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MarkP, To the best of my knowledge you can use Ohia if your architect specifies so on the plans.
Assume the best and ask questions.
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We originally intended to use ohia posts all along our wrap-around lanai, but then after taking a look at a house located only about a mile away from ours (near Lelani Estates) decided to instead alternate steel-and-concrete columns with ohia posts because of the problem we saw happening to ohia posts in the neighbor's place. Carpenter bees (humongous big things!) have bored holes big enough to stick a finger into through the surfaces of ohia logs and upright column posts on their place. The critters do not stop at the surface, either, but keep on burrowing out a whole deep bunch of tunnels in the wood -like hyperactive winged termites on steroids.
Our contractor says they attack the places where branches were cut off but have a tough time boring in crosswise to ohio woodgrain, and so to seal those branch cuts with some kind of chemical or sealant, but I dunno. We like the aesthetics of the ohia posts and have them ready to hand from when the road was put in, so will use them decoratively for every other post, but the real strength will be coming from the steel-and-concrete uprights. This way if carpenter bees turn the ohia posts into wooden Swiss cheese like over at the neighbor's place then we will just pull 'em out without a structural problem resulting.
Here is a look at these things:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=f1c&resnum=1&q=carpenter%20bees&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
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A pleasant slideshow:
http://www.thejoymovie.com
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Astonishing skill! This archer is a real-life Legolas and then some!
http://geekologie.com/2013/11/real-life-...rs-anc.php
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In a normal instllation it shouldn't be too hard to replace a lanai post later on. Make a jack with a 4x4, and a 2x4, unbolt the old post, jack it up a bit and replace.
Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.
Pua`a
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Big Islander to be.
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Mark
Another observation. I haven't tried nailing ohia as in 2x's etc, but I have to tell ya, I've busted a number of small drill bits drilling pilot holes, broken heads off finish screws and bent and ungodly number of made in china finish nails. Doing conventional framing just might be interesting.
David
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That matches with what I had heard about Ohia being generally hard to work. What were you making out of Ohia? Furniture?
