To Mill or Not to Mill?

In the previous blog “guardians of the forest” we shared our approach to forest management as we prepped the land for our future home. Another consideration we explored prior to the harvest was whether it made sense to use our own trees to build the house. We envisioned ourselves walking into a home with beams made directly from the old growth white pine, or floor boards cut from black oak trees harvested directly from our land. They were very nice thoughts reminiscent of old homesteads with hand hued timbers from the land. We were also excited about the possibility that by using our own trees we’d save on overall costs, especially given the record highs for the price of lumber due to supply and demand during the Pandemic. 

With these lofty goals in mind we began reaching out to local milling and timber frame companies alike, exploring options and attempting to find the perfect match between a builder and a milling company. It wasn’t easy. Milling and Grade Stamping are needed in order to certify timber before it can be used for construction purposes. While many milling companies do this, building companies won’t necessarily use the stamped timber from milling companies due to specific structural needs or pre-existing partnerships that already certify and stamp the lumber for said company. Ironically, we also could not find a local timber framing company who purchased their lumber -locally; again most had existing partnerships as well as specific tree species or grade stamping requirements/specifications pre-determined for their buildings.

I found one company who took the time to walk through the process and cost associated with buying one off from an individual. They highlighted that it would likely cost us more to use our own lumber based on the aforementioned considerations, not to mention the additional time involved on our end.

So, was it worth it to use the lumber from our trees to build our home? No. It was a nice thought, quick lived, but led us to more learning and also gave us the opportunity to begin exploring alternative building ideas and another rabbit hole to jump into.