Why on earth would you want beams in larch? I can't think of a worse type of wood than larch there since it both twists enormously and cracks very easily.
/Kent
/Kent
For two projects: Outer staircase and greenhouse frame. I have also heard about the extensive moisture movements of larch wood, while the book "Nordic Trees and Wood Species" states that larch has small to moderate movements with moisture changes, and that it is often used for windows in Germany, among other places. However, I have no practical experience, but it seems you do, Snickarboden. Please tell more! Otherwise, I'm leaning towards heart pine...
I would definitely choose heart pine...
The little I've worked with larch has made me refuse to handle it. As mentioned, it twisted quite a bit over a month while it was waiting, and it wasn't freshly sawn. Of course, it can vary with how it is sawn, the wood's direction, etc., but when half a cubic meter in varying dimensions behaves as if it had a life of its own, I get tired of it.
Then I tried to work with it in the workshop, no fun at all...
The resin in the larch gummed up all the cutting edges, so there was quite a bit of cleaning.
Pre-drilling and screwing is a must, larch splits incredibly easily, plus I don't like the splinters you get from it.
It's certainly possible to find larch that's stable, but I'm not competent to do so. I prefer pine that I can assess, plus the feeling of an oily heart pine is very pleasant.
A few years ago, I dismantled a greenhouse from the 1930s-40s...
Built with northern heart pine, and even though it looked terrible in terms of paint, a lot of wood for window frames came from that demolition wood. I've never seen rings so close together, and after a few passes in the planer, the wonderful scent of freshly worked pine spread through the workshop. The wood was like new!
/Kent
The little I've worked with larch has made me refuse to handle it. As mentioned, it twisted quite a bit over a month while it was waiting, and it wasn't freshly sawn. Of course, it can vary with how it is sawn, the wood's direction, etc., but when half a cubic meter in varying dimensions behaves as if it had a life of its own, I get tired of it.
Then I tried to work with it in the workshop, no fun at all...
The resin in the larch gummed up all the cutting edges, so there was quite a bit of cleaning.
Pre-drilling and screwing is a must, larch splits incredibly easily, plus I don't like the splinters you get from it.
It's certainly possible to find larch that's stable, but I'm not competent to do so. I prefer pine that I can assess, plus the feeling of an oily heart pine is very pleasant.
A few years ago, I dismantled a greenhouse from the 1930s-40s...
Built with northern heart pine, and even though it looked terrible in terms of paint, a lot of wood for window frames came from that demolition wood. I've never seen rings so close together, and after a few passes in the planer, the wonderful scent of freshly worked pine spread through the workshop. The wood was like new!
/Kent
Saw that Beijer posted a price list for kärnfuru, from Setra Group I assume: http://www.beijerbygg.se/templates/BB_ProduktListing.aspx?id=42641