Where to buy decent timber?

[AndersMalmgren]

There is another issue, for example, råspont does not exist in better than 6 sorting.

 

[oceanis]

Nope, that's not the case, those of us who have been around for a while know that the quality was better in the past. Now the trees are being rushed and that causes them to warp when they come into warmth, and the wood is much softer.

No, there is no way to increase the growth rate as it depends on the growing site and other biological conditions.

It's a price issue what you get and if you choose the building supply stores, they have many times chosen sorted wood V, i.e., kvinta, which is pure construction wood with poor quality and cheap to buy. If you go to the more meticulous timber suppliers, you can choose the quality you want and get wood accordingly.

Choose wood from a sawmill that quarter-saws the timber and find good wood with lots of vertical annual rings, so it doesn't warp. But it costs and must sometimes be ordered in slightly larger quantities.

No one is encouraging fast-growing spruces and pines if you think that; it's due to completely different things

 

[AndersMalmgren]

I have not said that either, but the fact is that the wood being sold today has grown faster, how that is possible I do not know, I do not work in the industry.

 

[AndersMalmgren]

I checked for example with Söder Trä, which is a serious lumberyard, it was the same crap

 

[hantverkare1]

That is a different problem, for example, råspont does not exist in better than 6 sorting

You can get råspont in möbeltorr Bubinga or whatever it's called. It's all about the cost.

 

[mexitegel]

If you want to delve deeper, there is some reading available at http://www.raa.se/publicerat/9789172095854.pdf

 

[mexitegel]

Det har jag inte heller sagt, but the fact is that the wood sold today has grown faster, how it is possible I do not know, I do not work in the industry.

The big difference is that today the forest is harvested when it is significantly younger than before. This means that the proportion of heartwood is smaller and thus less proportion of high-quality timber is obtained per tree.

But the trees have not grown faster for it

From a productive perspective, it is more profitable to do according to modern methods, you get more cubic meters out of the forest that way.

 

[AndersMalmgren]

And wood that warps like bananas Look at a stud from before and a new one, the growth rings are tighter on the old tree

 

[Polyene]

There are several ways to make trees grow faster. Thinning at the right time allows the remaining trees to have more space, nutrients, and sunlight. Planting seedlings with a different provenance, i.e., genetically adapted for another climate, can be another method. One can choose to plant a fast-growing species. In some cases, even fertilization is used.

 

[AndersS]

It actually differs in forestry and it has an impact. There is less old-growth forest, and thinning is done differently. There's also an attempt to harvest earlier and not allow the trees to become sufficiently thick.
But even how the timber is sawed to get more of the demanded dimensions has an impact. This is especially noticeable with spruce. Over time, more refined varieties of species like spruce have been introduced.
The climate also has an effect, depending on whether the timber comes from the southern or northern parts of the country.
However, the biggest shortage is of old densely-grown Norrland pine for fine carpentry.

 

[oceanis]

Whether the timber warps or not does not depend on whether the annual rings are denser or not. It depends on internal stresses due to the fact that the springwood and summerwood have different properties. In principle, you can get timber with very few annual rings to become straight and nice by sawing the log in another manner. But if, as is common today, you block saw and take the side boards as cheap construction timber, they will have horizontal annual rings that cause internal stresses in the wood, unlike the other parts of the log that have more vertical annual rings and thus are less prone to warp.

The best is to buy timber from a sawmill that aims to saw and deliver with exactly vertical annual rings because that way you get what you want, timber that is resistant to both rot and shape stable.

The difference today compared to the past is the sawing technique and how one selected their timber depending on what one intended to use it for. In the past, carpenters selected the boards they wanted and had the knowledge to be able to see the wood's properties based on how it was sawn and had grown, which resulted in good wood being used for construction details and poor-quality wood for forms and other things that were not meant to be permanent.

 

[Forbo]

I grew up in a renovation project, my dad expanded the house in 1987, and back then the timber was much better. You can tell because he's not finished yet, so many studs are still marked blue

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...? If he hasn't managed to complete the extension in 25 years, maybe there's a lesson for you regarding your own behavior?;-)

In all kindness, I'm currently working on finishing an 80 square meter extension that I started in June this summer... with two kids and a full-time job, there are some imperfections that I learn to live with according to the motto "Only I can see it"... but at least I'll be done before the relationship with my wife and kids falls apart. I've built the house we live in now, and if you spend so much time finding perfectly straight wooden studs and running around between building suppliers, not much gets built...

 

[Daniel_N]

Maybe you can buy lumber and plane it? it will be straight.

 

[AndersMalmgren]

My point is mostly that it's not possible to get decent timber for framing, tongue and groove, etc. Making your own isn't really a viable option.

It works if you let the studs stand outside until they are needed, if you bring them inside for an hour, they start to warp

 

[forsåker]

Look for "norrlandsvirke." It has grown more slowly, has denser growth rings and does not warp as much as fast-growing "southern Sweden wood."