Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
If our community has helped you, please consider making a contribution to support this website. Thanks!

Water Tanks on Roofs?

Options
13»

Comments

  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 8,926

    they didn’t plant it. It was already there. They just harvested it

    NJ Steam Homeowner.
    See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,500

    My comment is about those who complain that the modern stuff isn't as strong.

    But you can get much stronger in the same amount of time the "old way" got you yellow pine.

    That was my point which I believe Jamie understood judging by his response.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 27,539

    I you're ever in doubt about whether that piece is new or old growth — look at the growth rings. Old growth is much finer — maybe an eighth of an inch, often less. Plantation wood may be a quarter of inch or more.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • AlaskaDick
    AlaskaDick Member Posts: 43

    Wood isn't what it used to be. The structural lumber supplied in these days in the box stores in Anchorage, Alaska is "hem/fir." They have some pine, but it is for trim and comes at a premium price. The 60 to 80 year-old wood that I've removed when remodeling my house was probably pine. It was more dense, had straighter grain and fewer knots and wide 1x boards were common. It smelled like pine when cut.

    From what I've read, redwood was a wood of choice used in underground water mains 100 years ago.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 17,282

    redwood was used as decay resistant wood before pressure treated existed in areas where it was available. cedar was used in areas that didn't have redwood but cedar is much less rot resistant than redwood.

    Mad Dog_2
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 27,539

    And black locust is better than either in terms of rot — if you can get it. Not a common tree.

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • pecmsg
    pecmsg Member Posts: 7,218
    edited May 27

    The Locust posts in my basement were installed in 1922 and still rock hard.

    PC7060
  • jumper
    jumper Member Posts: 2,579

    In the fifties pine was used for window frames because it was hard although coniferous was called soft. At least that's what I remember. White pine was considered junk not worth logging. How stuff changes during one lifetime?

  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 27,759

    The HD I shop at has only “prime lumber” And they cull out any twisted , bowed, cupped, split pieces, spray the end purple and it is on the 50% off cart every morning. After two days it goes into the dumpster. This is a very high volume location with a big budget to right off culls.

    I befriended one of the lumber managers and he gave me a whole cart of lumber that was dumpster bound. It’s fine for bracing and cutting into blocking. Or firewood starter.

    I asked the local mom and pop lumberyard and they said it has to do with box stores enormous buying power.

    So it must be a store buy store lumber quality problem

    I buy the engineered lumber from the locals, LVL, I Joist, GlueLam, Rimboard, etc

    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 17,282

    the closest lumber yards are regional now. when the university will pay $6 million for the property the local lumber yard is on, it is hard for anyone to take it over when the owners want to retire. there is a regional chain that seems to have bought up most of the local lumber yards in the region that has a small warehouse and a storefront here that supplies stuff locally from the other yards but you can't just drive over and buy anything that a lumber yard carries and come home with it the same day from them.

  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 27,759

    In boomtown Utah we have a Boise Cascade distributor close by. I still buy through the small local guy as they deliver the long stuff to my yard.

    My last summer's project, wrestled these 22' I joist into place by myself.

    Screenshot 2026-06-02 at 9.08.54 PM.png
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
    mattmia2
  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 17,282

    i ordered some hardietrim boards and they carried some of them like it was wood or azek and broke a couple which they had to replace.

    what was this thread about?

    PC7060
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,500
    edited June 3

    What really bothers me is a 2x4 (or pick any dimensional lumber) is now 1.5 x 3.5 and plenty of excuses of why.

    There's some in my downstairs bathroom that I believe are 1.75 x 3.75 and then there's a few that are 1.625 x 3.625. 95% of the house is full dimension red cedar 2x4, 2x6 and 2x8, many of which are actually a hair over. I think I measured my rafters as being 2.125 to 2.25 x 6".

    But yeah, it's material needed for planing etc. Sure. Somehow a 1/4" was plenty originally for that excuse, but then it happened two more times, for the same reason.

    I can just imagine if I made a customer's parts undersized with the excuse of I needed material for finishing…… If only we could build gang saws with different dimensions to take all of this into consideration, eh? I guess we can, but only in smaller dimensions.

    /rant.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • mattmia2
    mattmia2 Member Posts: 17,282

    it has been that way for like 55 years. the 5/8 stuff was from sometime around wwii to the late 60's. the 3/4 stuff i think is the first time it was standardized, i think all the random dimensions before that were whatever the local mill felt like cutting. the 3/4 stuff is usually not planed as smooth as the 5/8 or 1/2

  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 17,500

    We all know how important smoothness is for framing lumber and concrete forms.

    Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 27,539

    My son-in-law runs our own saw mill — and planer. What size did you say you wanted? What species wood? Up to 16 feet… and not more than 24" square!

    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
    PC7060mattmia2JUGHNE