What I did at my house today...

[Willa]

I would seriously question the the skills of your carpenter if he isn't able to make a new sill up I don't think you have a carpenter there.

The sill is approximately 8" thick. It's not like Home Depot, etc. even stocks lumber which is appropriate. If I need several(which I do), a mill will be able to make them much more uniform than a carpenter working one by one. The carpenter would need to cut the milled wood down to size, and create the tails to fit them in sill opening.

I can send you the measurements, and you can try your hand at making one for me, though, Phil ?

Again, this comes down to finding a person with the skills and experience to deal with this - which isn't rocket science but has specific, finicky measurements and fitting to contend with. If I called 10 local carpenters, 10 of them would tell me to replace the window with a new vinyl one, plunk in some improperly fitting probably non wood sill and tell me how this is a vast improvement. Plus tell me that the labour alone for such an arduous task would be something ridiculous where they are making like $ 400.00/hr.

Experienced carpenter, who has years in the trades, who also taught trades in colleges, says he will have to look around for a mill who can do this.

[phil]

If you can send a drawing yes I could make it or have it made for me. I'd want a drawing with any details you want including species. You could go look for a fir 10x10 to start with , but what I'd consider is to just use smaller dimension lumber and do a glue up with waterproof glue. I think greyhound would ship it. See what pricing you are getting out there on it. Don't get gouged on this.
the reason I would use smaller lumber and do a glue up is because youll have trouble finding a fine grained 10 x 10 that isn't going to shrink and crack. I think it would be more stable that way but I have some connections and can get some clarification.

[phil]

you could check craigslist out there Willa, first you need the wood. look for any barns being taken down or small mills that will custom mill new stuff.
giant beams tend to crack. If you can get old lumber like from a barn you might be able to cut it down to your size. I'd suggest opting for something like this pile on sunshine coast. it needs to be dry then planed then glued up to your final dimension. the shipping is probably too prohibitive from here but you could check your pricing locally and compare. You could consider using something like paralam as well , or boards such as ones with small knots, stains etc in the interior of the glue up so you wont' see it. If you want perfect lumber like the pile shown on sunshine coast you have to pay a premium for the higher grade. since it is to be painted and not seen you might be able to save some cost.

the other thing to watch for is how dry it is. beams take about a year per inch to dry that increases cost too. You could buy a load of lumber and sticker and stack it and wait until the moisture level is acceptable for use. If you use big beams that are green you will see cracks develop. if you dry the lumber what you do is buy it as a larger dimension in it's rough cut state, allow it to dry then when it's stable you can joint and plane it to size and do your glue ups.

if it were me and I wanted to do a lot of this I'd buy the wood rough sawn and dry it , then worry about using it. its' cheaper that way.

If you go to a lumberyard and try to buy knot free straight grained lumber, if it's perfect it's expensive. that lumber is graded so they will select out the more perfect boards and sell them at a premium. If you go to a smaller mill then they wont; have the same resources to grade the lumber so the pile will likely contain a range of quality. You can save the ones that are really nice for interior trim and such and use the rougher stuff where it doesn't show.

forget home depot, they aren't a lumberyard or a lumber retailer, you could talk to suppliers that cater to cabinetmakers and such , they will sell rough sawn lumber in loads. also check real lumberyards. You really have to look at the lumber to see what you are getting. you may find that if you watch the inventory you will notice sometimes they have better stuff. feel the ends and have a look to see if they are damp. this is a good time to buy lumber because it's end of summer so it's dryer than if you go when its rainy.

here's an example of a local hardwood supplier, this isnt; a box store, they cater to industry not homeowners.
https://www.naturallywood.com/resources ... -hardwoods


If you are nice sometimes lumberyards will let you pick through the load for nice ones. try going when they arent' busy and you may get better cooperation. I sometimes just find a yard guy and say I'm looking for some nicer ones for a special project so I'm going to pick the load but I promise Ill leave it neat as I found it.. then they leave me alone and let me re-pile it at will or even help.

If you can get old seasoned wood from an old barn then you can see where it cracked and perhaps cut around the cracks. some places are sourcing lumber from old buildings and re-milling it , they might be a good source. if it's stored well it might be perfectly fine , stable from aging, and ready to use. If it's got nails and stuff in it then you have to consider if the person doing the work is going to want ot cut it. they might not want to hit rocks and sand and nails with their planer knives or the person selling the barn wood might have a little bandsaw mill and be happy to provide your rough cut dimensions.

you could also consider using Parallam. they grind up the fibers and re-constitute it with glue and pressure. this results in huge beams that are more predictable than raw lumber and you could laminate your new lumber to that where it shows. you might have to check it's suitability if it is seeing outside exposure. I see them sometimes for free because they can be huge and heavy. you might need a chainsaw or a flatdeck with hiab to move it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_strand_lumber

https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/bnc/mat ... 41979.html


https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/pml/mat ... 41051.html

https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/mat ... 49673.html

If you hire someone to make you beams up you are putting the onus on them to provide the lumber. I'd do it the other way.. get the lumber, make sure it's suitable , buy 30% or so more than you predict to account for waste, you'll get a better price per board foot. Now when you talk to the person you hire to trim it or do glue ups you are bargaining on labor only and not the product cost.

if you walk in there and say you want this material in two weeks they are going to have to buy lumber that is suitable for use straight away and pay a higher price per board foot. you can probably pay something like 2 bucks a board foot. if you go buy premium stuff the sky is the limit.

I'd try to work ahead and decide what you are doing , how much lumber you need, buy it ahead of time. you could consider a car tent with a fan to dry it in or stack it neatly in the basement and use it as you go. you could easily cover up the mess you ave there with some tin and nails for now.
.
this is a good example of how design and maintenence caused a large member to rot. Size isn't everything Why is the beam so big , is that bulk really needed for structure? obviously it isn't holding much if you can stick a screwdriver through it. What if it were hollow? could it be replaced by a box?

[Willa]

you could check craigslist out there Willa, first you need the wood. look for any barns being taken down or small mills that will custom mill new stuff.

Hey Phil - see my post about the rotten sills. The carpenter went to Hoffmeyer's mill, who can make exactly what I need for a reasonable price, and a decent timeline, too. Hoffmeyer's has white pine - which they recommend being treated with a preservative, then primed before the sill is installed. They also have some kind of extra hard wood from New Zealand, which is 3x the price, and even takes them three times as long to cut, as it is so hard.

Since I removed the storm windows, I have started stripping the paint, and black pitch caulk-like stuff around the dining room windows. Since it is mostly flat, the heat stripping goes so much faster than the porch detail. The old paint seems to have been a black-green on the frames, with an rust-ocre on the sash which was followed by a brighter malachite green, then the tan paint that is everywhere on the windows and trim. I will have to make some DIY interior storms for these windows before winter sets in, as they are exposed to the north wind. The windows look so much better without the crummy aluminum storm windows. (Note plastic stapled on to protect rotten sills)

_DSC0022.JPG (1.63 MiB) Viewed 319 times

[phil]

It looks like you are making some nice progress Willa. cute little helper you got there too;-)
white pine with wood preservative painted on it isn't going to last another 100 years, but I don't think I will either

the ironwoods ( woods that won't float) here it a list here. I'm not familiar with them all. you might have troubles sticking paint to it as it may have a sort of greasiness. yea it's super hard wood, the saw will cut it so what if you ave to go a little slower. It's nice stuff. but in general these are very long lasting great rot resistance. It sounds like he's giving you the two extremes. I'd try to use fir. i wouldn't even build a fence with pine. rots too fast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironwood# ... s_involved

[Texas_Ranger]

In all honesty I'm amazed they'd put wooden sills into a brick house! I'm fairly sure around here the sills would be stone or concrete and only the actual window frame wood. Or, even more commonly, the sill would just be galvanised flashing up to the window frame.

[Willa]

In all honesty I'm amazed they'd put wooden sills into a brick house! I'm fairly sure around here the sills would be stone or concrete and only the actual window frame wood. Or, even more commonly, the sill would just be galvanised flashing up to the window frame.

That is the way it was done with brick houses in southern Ontario. Some of the finer, larger homes of this era/area have stone sills, but most modest homes have wood.

With the colonization of North America, they used wood like it was going out of style.

It is also regional. In areas with quarry activity you see stone houses, related to the local quarry. Areas that had clay thus brickmakers have lots of brick buildings. The style and construction and even window proportion of my modest house is very different from the next largest community an hour or so away, even though the houses were built at the same time.

[oaktree]

I found a pretty great cast iron porch fixture!

[Manalto]

You sure did!

[Lily left the valley]

I found a pretty great cast iron porch fixture!

Love the globe detail.