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J. Tabordiy wrote:Hi
we are currently experimenting with building a small roudwood timberframed house with timber from invasive species (acacia dealbata and eucalyptus)... you can see some pictures (stil have to update that post, though): https://permies.com/t/43534/timber/Ruin-structure-sketch-Roundwood-tiny
till now we didn't treat them with anything, initially the endings of the beams cracked a lot, so we lost about a meter on each side of the timbers we cut, till we read about sealing the open grain endings, we used beeswax+linseed oil, now we immediately seal them just after cutting and haven't had any cracks since...
our idea is to letting the beams dry on place (like these constructors: http://www.timberframe1.com/timber-frame-wood-species) but we are taking 2 years since cutting the first beam to build, so most of them are already pretty more than half air-dry
unfortunatly we didn't have any rainproof place to store them (and for a while we did the mistake of keeping them under a non-waterproof plastic tarp so they would not heat up under summer's sun) so a lot of mildew grew on the outside of the beams, we drawknifed and sanded it out before placing the beams, we will coat the all beam with linseed oil+terbentine when the roof is ready, and plan on reapply (on the accessible places) again later... a lot of mildew (i think it's this, a kind of green mold very superficial) regrew because of last week rain
researching on australian websites i've found references to using eucalyptus and acacias for timberframing
but it's a very hard to work wood, the fibers grow a bit spiral, so it's very slow to make timberframing connections, like tenons and mortises, eucalyptus wood doesn't behave as you see on youtube videos where they use oak or other construction wood where the grain/fibers are straighter so it's easy (and fast) to chisel out mortises...
but i completely support taking down eucalyptus for anyreason anyway...so go for it...
Andrew Gates wrote:Hi all
We're in Portugal getting slowly setup, sorted and learning.
At the moment I'm dreaming of a Simon Dale-esque roundwood framed, earth sheltered house and I'm wondering about the possibility of using eucalyptus to build with (our location in Central Portugal is covered in the stuff). Does anyone know if eucalyptus is viable for something like this? I'm having trouble finding the info.
Thanks
Andy