igor wrote:

On Wed, 26 Jan 2005 12:09:55 -0600, Duane Bozarth
wrote:

igor wrote:

I thought that the SYP that was used in old flooring (maybe 75-125 years
ago) is no longer commercially available except as recycled? (I have some
in my 90 year old house.) Is that species still being cut? -- Igor

Oh, lordy, yes...almost all pressure-treated is SYP....it is now farmed
commercially in all the SE.

And it was used (and still is although not presently as popular) for
flooring, siding, etc.

I've even seen some as moulding in the Borg since white pine and similar
species are now so expensive.

Interesting. That may mean that 20 years ago when I did a renovation and
needed a 12" x 9' strip worth of SYP to match my existing floor that I was
taken -- they said they had to use recycled SYP. Material cost was $17/sq
ft. IIRC. It does match well. -- Igor

To get a precise match to old virgin growth, yes...

There's precious little of that left, just as there are few stands of
eastern hardwoods. But, by judicial selection, you could probably have
gotten almost as near a match from a recent selection that would in a
relatively short period of time be virtually indistinguishable.

What's really hard to match is the finer grain more typical of
old-growth as so much now is commercially grown w/ added nutrients,
etc., so that growth is much faster. This promotes larger growth ring
spacing and somewhat softer lumber.

The other thing is, of course, just like w/ other lumber, the size of
trees when harvested are no longer near what the old-growth timber was.
Our barn dates back to just after WWI w/ all framing SYP. There are any
number of 2x8 and larger of 16 to 20 ft lengths w/o a knot in them. Now
you couldn't find an 8 ft 2x4.

(As a comparison, in the early 60s we built a set of grain bins and a
small feed mill in the back corner of this same barn. There's still
some left over framing from that in the haymow. It was Doug fir, not
SYP, but there are about 20 pieces of 20-ft 2x6's of which only one has
a knot....I hate to think what it would take to buy that material now...