Hello,

The painted frieze board on my 1908 house is a 1x16 (3/4" x 15 1/2"),
presumably old growth douglas fir, since all the other architectural
elements of my house are douglas fir. I've been debating removing the
frieze board when I reside and resheath the house, in order to provide
full exterior access to insulate the wall cavities.

So my question is whether old growth douglar fir 1x16 is something
fairly valuable, and perhaps it is worth removing just to be able to
salvage it? I am planning on redoing my kitchen and making my own
cabinets, and I expect that even though it is probably not vertical
grain, it would still make nice face frames and doors.

Thanks, Wayne

"Wayne Whitney" wrote in message
. ..
Hello,

The painted frieze board on my 1908 house is a 1x16 (3/4" x 15 1/2"),
presumably old growth douglas fir, since all the other architectural
elements of my house are douglas fir. I've been debating removing the
frieze board when I reside and resheath the house, in order to provide
full exterior access to insulate the wall cavities.

So my question is whether old growth douglar fir 1x16 is something
fairly valuable, and perhaps it is worth removing just to be able to
salvage it? I am planning on redoing my kitchen and making my own
cabinets, and I expect that even though it is probably not vertical
grain, it would still make nice face frames and doors.

Thanks, Wayne


Absolutely!

I recently demolished an addition on a 1870's victorian home to make way
for a new addition and it also had much exterior doug fir trim. The roof
sheathing was 1x 12 to 1x23 wide boards and the rafters were 4x6 white oak.
I thought I'd hit the mother lode and could stock my wood pile up for the
next few years. Unfortunately, I really wasn't able to salvage much. After
removing most of it, the paint was so thick, it would have taken a LONG time
to remove (and there was no way it was going through my planer!) The roof
decking was terribly warped and cracked after removing, not to mention the
damage from removing it, and the rafters were soooo bowed, they could not be
used for anything longer than couple of feet. It was all assembled with the
old cut nails, and these nails don't pull out easily, but rather they break
off in the wood, and are hard to find until a blade hits them. I'm not
trying to persuade you against salvaging the wood, just know that much of it
may not be salvagable after it's removed. Hope you have better luck than I
did! --dave


"Wayne Whitney" wrote in message
. ..
Hello,

The painted frieze board on my 1908 house is a 1x16 (3/4" x 15 1/2"),
presumably old growth douglas fir, since all the other architectural
elements of my house are douglas fir. I've been debating removing the
frieze board when I reside and resheath the house, in order to provide
full exterior access to insulate the wall cavities.

So my question is whether old growth douglar fir 1x16 is something
fairly valuable, and perhaps it is worth removing just to be able to
salvage it? I am planning on redoing my kitchen and making my own
cabinets, and I expect that even though it is probably not vertical
grain, it would still make nice face frames and doors.

Thanks, Wayne

Snip...

I'm not
trying to persuade you against salvaging the wood, just know that much of
it
may not be salvagable after it's removed. Hope you have better luck than
I
did! --dave


That echos my experience.

I reclaimed some lumber from a post an beam addition that was demolished.
The reclaimed timers were (full) 4 x 6. My experience was ver similar...
lots of waste and lots of work to clean up and dig out all the nails. Even
then, my proposed project was rustic so I could tolerate plenty of flaws. My
motivation was partially sentimental.

I would probably never try that simply to save a few $$ unless the wood were
really extraordianry.

YMMV

Steve