My father-in-law is planning on building a house himself using wood off his own concession, mostly poplar and spruce. He would do most of framing but hire subcontractors for foundation, plumbing, hydro, etc. Legally can he do this? doesnt the wood need to be stamped/certified? What issues would he have doing this? Would the banks even mortgage him for the rest of his materials/subcontractor work?
Building house using wood from lot....
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In most areas I have ever heard of, all framing lumber and sheathing must be grade certified and stamped for that purpose. Locally sawed lumber could be used for siding, non-structural elements and interior finishes.
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In conjunction with what the Termite posted, in my previous post I did not mean to imply you should use the wood green even for non-structural purposes. The wood should be dried (air or kiln) before use.
I used some green local lumber as board siding on a shed I built years ago. After about a year there were gaps between the boards(that I had installed butted tight) of up to an inch and a quarter. I install battens (out of the same source green lumber ) to cover the shrinkage.
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If the mill that saws it is certified to grade stamp it and can kiln dry it, I see no reason why he couldn't. He might be better off to sell it as whole logs to a mill and then buy dimensional lumber. It will probably be cheaper than culling through all of the junk that he's paid to have sawed. After drying, he would still need to have it surfaced or at least resawed, before he could use it.
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