Lumber

[rusty]

Wow, talk about "off topic". Goodbye. No sense posting here.,

 

[Caribou]

Wow, talk about "off topic". Goodbye. No sense posting here.,

Sorry, no offense meant. When you start talking about a poor quality product discussing options seems to be a natural progression.

 

[TMT Tactical]

We put liners in our cisterns. The wood cisterns are a constant battle. Concrete can settle and crack or have air that didn't get vibrated out. Aluminum will eventually get pinholes in it and I don't want to drink out of an aluminum tank anyway. We use Hypalon liners and have them custom made. They last for many years. Another option is to build the cistern the same size as an above ground swimming pool and buy one of those liners.

It is nice to clean out the cistern every five or ten years so having at least two is really nice so you don't have to be without water.

Caribou, I really like the idea of the pool liner. I had not thought of that concept. The current design is to have 4 cisterns inter linked but can be isolated and emptied without losing water or having to do without water. Each cistern will have clean out access (2 x 4 covered opening). I had planned to seal the concrete with an elastic type sealer but was worried about chemical contamination, the pool liners would solve that problem. Great suggestion. Thank you. My son had suggested using the same material used in truck bed liners to seal the concrete, so now I can find the best flexible (concrete shift / cracking sealant and not have to worry about the chemical problems. Install a simple water sensor at the bottom of the cistern, between the the wall and the liner and I will know if there is a leak in the liner and can empty that cell. Super, thanks a bunch.

 

[TMT Tactical]

Wow, talk about "off topic". Goodbye. No sense posting here.,

Rusty you have my apology, I did move the thread off topic with my shift to steel studs vs. wood. Then it shifted again to concrete and then into ballistic concrete. I do not know what more can be stated about the poor quality of commercial grade wood, it is what it is. Maybe some folks are fortunate to live close to a lumber mill and can spec out and pick up their lumber order but most of us folks have to deal with the big box store and what they stock (poor grade lumber). Did not mean to move off topic.

 

[viking]

I have one lumber supplier that I have consistently gotten straight quality lumber from for many years, it's Farmers Building Supply in Grants Pass, Oregon. There are a few other good places but a lot of the big box stores have some really bad lumber, stuff that looks like a propellers. One of the problems we have with getting good lumber is that most is made from cants, small diameter logs that are full of knots and so full of water that they give you a hernia lifting them. I see local contractors building expensive homes with this crap, stuff I'd be ashamed to use, I can just imagine the cracks showing up in the sheetrock when the lumber dries out. I will say that over the years I've bought very good hardwoods, like oak and poplar and the excellent softwood clear pine which makes great shelves and vertical blind valences from Lowe's and sometimes from Home Depot. I have used oak for window and door moldings in our home, but over the last few years Oregon has closed down the mills that were making the moldings and now the moldings all come from the eastern US and some moldings are getting really hard to get and sometimes impossible. It's even getting hard to get oak surfaced doors unless I order them and a few years back one could find them in stock. It makes me glad that I have most of the oak work done.

 

[joel]

I have not used much lumber this year, just a few post.

 

[Meerkat]

Wow, talk about "off topic". Goodbye. No sense posting here.,

Hello, is better than goodbye, come back Rusty. We use mostly utility pine studs but those are all we need for our projects.
We did buy maple for cutting board and cedar for siding though.