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Captn
03-30-2010, 04:58 PM
Is Loblolly pine an exceptable material for log home building?
StressMan79
03-30-2010, 06:07 PM
1) cheap/free
2) big/long enough
3) straight enough
4) slow growth enough (ring size acceptable)
5) you make sure spans are OK, may not be the strongest species out there
6) you keep it dry (read big overhangs and keep it off the ground a foot and a half or so.
Do you think a pioneer would have wondered if a tree would make a good house? I'll bet he'd use what he had and compensate for any shortcomings in the material.
greenthumb
03-30-2010, 06:30 PM
Acceptable? Yes! It's one of the best trees available in the south to build with.
I'll only disagree with Peter on one point- it is a very strong wood, one of the strongest in the group Southern Yellow Pine, and comparable to Douglas Fir. I don't think growth ring count matters too much on loblolly either as the protective late wood rings are much thicker and more dense than in other species.
Keeping it dry is essential in any southern setting with almost any type of wood- but that is all covered in class.
bmurphy96
03-31-2010, 09:20 AM
Captn,
We are building with syp (southern yellow pine). Most of it is loblolly, with some slash mixed in to fill things out. Would I do it again? Yes, if I needed to do so. There is nothing structurally wrong with it. And there are no span issues that I am aware of. We use a 32 foot girder that is hmm..14" at the butt end and probably 11" at the tip with one support log in the middle with no problem. Yes, it does grow fast to begin with which isn't ideal, but you aren't going to be using 5 year old trees.
For our next house I might go with cypress if I can get some, but I could certainly be persuaded to use longleaf or loblolly if I had the right logs. It's all about using what you have access too.
keith
StressMan79
03-31-2010, 09:47 AM
I am not familiar with southern pines. I do know that SYP is fine, but didn't know that included Lobolly. Yes, SYP is fine to build with, so long as the other caveats are taken care of.

-Peter
bmurphy96
03-31-2010, 10:03 AM
There's a number of them. Four main ones: slash, Loblolly, shortleaf and longleaf. In my opinion loblolly and longleaf are the two best.
http://www.southernpine.com/expert/index.pl?leafcode=23
keith