re: Early planning

Brian,

Art has given you very good advice. We mill most of our lumber, but we have a portable bandsaw mill come here. We pay an hourly rate which comes out to about 35 cents/board foot so your price is good but green lumber is very heavy and will cost a considerable amount to haul. It also makes for a lot more work, moving the boards multiple times.

From a voice of experience (learned the hard way), DON’T try to dry your wood inside. The humidity level for a large amount of wood will cause your pile to mold and mildew, and the building’s walls can even drip with moisture.

We can buy rough sawn walnut for about $4/board foot here in central Wisconsin. Here’s an example:
30 4/4 SB Walnut 8’ $4.00 Nice Stock
400 4/4 SB Walnut 7’ $4.52 Nice 7’ Walnut
130 4/4 SB Walnut 6’ $3.58 13/16" Clean S2S
90 4/4 SB Black Walnut Sappy 7 $2.00 Sap on the back
12Pcs. 2 1/2" Slabs Black Walnut 14-24" 7-9’ $95-180 Natural edge, Bar Tops, Mantles
When we had an opportunity to mill some walnut on a piece of property about 10 miles from here, after doing the math we decided it wasn’t cost effective.

Sometimes it’s nice to use your own lumber just because of the provenance, especially when it will be heirloom quality! Let us know what you decide.

L/W