Ok I have a sort of silly question. I have a barn built in the 60s that needs massive repairs. The north and west wall are basically gone. The space is about 50 x 50 feet square and the wall is 20 feet high. I showed my Forrester a while back and he said no problem I know about what you will need for logs. Well today he called asking how many board feet I want.
My goal is to do vertical barn board like the old barns from centuries back. 2 layers to overlap the cracks. My question and I am guessing there might not be one answer is how thick do the boards want to be? I thought they use two layers one 1 inch the other half an inch but looking at my old barn I can’t quickly tell because the boards are old with a lot of repairs so I am not sure what the original boards where.
Mine on my house are about 1x10’s. When planned down they come out 91/2wide. My batten boards are 21/2 wide,probably sawed at 3x1. I suppose with it just being for a barn, you won’t have it plained. Mine are plained on three sides so the part that shows is still rough sawed. It will rely on your sawyer to saw them all consistent if you aren’t plaining them.
I used white pine and absolutely loved it. I could place nails right up to the edge and they never split off. Good luck. ( that is called “batt and board” siding) TomC
Ok I’ll bite… 50+50=100ftx12"=1200"÷10"widths=120 120runsx20ft per run =2400 linear ft of 1x10 boards and 2400 ln ft of your batten material
Add 5 to 10 percent for wastage…
So board and batten is usually measured in linear ft not board ft around here but in board ft it should be 2400 ln ft of 1x10 = 2400x10/12= 2000 board ft plus wastage. It get a little more fuzzy when you start using milled material that varies in width so add extra wastage. Anyone feel free to check my math…
Cheers, David
Thanks guys. I will be sawing it all out myself this will be my first project with the mill I bought a few years back. I actually bought it for this project and just haven’t gotten to it yet. The wood lot is managed by a Forrester and he asked me how many board feet I needed. I will be using low grade white pine for the siding and red pine for the structural repairs. I was not planing on planing any of it as it is just and old pole barn I figured my band saw mill will leave a good enough edge and if I don’t get them perfect width wise that will be ok. I do get that it might make it a little tricky putting it up but nothing else in this old barn is square… actually I have been pretty impressed with the stuff other people have sawed on a band saw mill.
I always sawed barn boards 7/8". In other words the saw kerf came out of the board.
Hi Dan, if the wood is still green, butt the boards up tight, nail your bates on one side only, allow it to shrink, then nail the other side.