IKE: Need to find sawmiller in Houston area

[Phil Gabbard]

All - Hurricane Ike has kicked my butt (and my dad's too, as he had 16" of water in his shop and all of his old 1930's classic ship building tools happened to have been in tool boxes on the floor...). However, I have scored a beautiful 8' x 30" mesquite trunk from a good neighbor's misfortune and am needing to get it milled as soon as I can. Anyone out there in the Houston area that can handle this? I hope to have it trailered in the next few days. Will pay a fair rate or can share some wood from it if you rather. Thanks!

[Dave Lehnert]

I have been told by many if you call woodmizer.com they will give you a name and number of a person in your area. Most will mill it at the location of the tree. I have a friend doing that very thing this week. Ike hit Cincinnati too. What a mess of trees and downed power lines.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Phil, if you will go to the Woodweb website and in the left hand column find sawing and drying directory under resources. A number of sawmills are shown in Texas; if you will call one in the Houston area they may well be able to tell you of any close to you that are not listed. I imagine they are all pretty busy right now. If you can't get the mesquite milled right away no biggie. It can sit for months with maybe only a little color degrade and little to no checking. We milled one about the size of yours that had been standing dead for over twenty years (really) and aside from the color degrade the wood was fine. We also took one out about five years ago just off the parking lot of where I used to work and the trunk was cut as flush to the ground as we could get it (a 32" trunk). To this day aside from losing the color that trunk has yet to show any evidence of rot. Also be advised that if it is a yard tree more likely than not it will have hardware in it and you may be liable for any ruined blades (depends on the sawyer's policy). We'd love to do it for you but I'm afraid we're just too far away.

[lowell holmes]

Contact M&G Sawmill in Huntsville Texas. They may be able to help.

[David Giles]

Phil,
Do you or your dad need any help? We've been clearing out flooded houses for the last week, but pretty much have everyone dry at this point. Church folks are joking that I'm Extreme Home Makeover in reverse. Give me your house for two days and you won't recognize it!

You can store your stuff on my garage. And we have a travel trailer if you need it.

[Phil Gabbard]

Thanks for the offer, David. Dad is in Dallas with my sister for the foreseeable future, we got the carpet out of his house, and I am in the process of drying-out the shop as best I can. Removed a 34" Ash in the front yard without a twig hitting the roof! I will just do a bit at a time in the shop as I try to clean and pack everything for his permanent move to Dallas in November (probably). When it comes time to move the big stuff I may give you a call! For now, I'll take it a step at a time. You wouldn't believe the poundage of bronze and brass screws and bolts he ended up with after building subchasers in the Seabrook shipyard in 1940 or so! Not to mention the old Stanley planes, ship augers, and the biggest flat chisel I have ever seen. Anyway, thanks. By the way, we drove thru El Lago the day after the hurricane passed through and it was truly spooky with all of the trees down. Did you all fare OK??

[alex grams]

http://houston.craigslist.org/grd/843051818.html

Hope this helps.