Live Oak lumber

[Ben Abate]

Hello All

i have a question for anyone that is familiar with Live Oak Lumber. This never came to mind when I owned a vacation home in Myrtle Beach but when recently visiting Savannah Ga i was asked a question about Live Oak Lumber and it’s characteristics. I couldn’t answer his question.
so I thought I’d ask here to see what are the characteristics of Live Oak when used for Woodworking or flooring. Or are the trees so protected that there is not much lumber available

I also noticed in a few buildings the flooring was a type of oak that I did not recognize. One building was a golf club in Hilton Head The floors looked like a fumed white oak but I don’t think it was. Both times when I saw this flooring I noticed the dark streaks in it similar to wind shake you see in cherry. Beautiful flooring in fact I liked it so much I’d consider using when we remodel our kitchen and living area later this yr or next yr. I asked around but folks looked at me like I was a bit nuts. I should have taken pictures

thank you for your help

[Bradley Gray]

I was in SC visiting my uncle a few years ago and admired the live oaks in Savannah and Buford. I recall the trees being seriously protected. I think permission was needed to cut a limb over a certain size, maybe 6"?

[Richard Hash]

It's definitely not "protected" at least not anywhere near where I live (20 miles south of Houston). They are very abundant and I see them being cut down all the time as they are frequently planted between sidewalks and roads and then cut down 25 years later as they start tearing up both sidewalks and roads (hey, what are my tax dollars for anyway?). Super common yard tree, volunteers will grow under any tree producing acorns (which they do by the multiple-thousands).

I like live oak alot, most of what I've used has interlocking grain which I find interesting visually, though air dried lumber frequently twists and warps. It's hard, probably a bit harder than most oaks. It's got a slightly weird odor which I happen to like but I've heard people complain about it also.

[Tom M King]

It's a little over twice as hard as Red Oak, if I'm remembering that right without looking up the Janka chart. I use it, if I can get it, for window, and door sills in old houses I work on. Find the guy on youtube milling live oak with his homemade sawmill made from multiple forklifts.

[Jamie Buxton]

Part of the confusion may be that the live oak of Georgia is a different species than the live oak of Texas. The eastern seaboard one is Quercus Virginiana, and the one in Texas is Quercus Fusiformis. All that "live oak" means is that the oak does not drop its leaves for the winter. The different species may have different growth habits, and different preferences for climate. The lumber may be different too.

[Ben Abate]

Is it available for flooring or is the price too high. The wood I saw in a few places as flooring was wide and like I mentioned looked like white oak but a bit darker. From what I’ve read in the past few days it might have been Live Oak-from the color discribed online. Really a nice looking floor, in fact I remember thinking this must be some hard wood to hold up as a commercial flooring and still look good. The flooring was in the Sea Pines Golf Club house and restaurant. Very large area and I immediately noticed the flooring. You know as a Woodworker how you notice things most people just walk right by. My golfing buddies were asking where the bar was located while I was looking for someone to explain the flooring.

[Ole Anderson]

Sampson Boat Company had a whole truckload (3500 bf of flitches) milled 2.5" thick for use as frames in a sailboat restoration. Favored as extremely rot resistant, very strong and it often has bends and crooks favorable for use in the frames of a boat. Quercus Virginiana in this case from south Georgia. Here is the episode from his YouTube channel showing the live oak saw milling. If nothing else, check out the mill this ol' Georgia boy built from multiple forklifts, semis and "god knows what else". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH37Dep0cvU

[Nick Decker]

Love that link, Ole. "You can just grab somethin' and see what happens."

[Gary Ragatz]

Here's an outfit that sells live oak flooring - maybe you can tell from their photos whether this is what you saw at Sea Pines:

https://realhardwoodfloors.com/portfolio/live-oak/

[Bill Dufour]

I split some and the wood is slightly pink with nice tight interleaved grain.
Bill D.

On Edit: California live oak is a third species Quercus Agrifolia. I did not know that! Only grows west of the Sierras

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_agrifolia

[Jamie Buxton]

I split some and the wood is slightly pink with nice tight interleaved grain.
Bill D.

On Edit: California live oak is a third species Quercus Agrifolia. I did not know that! Only grows west of the Sierras

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_agrifolia

Yeah, Q. Arigfolia is the most common live oak in California, but there are others, for instance Q. Chrysolepis (Canyon Live Oak) and Q. Wislizeni (Interior Live Oak). I've read that there are over thirty species of live oak native to the US and Mexico.

[Bill Dufour]

Did the east have "sudden oak dieback" the last few years? Most oak trees in California are about 230 years old according to some reports. I suppose there may now be quite a few that are three years old.
Bill D.

[Steve H Graham]

Protection for live oaks? God, I hope not. It's the most worthless tree ever invented.

My farm is covered with live oaks. They don't produce fruit or nuts. The wood is crude. They rot from the inside and die. They fall over in tropical storms. They are impossible to kill. They multiply like cockroaches and crowd out other trees. They attract squirrels, all of which should be fed into wood chippers.

The only thing they're good for is barbecue fuel. I wish they were pecans and maples.

I hate them. I hate them. I hate, hate, hate them.

[Andrew Gibson]

All the Live Oak I have cut and worked with is heavy and hard, has chocolate brown heartwood, and tends to have a lovely feather figure pattern in the trunk wood. It also has very large medullary rays when quarter sawn. Extremely rot resistant. Attached is a pick of a friend of mine setting on a few Live Oak slabs we cut a couple years back. I tend to think of the stuff as working like petrified rope. If its blowing down in less that a cat 2 hurricane and rotting, most likely it is water oak or turkey oak and not true live oak.
13876531_1073468806072539_9002549931887271143_n.jpg

[Steve H Graham]

Well, I'll tell you...everyone around here says the trees that fell during Irma were water oaks. I fired up the Internet and looked up oak leaf shapes, and my fallen oaks had leaves like live oaks. All I know is what the Internet tells me.

Now maybe they were secret water oak infiltrators wearing disguises...