southern yellow pine decking

[Jacob Reverb]

Interesting. I have some local mills who cut the loblolly and air-dry it (or I buy it green) and it usually dries straight without much checking, and it dries fast. (I think they say 90 days for 1-inch stuff and you 're good to go.) I like it, though not as much as the longleaf. I guess the longleaf grows slower, making it more expensive / less profitable for the growers...?

House is 130 yrs old and (I believe) all old-growth loblolly...the newel post probably has 80 visible (very thin) rings and no pith...must have been a huge tree. Even though I believe the entire house is loblolly, some of it is harder than the hammers of He|| (like longleaf) after all these years...

[Tom M King]

Yes, Southern Longleaf is several times slower growing than Loblolly. My family has grown Pine trees for generations. With Loblolly, you get paid after about 15, and 30 years. With Longleaf, the next, or second generation gets the income.

Loblolly is good stuff if properly grown, and not kiln dried overnight. We have a 150 acre stand now that I didn't thin until it had all stretched up, and competing with each other, dropped all the lower limbs until the first limbs were above 32'. It was a gamble, because it has to make it through several Winters without a severe ice storm, or the whole stand might be lost. That was just a couple of Winters ago, and so far, so good. It does look different than all the other stands around these parts where they thinned it early, and the trees have all bushed out. They will get income from theirs earlier than we will, but we will have some valuable saw logs if it survives.

I work with Southern Longleaf most days, in the work I do on historic houses, so know it well too.

[kent wardecke]

Now that you have ordered SYP six you check out treated Douglas fir. I think D Fir is more stable than SYP

[Tom M King]

I hope you ordered clear decking boards. I was in Home Depot today, and glanced at their selection of decking boards. I wouldn't build a fence out of what they had.

[Günter VögelBerg]

I hope you ordered clear decking boards. I was in Home Depot today, and glanced at their selection of decking boards. I wouldn't build a fence out of what they had.

Yeah, I am getting these from a reputable decking supplier that only does decks. the chain stores around here do not stock the southern yellow pine. Their redwood (the usual deck around here) was scant, too. The only thing they had in abundance was trex.