House to be demolished - which wood to grab?

[Bill Dufour]

I mentioned the roof because you could use the tile for your patio cover or my wife might try to use roof tiles as a garden border. At my home I have added about 9 faucets around the house and in the yard. Always a good idea to have a spare in case one freezes and breaks.
We did dig up and move a small orange tree when we moved. She plans to take several smaller camellias when we move in a few years. I think those trees are too big to transplant easily. Our last move was in the fall so she dug up a lot of flower bulbs.
Bill D

[Gene Pavlovsky]

Thanks for all the advice! Just bought a vintage ex-Bundeswehr security check metal detector on eBay.de. Will test it on some scrap wood. I didn't find a lumber wizard at a reasonable price here in EU, and the 30 EUR no-name pinpointers sold on Amazon.de look a bit dodgy.
I searched for info about the wood currently used for timber framing (KVH = KonstruktivVollHolz), and it seems that it's normally is used without chemical treatments. I am not sure if that was the case 30 years ago, when the house was built. I'll try to ask around in the shops selling construction materials. The framing in the house is not ground-contact - the vertical beams are held some distance off the ground by metal brackets. So chances are it's not treated!

[Stewart Lang]

Thanks Jim. Metal detector sounds like a good idea. When you mention it, is it of the kind used for security checks?
Johnny, how do you dig the metal out from the wood?
If I cross-cut a beam, would I be able to see if it was treated or not by the color or smell or something like that?
I'd take pictures of leaves if it wasn't winter. The bark indeed looks quite different from the pictures I've found.

They make special metal detectors for sensing metal in wood boards. Just google it, you'll find them. They might look similar to ones used for security checks. No easy way to dig it out, just cut around it if you can.

If you cross-cut a beam and it's light green, it's almost definitely pressure treated

[Halgeir Wold]

If you have room for storage, get all the wood you can!! That staircase can certainly be useful, - and it is not pressure treated.... hard to say about the beams, but a cross cut will reveal if there's just a tiny layer at the surface. It could be that it's just outdoor oilbased stain, which is quite common in Europe...
Windows are usually not treated woods in my area, but I don't know about your region...

[Günter VögelBerg]

I would take the hardware from the shutters and the big timbers. Possibly the stair treads. I MIGHT take the windows if they are double paned. I'd pass on everything else.

That woodwork, especially the windows, looks older than 30 years to me.

[Gene Pavlovsky]

Thanks everyone for the kind advice. I have now a pretty good idea of what to look for.
For cross-cutting the beams to manageable length at the site, would I need to build something like a sawbuck, or a normal small sawbench (or two) would do?

[lowell holmes]

Make test holes with a brace and bit. You will know if the wood is good.

[Bill Dufour]

Use one sawhorse and rest the other end of the beam on a window sill or stair step. Break out the glass if needed.
Bill D

[Gene Pavlovsky]

Ok, I'm gonna make my first sawhorse this or next week.

To my shame, I don't have a hand brace yet. I do have a cordless drill, but I would like to have a hand brace as well.
I'd buy a vintage one, but don't know of any local garage sales where one might be found, and hunting on eBay, I'm not sure what kind of chuck I should be looking for. I have a lot of various modern drill bits with cylindrical or hex shank, so am not sure if I should look for a brace with a 3-jaw chuck, or one designed for old-style square shank bits (in which case I would have to start hunting for bit sets, too). Anyway this is off-topic.

Now I'm wondering how are the steps of stairs dismantled, without marring the wood?

[Halgeir Wold]

If you have a hole saw, you should be able to break loose a plug or dowel, to check if the beams are treated.. 15mm (or larger) should be enough..

[Gene Pavlovsky]

I have a set of regular (i.e. not deep) hole saws, which won't go through the beam. If I drill as deep as I can, how would I get/break the plug out?

[Steve Demuth]

A tree - I was told it blossoms pink and gives no fruits. Perhaps some expert can instantly ID it?

A tree - I was told it's a walnut. Is it though?

I would guess the pink blossoming tree is a cherry of some sort. Most sweet cherries would not bear fruit if they don't have other cherries around to pollinate them.

The "walnut" could well be Japanese Walnut or Heartnut (Juglans ailantifolia), which is a species of walnut from the far east, but not wildly uncommon as a landscape tree in Europe. It certainly isn't one of the European walnuts, or a North American species.

[Bill Dufour]

The standard brace with a chuck for tapered square shank drills works well to grab a 1/4" hex chuck extender as used in a cordless drill. Used with a screw driver bit it gives good torque and speed to drive screws or drill holes with hex shank bits.
Bil lD.