Yellow Pine of Texas

[Tom Lang]

I spent last July in Dallas Tx., as I had to build shelving for a small warehouse. I faced the shelves using SYP which I bought at a local lumber yard. Craddock Lumber was an excellent resource, and great people who been there for at least 60 years. Anyway, because of their inventory, I had to buy 12' x 8"x 1" and cut down to 8'. It was great quality, so I drove about 30-4' pieces home with me figuring that someday I could use them.

The wife wants board and batten style trim in the dining room and now I am looking at the pile thinking this could do the trick. I am in New Hampshire and have stored these in my garage (drive under house) where its humid without being "damp", regardless the boards have definitely been acclimated. The air a bit drier now, but that's typical of the winter months. For us here in NH, SYP usually means pressure treated for outdoor uses, mostly deck framing.

I'd like to know from those with experience with clear SYP if it sands well, takes an even finish (paint) and behaves itself during humidity changes. I did not finish the shelf trim in Texas, just sanded and knocked down the sharp edges. I do remember I have never worked with a wood that had given me so many splinters!

My alternatives are poplar (has it own drawbacks) and soft maple, which would probably be best, but is most expensive of the three.

Thanks for reading and all help is appreciated.
Tom

[Maurice Mcmurry]

My only complaint about S.Y.P. is that it gums up sandpaper. We do not see lovely finish grade boards like you describe in the mid-west. I remember seeing very nice clear S.Y.P. boards at both Lowes and Home Depot in Durham NC, reasonably priced too. I wanted to bring some home but it did not work out.

[Chris Schoenthal]

I've used lots of SYP and you should have no issues. As Maurice says, it gums up sandpaper easily, but since you're painting it, you shouldn't have to sand very much.

[Kevin Jenness]

The wife wants board and batten style trim in the dining room and now I am looking at the pile thinking this could do the trick. I am in New Hampshire and have stored these in my garage (drive under house) where its humid without being "damp", regardless the boards have definitely been acclimated. The air a bit drier now, but that's typical of the winter months.

I would be cautious about using that material for interior trim. It's acclimated to your "humid without being "damp"" garage, not your dining room. If your garage is heated it should be fine, otherwise you may have shrinkage problems. Do you have a moisture meter? A hygrometer in your garage? Knowing the wood's moisture content or the average humidity where it has been stored is worthwhile. At the very least you should pre-paint the material so shrinkage will not expose raw wood.

[Christian Hawkshaw]

If you are going to paint it, make sure to prime it properly so the sap does not bleed through.

[Tom Lang]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think moisture content is going to be the determining factor. The humidity in the garage and in the house is pretty balanced due to dryness in winter but I'll check it out with a meter and move it upstairs if it's close. I am about a month away as there is a bit of prep in the room before I can start installing. The wood is very clear and milled well, so I can deal with the sand paper issue. Famous last words! I have some PRO 999 sealer which I have never used before, its drywall sealer for divots left in the drywall from wallpaper removal. I need to double check, but I think its good for raw wood too. I then use primer before painting as a general rule. Enjoy your Sunday!

[Tom M King]

If there are no knots, bleed through won't be a problem. I've made my living building houses with SYP, including trim and cabinets.

It's a very stable wood If dried properly. I used to be able to go to local building suppliers, and have many choices in sizes of pieces for C & Better YP all the way up to 5/4x12x16. The bins would be filled with all the choices in length increments of 2' from 8' to 16'.

Framing lumber, including 2x4's were straight and stayed straight.

The last of those mills and building suppliers went out of business here in 1992. They would saw it, stack it on sticks outside for a year to air dry, then kiln dry it in slow steam fired kilns fired by sawdust, and then mill it with huge straight line saws being part of the process. Timber growers took pride in growing good saw timber that you could get a lot of clear lumber out of a couple of 16' logs from the best trees. I may be one of the last timber growers that plans for good saw logs, and it requires some fight with the "experts" that look over timber management plans. The Southeast is full of fast grown SYP stands now.

The reason it has such a bad reputation is both because of the way it's grown and processed these days. Timber stands are managed to get the fastest growing most tonnage per acre rather than quality saw logs, and in the mills it's dried fast the night after it's sawn, milled the next morning, and tightly bound in stacks. You need to stand back when you cut one of these straps. There is almost no chance of geting a SYP 2x4 or even 2x6 that is straight and will stay straight these days.

[Tom M King]

The last ones of those mills around here went out of business in 1992. They couldn't compete with chain stores.

[Brian Tymchak]

....My alternatives are poplar (has it own drawbacks) and soft maple, which would probably be best, ...

Since you are painting, I'm curious as to what you see are the drawbacks of using poplar. It is very often used for painted trim.

[Mel Fulks]

Some places avoid poplar because they bought stuff that that was crazy crooked. That is usually from bad drying. It needs to be air
dried before kiln drying . You have to buy from someone who knows what to buy.

[Dave Zellers]

Yes. All the poplar I've used (and it's not a small amount) has been really stable. For me it has been a joy to use.

[Jim Becker]

There is poplar and there is poplar. Yellow Poplar/Tulip Poplar is a member of the magnolia family and is a "yuge" part of the commercial furniture business because it grows straight and tall for big yeilds and is pretty stable when dried well. "True poplars" are a different kind of thing and my understanding is that the can be harder to keep stable. They are more prevalent as a species in the western side of North America while Yellow/Tulip Poplar is a big part of the forests in the Eastern side from the Carolinas up through New England. Probably 50% of the trees on our old property were Yellow/Tulip Poplar. I had a few thousand board feet milled over the years and still have some to use in my lumber collection.

[Tom Lang]

I really have no problem using Poplar. It does absorb a lot of paint or primer, especially on endgrain but since it will be sealed, then primed my objections really do disappear. I will need longer pieces of material to make the chair rails, so that will probably be poplar and if I run out of the SYP, I will purchase Poplar for my shorter pieces. Thanks good catch.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Texas is on my mind the last few days when thinking about wood and trees. I thought I had some special Robina Pesudoacacia (black Locust) trees with circumferences of 100 to 200 inches. I should have known not to mess with Texas. Texas, home of the national champion with a circumference of 326 inches. I think the national S.Y.P. champion is in Texas too!

[Wes Grass]

I think there's likely to be a number of "National Champions" of every kind imaginal here in Texas .. ;-)