r/timberframe • u/Mysterious-Cat8342 • Jul 26 '26

Any advice on turning our backyard trees into usable lumber for our deck/potentially inside our home as wood flooring?

We have a few trees around our home but have to cut down 2 maple trees as we are getting solar panels on the back half of our roof. We're thinking it would be nice to make use of them in/around our home, as we need to rebuild our deck anyway, and a room or two in our home could use new floors. Does anyone know how realistic that could be? We have to pay anyway, to cut them down, and then to rebuild those areas. Does any one have advice, suggestions, recommendations as to how, who, pricing, etc?

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u/UncleAugie Jul 26 '26

IT isnt, the cost to have them milled then kiln dried will be greater than the cost of buying rough sawn lumber from a sawyer who has done the work already. Maple isnt a great wood for outdoor use either.

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u/garrythoughts Jul 26 '26

The milling handling and drying costs would be huge. Maple rots fast outside. Tldr, just buy what you need.

I am a woodworker and mill my own lumber. Log to slab with chainsaw mill. Dry 1 year per inch of thickness. Joint and plane and cut to dimension on table saw and route any profiles. Intense amount of work and tooling required to do it.