How should I prepare tree trunks for use as posts?

[Das]

Hello! We've decided to make next springs project, creating an outdoor kitchen space with an earth oven and so forth. But we live on the west coast of Canada where the weather is quite wet. Any kind of outdoor cooking space will need a roof. De-barked tree trunks will look really great as support posts for this free standing pitched roof I have in mind and we have plenty of suitable sized trees around the house to choose from, mainly cedar, a couple of hemlock possibly. Keeping the cost of the project down makes this option really appealing.:2tsup:

Once they've been felled and the bark peeled off, how long should I,let them sit before starting construction? Is winter the best time to fell them? I'm not experienced at all with things of this kind so any advice would be great. Thnx.

[rustynail]

Yes, winter is the best time to put them on the ground. The sap will have stopped rising which makes for a more stable log. Cedar would be preferable to hemlock for posts as it is far more durable. It would be better to mount the posts on galvanised brackets rather than in the ground as the types of timber you have available don't do well when in ground contact. You can start working the logs as soon as you like as they will season in position.

[Das]

Ok Cedar it is then. Thanks for the advice. I had already decided on simply placing a concrete handiform to mount a saddle bracket on or somesuch. I'm surprised you can simply install unseasoned. I plan to build the rest of the structure from lumber yard wood. My wood noob brain keeps telling me that I'm risking rot where the support beams will be sitting on the cut tops of the logs. Won't moisture be escaping from the log and so be concentrating where they're resting against each other?

Also, does anyone have any handy tips for stripping the bark off the logs? I've heard you can just get a pointed trowel or something similar and jst peel it off in pieces but that it's a lot of labour. Could I sand it off? That still sounds like a lot of work, and might ruin the nice look of the log that I'm looking for but I don't know.:?

[Robson Valley]

If you take the bark off in the spring when the sap is running, a putty knife is fine. The newest wood cells are soft and mushy, the bark should "slip" easily.

No reason to wait to begin construction.

Late summer when the year's growth of wood is about done, you will need a drawknife and be prepared to put a lot of effort into it.

While it's true that there's water in wood, all the way through the entire log, the moving sap water is really only in the outer sapwood. Now in Western Red Cedar, that white sapwood rots, develops punky spots and turns a dirty gray with mold. Common practice is to take off all the sapwood. There are easy ways to do that and there are hard, exhausting ways to do that.

Magard Log Home Building Tools in Prince George has everything you could possibly need. Don't call Maurice before maybe 1PM, he's a night-owl. He's been in the game for 30+ years, quite a good website.

[Das]

Thanks for the recommendation, I will check it out.