Stringer wood

It appears that Doug Fir is the most popular wood on this forum for stringer wood. I was researching attemping to find lumber yards in Tampa Florida for Doug Fir, when I found this information, which might rate Southern Yellow Pine better for the stringer wood.

Yellow pine here is sold at Lowes and the have up to 2x12x16.

Interested in your opinions on this:

**** From the website***

Southern Yellow Pine (SYP)
Southern Yellow Pine is one of the premier structural woods in the world and it is our most popular timber product. It is very stiff and, when dry, quite hard. One of the colloquial names for SYP is "Hard Pine." It is available in large sizes, long lengths and is of consistently high quality. It is also very amenable to kiln drying so it need not be used green. When dried properly, it distorts very little and checks are small and scattered. It has a bold grain pattern and a color range from golden brown to reddish brown as it ages. It finishes and stains very well. Southern Yellow Pine is a commercial classification for four related species naturally occurring in the southeastern United States. The species are Longleaf, Shortleaf, Loblolly and Slash pines. The mix of species changes as you move from the Atlantic seaboard to East Texas. In our area Shortleaf and Loblolly are predominant with a fairly substantial quantity of Longleaf in areas with sandy soils. The majority of logs that we buy are Shortleaf Pine.
We use Southern Yellow Pine in our own frames because of its strength and quality. Should these attributes appeal to you, Southern Yellow Pine would be an excellent choice for your frame. We used SYP for both our Layout Barn and Board Barn and plan to use it for a future shop addition.


Douglas Fir
Douglas Fir, like Southern Yellow Pine, is one of the most sought after structural woods in the world. It is available in virtually any grade and size. It has a very pleasing dark reddish brown color as it ages. It is very sensitive to ultra violet radiation and darkens very quickly when exposed to light. The grain pattern of high quality Douglas Fir is often even in both color and pattern. Planed Douglas Fir seems to glow when a clear oil finish is applied.
Douglas Fir, although very strong, has an Achilles Heel. It splits very easily along the grain. It is therefore necessary to design joinery in such a way to avoid this characteristic. This is seldom a problem for experienced timber framers. We kiln dry new Douglas Fir before using it in a timber frame. Kiln drying stabilizes the wood and reduces movement in the timbers and checking.
Although we use both new kiln dried and recycled Douglas Fir, recycled material has its own special characteristics and beauty. In addition to the environmental benefit of using recycle wood, the material is often very dry and stable. The nail and bolt holes present often leave character marks that are pleasing evidence of its previous use. As either new kiln dried or recycled material, Douglas Fir is one of the more expensive woods on the market. So, if a darker color and even grain pattern are what you want in a frame, and the budget can support the added cost, we certainly would encourage the use of recycled Douglas Fir for your frame. The homes in Argyle Texas and Nacogdoches were built with recycled Douglas Fir and each has its own particular character.

I've got to wonder if there really is a problem using PT SYP for stringers. I know that it's been reported that the epoxy does not adhere to the PT wood, but the 2 boats we've pulled apart has not had the fiberglass adhered to the wood anyways. The stringers have just been held in place by the fiberglass wrap and weren't adhered to the fiberglass or the hull. And it didn't appear to have been treated with anything like resin. It looked like SYP is what CC used.

Roym wrote: Yeah I don't think CC would of shipped in DF for boat building.

Why not? Mahogany doesn't grow in Florida ether!!

Funny they don't say Douglas Fir. Lumber yards started using the term "Hem Fir" around here back in the '90's.

Our Mustang has SYP main stringers and the outers and longitudals looked like white pine.

must_dash wrote: I am doing a stringer job next winter and may have supply issus wth Douglas Fir. So a few questions to the wise... With LVL stringers which way does the ply run? Of the various types of LVL which is the best? And how do the lag bolts for the engine mounts work when into the end grain@

LVL stands for laminated veneer lumber. Microlam is one of the trade names. Unlike plywood where the grain runs alternate with each layer, all the venner in LVL runs the length of the member. There are other "engineered" wood products out there made with small shavings of wood just like OSB is made. Stay away from them.

The lags will not be an issue as you are not going into end grain. As with solid lumber, I always recommend predrilling your pilot holes and filling them up a couple times with CPES.

CC also said in 93, we aint using this *************** anymore

I believe the cost of regular non PT SYP was about $12.00 for a 2x10x16, and Lowes has plenty of it. It all looked pretty good(much better than expected), no large knots, and very few small ones. Looked clean and straight.

My son priced DF at some a lumber yard here, but I don't remember what he said. It wasn't inexpensive. He is flying back from Texas right now so I can't ask him.

dwcar wrote: What is the difference between Him Fir and Douglas Fir?

8122pbrainard wrote: Look at any spec on building and you will see that the Doug is in it's own class.

I only looked quickly at what they had at the time. I wasn't really considering it at the time, but have since read several web articles on the subject.

Sounds like a number of small boat builders use SYP. I am talking about mostly private persons who build boats.

As far as cost goes, a couple hundred for wood isn't going to matter with the costs of everything involved. However SYP might be a choice also. I really don't think that Douglas Fir is the only option.

Called local lumber yard today and found DF 2x10x14 boards were $70.00. Not sure of the of the lenght needed for a Ski Tique, but the choices were 14' and 20'. I'm thinking the 14' would be long enough, but haven't measured it, as the floor is still in place.

I think a 2x is only 1 1/2 inch wide, so it's not too much difference.

I used 8/4

I used SYP in my American Skier, mainly because I had some left over from another project. It was clean, straight and had been in dry storage for over a year. I brushed on 2 coats of thinned epoxy before bedding and lay-up. SYP is a little heavier than DF.

I have had instances in the home building industry where the architect specified doug fir on particular floor joists lets say, because it has more strength than other grades such as SPF for the same dimension.

Pete,
help me out and throw me a few links.