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Mark Powers, owner-builder, Alonson, Michigan
Author’s note: The two lumber organizations mentioned above, NHLA and NeLMA, are listed in Appendix C.
In short, the grading of lumber can be an expensive proposition, which defeats the advantage of using local rough-cut lumber in the first place. At this time, despite widespread adaptation of the International Building Code, it is possible for most people in rural areas to build with non-graded lumber. Check on this with the town or county building inspector before placing a big lumber order with your local sawmill, or cutting quantities of your own lumber with a chainsaw mill. If evasion is a strategy that you have in mind — I am not advocating this, you understand — then you might want to gain the information anonymously.
My guess is that wherever the local forest products industry is strong, there will be (or soon will be) provisions such as the one recently adopted by New York to allow the use of rough-cut lumber. Economic considerations aside, you cannot easily purchase heavy timbers from ordinary building supply yards. Local sawmills, farm sawmills, and personal timber cutting (small chainsaw or bandsaw mills) are the realistic and affordable choices, and these are discussed in Chapter 3.
