Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Gardening Sheds on fire

 I have been slowly gathering materials for a garden shed.( turns out TOO slowly! material prices have gone nuts due to pandemic caused disruptions in supply and demand)

Design decisions have prioritized local materials, and attempts to be more sustainable. A nearby friend has his own sawmill, making lumber from pines that were on his land. I bought most of the framing lumber I needed from him.

The roof will be steel, bought from a local Amish business. The steel coils aren't actually made there, but they fabricate the roofing panels there. All without electricity.

Here is the real experiment though, something I had never heard of till recently, and why I titled the post like I did.

There is a technique of siding preservation that involves charring the surface. This layer of charred wood minimizes rot and sun weathering, since fungus cannot break down this form of carbon, and leads to very long lifetimes for the wood. 

This technique is becoming all the rage recently, and was first widely used in Japan. Thus it's name(s).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakisugi

https://mrtimbers.com/shou-sugi-ban/





Will post later on  how it goes.






2 comments:

  1. Hi Steve,

    I'll be very curious to learn how your experiment turns out. I've noted that the English also use this technique on some of their barn structures.

    Some of the tree stumps which the loggers left and were burned in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires are still here with me today. It is hard work to remove them with a stump grinder, that's for sure.

    Cheers

    Chris - Fernglade

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    1. Hi Chris;
      I'll definitely share how the process and results turn out, but since they claim 80 year lifetime, the true assessment of preservation over time will only be known after you and I are pushing up daisies.

      As always, thanks for stopping by
      Steve

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