wood experts??california red wood

[eric atkinson]

Hey guys just had kinda a strage question! Me and the wife a few years back bought a very old colonial home in southern missouri. The relastate agent told me that the attic wood was california red wood. As a landscaper and botonist this puzzled me. It is a odd wood to me because it has a texture , color , smell to me that i dont recognize! The other thing that kinda mde me think he was fool of bs was i think about the days when the home was built in the late 1800s why would they have used that wood for the house when we have so many trees that grow here that would have done the job just as well or better for a home Pine,oak-- Also its only in the attic. The rest of the home is local oak. Just wanted to know if any of you could tell me a little about this wood? So i can see if he is full of bs or not. We had a offer this year to sell the home because a wall-greens wants the land to build on! If that goes through they will tear down the home and if that wood is worth the effort i would yank it out! Some HUGE pieces of it up there! Well anyways i told ya this was a strange post.

[FBB Custom]

Who knows why they would do such a thing. I was speaking to a guy who was involved with the demolition of a mansion in eastern MA and he said there were ebony details in some of the rooms. People get ideas into their heads. Maybe they heard that redwood was good for hot, dry storage space for some reason (maybe it is?).

It's exceedingly difficult to judge whether or not some wood belongs to species X without seeing it in person. Next best thing is pictures. So send one up and the peanut gallery will look. If you can get to bare wood, all the better.

Large, old, quality boards can be valuable in any case -- if you have a use for them.

[eric atkinson]

Ok i will try to get up there after practice tonight and sand off a slap and send in pics. The only chunk of the story i can find is the original owner of the home had a limestone mine! And i guess limestone mine owners used to make trades with other co. for product! I guess maybe some lumber person in cali wanted some huge slabs of limestone.

[tyoder]

I live in California where practically all decks are made of Redwood. It is desired because it holds up to moisture well. But when the wood gets replaced most people just send the old stuff to the dump. Maybe we have so much of it we don't get too sentimental about it.

[teej]

Redwood makes a killer top!

[JSPguitars]

As I live amongst the redwoods, I have learned something about this wood that I did not know. I got a huge plank for pretty cheap from a guy on Hwy 9 who carves ornate bears, indians, furniture, and other sculptures out of the wood. I built a stratocaster guitar body entirely out of redwood (just two pieces joined together). The wood is super duper lightweight, and dents REALLY easy. I put a hard finish on it and it still has many dents, but the guitar sounds pretty friggin' good to me.
I agree that it's probly best suited for just tops.

Also of interest, as I've been looking at buying houses lately. Many of the homes here in the redwoods are built upon redwood foundations......HUGE, round redwood logs. These homes, of course, were built a long time ago. It was readily available back then and most of the homes here in the 'Santa Cruz mountains' are 'cabin' style homes.....pretty small and built on a hillside.
The termites and bugs HATE redwood. They won't go near the stuff. THat is good.
But, redwood is so soft............doesn't seem like the best wood to build houses on to me, especially in "earthquake" country.
Anyway..........it's a really pretty wood when finished. I bet it looks great up in that attic. IT's a shame it should be destroyed by a friggin' Wal-Mart or whatever. I say keep the land.....keep the house, keep the redwood in the attic, but then again, I'm from Santa Cruz.
It's hard to say no to $$$$
I'm also a fan of using 'recycled' wood. I'll buy some, and make some guitars/basses out of it.

[eric atkinson]

Yeah we bought the home about 8 years ago when we were younger and wanted to fix it up. Well this went well for a couple of years then we had a kid! Then it all went to crap! But thats ok because i would really enjoy living futher from the city. Would like to be able to pee of the pourch if i wanted too! But we wont know for awhile if they are gonna make a offer or not. We payed a large amount for the home and they will have to match it atleast to make it worth it for me. Plus i get the redwood and the oak library. Now i love a great african wood on my bass but nothing looks as good as ozark oak! Thats the reason i asked because i didnt know if it would be worth anything to anyone? I will get plenty out of the sell of the home! I will just tell them that the wood in the attic belongs to my buddies on talk bass! All id want is a look at the fineshed job!LOL