Last night I brought my eight newly milled boards to the table saw to put a roughly straight line edge on them, then took them to the shop where I could use a #5 1/2 jack plane to make good on that line. They all stand in the shop against a rafter now, continuing to dry a bit out of the sun, and ready for me to put some more work into dimensioning them. Here is what I need.
The side of the barn in this location is good enough to repaint. There are other places where it would be bad practice to do so.
The boards are about 7 1/2 to 8 inches wide in a shiplap that has an angle at the deep tongue to allow water to flow off. The groove under the bottom lip is not too deep at only 1/2 an inch. It should not be too hard to make the boards into new ones, though I am a bit unsure of how much I can expect them to shrink along the width if I am to work them green and ready them to put up soon. I will of course go to the maximum width I can and put them up, though I may deepen that groove and allow for a bit more overlap, say 3/4 of an inch. I think that would be a no fail solution
When I nail the boards up, I figure it will be best not to put in many nails on the width of the board (top to bottom) so it can shrink. That should reduce the chance of the boards splitting.
The eight boards translate into about seven and a half once linear material is removed with bark on the sides that run too deep to remove when putting in the tongue and groove. Each board is about 9 feet long. I should net about 66 feet of boards, all poplar, to replace the bad sections on the barn. Shiplap should be relatively simple to remove and replace, something I think the old-timers factored in.
At $28.44 per piece, or $3.16 a lineal foot for 7 1/2 inch boards, the total value of the wood I have cut is $213.30. That is before it is shaped. The most similar shiplap sold at Home Depot is $210 without tax for the same amount, though it is sold in packages of six, and I would have to buy two of those, so actual amount is $280. But there would be three more boards. Those would require modifying as they are not really made for exterior use, as they have no angle at the bottom of the tongue and would collect water on a flat surface and rot. They are also pine.
My cost has to calculate the cost of the mill, the percentage of tractor use dedicated to wood milling, and saws and fuel and tools and so forth. I don’t charge me for my labor. Factor in that there is the truck and trailer to go get the wood, too.
What cannot be easily factored in is the most excellence of being able to take a log that was grown locally and make it into the wood necessary to repair holes in the barn. That satisfaction extends to the use of local material, DIYing, reducing waste, using slow growth trees, being old school, using hand tools, independence to a degree, and the development of personal skills.