Question for people who build houses

[matt819]

I passed a formerly wooded area recently. Trees were being ripped out of the ground, stumps and all. Not for logging. The next day I saw that the tree trunks had been laid down side by side forming - I don't know what it's forming. You can't use dead trees as the base of some sort of foundation, can you? For parking, maybe, or a driveway.

Any idea what's behind this kind of approach to development? The plot is zoned for rural residential, with 5-acre minimum size plot, so I would suspect that this is the beginning of the development of a fairly major home.

[genxlib]

1. No way would it be foundation for a home

Certainly not any home bigger than a log cabin. Wood in contact with the ground would rot away and undermine the house.

I could see it as a parking or driveway but even that would be a bad idea that would haunt you in 10 years.

Are you sure they weren't just being stockpiled for later transport off site?

[matt819]

3. I know, I know, and I don't think so

I figured the same re the house.

And I figured the same re a drive of some sort.

I thought about the stockpiling, but the guy operating the machinery was lining the trees up neatly and then packing dirt on the ends. The logging operations involve cutting, not ripping out of the ground, and then the trees are piled to await picking up and trucking away.

It'll be interesting to see how things develop. It's certainly not how I would go about clearing a property for building a house, but I've found that rich people - and they'd have to be rich to buy/build in this area - love to cut down trees with no thought for appearance, land management, forest stewardship, wind, etc.

[Major Nikon]

2. I suppose you could make something of a driveway with them

Not sure why anyone would want to since there's better options unless it's just intended to be temporary. The wood will eventually rot and form into compost, which would offset soil compaction.

[LakeArenal]

4. My woods were demolished by a tornado

They lay out trees so machinery doesn’t sink in the wet ground and destroy the land and get stuck.

[matt819]

6. That's what I was thinking

Short term. Very wet here, so that makes sense. But once they get beyond the wood "platform," it's still wet. And despite the fact that the calendar says May, we are still in April showers mode. Seemingly every single day.

It sure will be interesting.

[LakeArenal]

7. Yes and if they work wet they will destroy the land for a long time.

My woods are sad!

O

[Maine-i-acs]

5. to be hauled away later?

A neat stack for the logging truck to haul away parhaps.
Seen that done here

[csziggy]

8. Some places they used to make corduroy roads from logs

A corduroy road or log road is a type of road or timber trackway made by placing logs, perpendicular to the direction of the road over a low or swampy area. The result is an improvement over impassable mud or dirt roads, yet rough in the best of conditions and a hazard to horses due to shifting loose logs.

Corduroy roads can also be built as a foundation for other surfacing. If the logs are buried in wet, acidic, anaerobic soils such as peat or muskeg, they decay very slowly. A few corduroy road foundations that date back to the early 20th century still exist in North America. One example is the Alaska Highway between Burwash Landing and Koidern, Yukon, Canada, which was rebuilt in 1943, less than a year after the original route was graded on thin soil and vegetation over permafrost, by using corduroy, then building gravel road on top. During the 1980s, the gravel was covered with a chip-seal. The late 1990s saw replacement of this road with modern road construction, including rerouting of the entire highway.

Excavation of a corduroy road from the 16th century in Oranienburg, Germany

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

I've seen them in the pine plantations here in North Florida where they only need a surface for a few months as they harvest the timber, more towards the coast where the surface is very sandy and the water tables very high.

In your example, the builders may just be using the logs as a temporary surface during construction. They could plan to take up the logs when the rough construction is done when they are ready for final finish landscaping.

[Steelrolled]

9. My thought, as I have done this sort of thing on a small scale....

The owners want to use the trees as part of their house, perhaps as exposed beams, wood planking, live edge furniture, etc. There is an attraction, for some people, to use local materials like this, even though it usually is not cheap, as it takes a lot of extra time and labor. If you have a large enough lot, it is even possible to quarry stone.

Anyhow, the logs have to age for a while until they can be milled. Packing soil on the ends is to reduce uneven drying, which leads to "checking" meaning cracks in the wood as it dries. After some time, they would mill the logs into wood timbers of various sizes. The milling can be done on- or off-site. More drying of the rough cut lumber is needed until it can finally be used. It might be that use of the lumber is not completed until well after the house is done.

Edit to add: The reason the trees were being ripped out, roots and all, verses being cut, is that in preparing for a house site, you want to get rid of everything, to allow for grading/grooming the land. If you are just logging, you don't care about that.