Why Norwegian Builders Cut Timber Only in Winter — While Your Lumber Warps in a Year

SUBSCRIBE for more:    / @perolsen1974   Norwegian builders cut timber in winter, and the reason they give for it is not the reason it works. Here is what actually keeps a board straight. I built timber houses in the Trondheim region for forty years, and I was taught to fell in January without ever being told why. In this video I go through what the old practice really did, what the medieval builders were doing when they delimbed a living pine and left it standing for a season to make malmfuru, and what that means for lumber you buy at a yard in Ohio or Georgia. We look at the temperature at which a fresh log starts to spoil, at the gap between what "dry" means on a grade stamp and what your house will do to that board, and at the reason modern framing lumber twists even when it was dried properly. The last part is practical: how to stack and store boards so they stay flat, what to look at on the cut end before you buy, and how dry a frame should be before the drywall goes on. All of that you can do yourself. Anything involving structure, fire, gas, electrics or permits belongs to a licensed professional. Who I am. Per Olsen, retired timber-house builder. About two hundred houses in the Trondheim region between 1974 and 2014, now explaining to American homeowners how a house is built for a real winter.