Most liked posts in thread: Made One Of These Today

They'll need a fork truck to set it in place, and it will never leave that place again!

Does marble really stand up to the weather? It's a relatively soft stone......

 

Outdoor marble can degrade a bit (surface will dull), but a picnic table probably doesn't need to have a 50 year lifespan. Sealing the surface will help, as will choosing slabs with fewer inclusions and a tighter grain.

I actually like the feel of aged marble. It feels much softer and less cold, IMHO.

 

I noticed Chuck. Built by a man that cares.

 

3" oak seats. LVL or solid oak?

 

Thanks, I was just curious. Back in the early 90's when I was building houses we used oak LVL occasionally. Impervious to weather and you can mill it like regular wood although it a little tougher on the equipment than solid wood. But, then again, oak is tough on tools too. I remember a 150 year old farmhouse we demolished that had oak 2X4 (true 2X4's, not the current 1.5X3.5) that ran from the footers all the way to the roofline of the second story. Never saw studs that long before. We wore out several saw blades cutting them into pieces that we could use in the new house.
Looking forward to the finished product. As always, that's some fine workmanship on those frames.

 

We had a 1940 home in Dallas, framed in redwood. I had to pre-drill for nails/screws and I burned up a circular saw blade cutting 4 joists.

 

I've destroyed power tools on multiple kinds of woods. As I recall, old redwood was not hard, but perhaps very dense. It slowed the circular saw down to a motor-eating crawl.

Old oak heats saw blades up to warping temperatures.

CD

 

The nice thing about redwood was that I never had to worry about termite damage on the frame of the house... apparently the brothers of the woman who built the house owned a lumber yard and gave her the best they could find.

We also lucked out with the Haldane that was used to treat the lower framing and crawlspace. I was told that I had the best of all worlds there It was a stellar termite treatment, but it was also very damaging to the PEOPLE who lived in the home for the first few years after application. We got the benefits of that treatment with none of the life-shortening exposure! I still didn't like crawling around down there, though, and used every mask and barrier I could, along with a long shower after spending time down there.

 

Man Cave?

 

Slick!

 

Cringe!