In the words of a sawyer

Can You Turn a Tree From Your Yard Into Lumber?

By Mark Dias, Good Wood Hunting LLC — Arvada, Colorado

Short answer: yes. Almost every time, yes.

I believe every tree is worth milling. The flaws, the character — that's not damage, that's the whole point. The only exception is a tree that's rotted to the point where there's simply no usable wood left in it. Short of that, if there's good wood in there, it's worth opening up and investigating — and that's doubly true when the tree means something to you. A tree your kids grew up climbing, a tree somebody planted — that wood carries a story no lumber yard can sell you.

The biggest, most useful wood comes from the trunk and the base of the tree: the most material, the most heartwood. Species matters, and we'll get to that. But first, the questions that decide everything.

The First Questions I Ask

Before a blade ever touches your tree, I need to know: Why did it fall — or why is it coming down? What does the arborist have to do to get it on the ground? Some trees, because of where they sit, can't come down in big sections no matter what anybody wants. And once it's down: can we get a machine in to load the log onto a trailer, or do we mill it in place and carry the slabs out by hand? Logistics come first. Everything else follows from them.

Yard Tree Species That Surprise People

Around the Denver metro, two of my favorites are Siberian elm and Chinese elm. There are a lot of them here, and people are genuinely surprised by the color and the character in them. I like silver maple more than most people do, too.

But the biggest surprise is cottonwood. I personally think cottonwood is absolutely stunning — more often than not it has crazy figure and it looks gorgeous. A lot of people don't like it just because it's cottonwood. And most of the people with the strongest negative opinions about cottonwood have never actually worked with it.

"It Probably Has Metal In It" — The Truth

Everybody warns you about metal in yard trees. The strangest thing I've ever found inside one is an old carpenter's chalk box, probably from the 1950s or 60s. My guess is somebody left it in the crotch of the tree and the tree just grew around it and swallowed it whole.

Here's what I've learned over the years: you don't hit metal in trees as often as people think. But when you do hit a nail or a lag bolt in a tree, you tend to hit a lot of them in that same tree — because somebody used that tree, over and over, for years.

One practical note on blades: if I'm milling your tree on an hourly basis and a blade finds metal, that blade is on you. If your project is a flat bid — I quoted the whole job, removal through finished piece — then I eat the cost of the blade. That's the deal, and I say it up front.

How the Tree Should Come Down

If I'm not the one removing the tree, I want to talk to your arborist before it comes down — directly, not through messages relayed back and forth. We speak the same language. I know my equipment and the space it needs; he knows his equipment and his safety limits. And if you don't have an arborist, I have a fleet of them I can call on at a moment's notice who are exceptionally good at what they do.

We also size the pieces to your actual project. If the biggest piece of lumber you're ever going to need is six or seven feet, there is no reason to bring that tree down in ten- or twelve-foot chunks. It just makes everything harder, takes longer, and costs more money.

Once it's on the ground, we seal the ends immediately.

Drying: The Honest Timeline

How a tree dries depends on its size, its species, and the time of year it came down. A tree that comes down in winter tends to start with a lower moisture content, so it dries a little faster. A tree that comes down in a wet summer is holding more moisture and takes longer.

My process: we let it air dry for a month or a couple of months, then it goes in the kiln and we slow dry it. Some people say wood should air dry for years and years — that's not always practical on a homeowner's project, and it isn't necessary.

Realistically: from the day the tree comes down to the day you have a usable piece of lumber can be as little as four to five months. Plan on eight months to a year, and you'll never be disappointed.

What It Costs — And What You're Actually Buying

Nine times out of ten, milling your own tree is never going to be cheaper than buying mass-produced lumber, and I won't pretend otherwise.

Store lumber comes from farm-raised trees — perfectly manicured, perfectly sized, grown close to a mill that processes them by the dozens, sometimes hundreds. I am mobilizing very similar equipment to move one or two trees. That's the math.

What we offer is a premium service. It's a specialty. What you're paying for is saving the sentimental value of your tree, and saving a natural resource that would otherwise be thrown into a landfill. It's not for everybody, and it is not a way to save money — and anybody who tells you different isn't being straight with you.

The Tree That Became a House

A client of mine right here in Arvada, Colorado, Shauna, helped plant a sycamore tree with her father when she was a little girl — 64 years before I met her. When she put an addition on her house, the tree had to come down.

We milled it into slabs in a range of thicknesses, two and a quarter inches up to three and a half, because she didn't yet know everything it would become. Her project then sat through the pandemic and the construction crunch, and I stored her slabs for a long time waiting. When it finally went forward, that one tree became her countertops, her stair treads, her fireplace mantle, her bathroom shelves — and when there were leftovers, we replaced some of her kitchen cabinet pieces with sycamore just to include it all. She walks up stairs made from the tree she planted with her dad. That's what this service is for.

The Biggest Mistake: Waiting Too Long

The biggest mistake a homeowner can make is waiting too long — trying too hard to save a tree that's already in trouble.

The earlier you make the determination that a tree needs to come down — whether it's rot, insects, whatever it is — the more usable wood we'll get out of it. Wait too long, and that tree can be completely hollow inside. If you think you might want to build something out of your tree someday, the time to make the call is while there's still a tree left to save.

If Your Tree Is Coming Down

If it's safe, call me first: Mark Dias, Good Wood Hunting LLC, Arvada, Colorado — (303) 589-0053. If it's not safe, call an arborist, tell him you're interested in saving the wood, and then call me and let me talk to the arborist directly. You won't save money by being the middleman — let the two people doing the work talk to each other.

Your tree doesn't have to end as firewood or landfill. It can end as the table your family eats at.