Looking for a place to buy some rough cut oak to re-floor a lowboy. Preferably somewhat close to Cullman. Thanks in advance

Have you tried Eager Beaver sawmill in East Limestone? I believe there is a sawmill in Elkmont off 127 also but the name escapes me.

Green rough cut oak will come back up pretty quickly, I saw people make that mistake a lot growing up at a sawmill and trying to tellem it won’t work.

Make sure whatever oak you use has been stick dried or use apatong flooring.

5/4 apatong usually only runs about $3 a foot

Theres some mennonites right out of cullman off 278 that cut lumber. Yoders I think.

Get White Oak.

Does apitong last pretty good? I have never used it but have gotten mixed reviews from others?

Yep, red rots much quicker.

Yep and as hoggin said it needs to be dry.

That’s what almost all trailers are floored with now. That’s what I would and do use on mine

A trailer and a lowboy, as he asked about flooring, are two different pieces of equipment to me.

God Bless,
David B.

A lowboy is after all a trailer, I’ve probably got more experience backing one up than most people have pulling one forward. Apitong is the way to go unless you have access to 5/4 white oak with at least 2 years on sticks and I haven’t seen any of that in 25 years.

You put green rough cut oak on it and IF you find a way to put enough screws in it to hold it to the supports when it dries it’ll pull the LOWBOY crossmembers off the frame. But you won’t be able to put that many it it so it’s just break the screws and bow all to hell and back. If you weld meatballs over it and wedge it tight instead of screwing it down works better but it still might bow enough to break out

I have been told that sweetgum makes a good lowboy floor. Hardwood sawmills actually have a market for it.

Sweet gum is tough as steel, in fact if you get some big enough to cut 2 inch lumber and saw it about dark if it’s dry enough, you’ll see sparks come off the saw teeth. It would be a decent option and dries faster than white oak I’m just not sure how easy it would be to find around here

Gum would work , be cheaper than white oak. Bout the only place to find it would be a small mill that saws ties. It's used alot in ties now since white oak is so high.

I’ll be sawing 5/4 white oak for the rest of this week. We are in Stevenson. Little far from you but you can pm me if you can use some.
If you can get by til fall you’d be better off waiting. The lumber out of summer cut logs is way worse to warp and split and like hoggin said I don’t think you’re gonna find any that has been air dried. If you use logs cut in the winter time when the sap is down you won’t have to worry about air drying it.

I'll give you a contact if you wanna drive to Clanton.
Just pm me for the information. And sweet gum is no problem to get.

I have a ton of big sweetgums I’m cutting down. My buddy has a sawmill. Is it worth it to have it sawed into lumber?