Building a shed/shop

[GTMODawg]

Houses used to always be built with green lumber that was cut on site. Even into the 1900s. Many of those houses are still standing and as structurally sound and more than anything else built today.

THIS. For many years structures were built with green lumber of many varieties and were built on stacked stone foundations with little to no footings. Many of them have survived hundreds of years. Some in older countries than the US have survived several hundred years. Whats the chances of a tract house under construction today being around 100 years from now without some MAJOR structural renovations? Entire generations of families and fortunes worth of livestock were raised in those structures and the owners were unaware that kiln dried and grade stamped lumber was necessary to make a structure last 40-50 years. When you look at a home that was built 30 years ago compared to one built 200 years ago you gotta wonder if kiln drying and grade stamping ain't somehow responsible for the sagging rooflines and settling foundations that is omni-present in homes built in recent memory.

 

[GTMODawg]

Check building codes before you start especially if your property is zoned residential.

That said I would build a pole barn and close it in over using concrete blocks that would require a footing on outside wall and interior piers.

You can create a floor system using the outside wall posts and piers out of 6x6 treated posts.

Very few if any counties or AHJs will allow saw mill lumber which has not been grade stamped and kiln dried to be used in a structure requiring permitting. That is a shame because it was very common throughout this country and the entirety of the world not that long ago. Its also largely un-necessary to kiln dry structural wood because wood is going to either dry out or gain moisture depending on its current environment and there ain't a thing in the world anyone, including the building inspector, can do about it. Most kiln dried lumber is ready to build with at about 15%. Depending on where it is used that number will usually rise to 25% over time. If its in inside a properly built wall cavity it may stay there but if it is in an attic or a crawl space that number will vary daily with RH variations. Green lumber will behave in the exact manner. Both will move, warp, bend, cup, shrink, grow...there ain't nothing that can be done about it....and never has been. Its amazing that all of those structures in Europe have been standing for several hundred years, withstood harsh winters, wars, fires...all manner of things bent on destroying them, and the poor old man who built them didn't have the protection of national building codes, engineers and inspectors around to make certain he did it correctly. Even with all of the math, engineering, zoning, codes and building inspectors there ain't nothing anyone can do to keep wood from doing whatever it wants to do in reacting to moisture content. Build a table out of kiln dried grade stamped construction lumber and put it in an air conditioned space. You won't recognize it most likely in a few months.