How many meter timbers...

[Foreign student]

Can I say “ How many meter timbers do you need to build a cabin ?” İnstead of “how tall should timbers you need to build a cabin be ? “ I don’t have any context for this but I wonder If “ how many meter timbers” is correct or not . Most ıf native speakers it is wrong but I couldn’t understand why we can’t say “how many meter timbers “while we can say “five meter timbers”? Is it totally ungrammatical or grammatically correct even it is weird?

 

[J&K Tutoring]

Several problems:
1. Without specifying the exact size of the cabin you want to build it would be impossible to say what length timbers would be needed and how many.
2. Even if you did give exact dimensions, there still are variables, such as how much waste would there be, how much of each piece would actually be usable (accounting for natural defects), etc.
3. If someone did say how many meters would be needed, it doesn't take into account the length of individual pieces. Say for instance that one wall would be 5 meters long and it requires 12 pieces to make the height. That's 12 x 5 = 60 meters. But what if the pieces available were 6 meters long? 60 meters needed divided by 6 meters per piece = 10 pieces, but of course you can't make another layer with the cutoff pieces, so you would have to buy 12 pieces 6 meters long. Maybe you could use the offcuts someplace else in the build; maybe not.

Best to keep things uncountable and general: How much wood do you need to build a cabin? You still would need to give some indication of how big you want the cabin to be, but at least you understand this is an estimate and that this estimate will include a significant amount of extra material.

 

[Foreign student]

Thanks for your answer. Actually I just wonder “ how many meters timber or anything “ can be used instead of how tall.... Is it good english?

 

[J&K Tutoring]

Trees are tall. We cut them down and then we work them horizontally into mostly horizontal members of buildings and other things. Timbers are long, not tall, unless the product is overwhelmingly vertical, such as a ship's mast or a flagpole.

 

[Rover_KE]

I see you asked the same question here.

We recommend posting a question on one forum only initially. If you do not get a satisfactory answer from that forum and you feel that you have exhausted its possibilities, then of course trying a different forum might help. It is only courteous however, to tell the second forum that you have already asked the question on another forum and then give a precis of the answers you received there, or provide a link to it, along with an explanation of why you are now looking elsewhere.

(emsr2d2)

 

[jutfrank]

Is it totally ungrammatical or grammatically correct even it is weird?

It's ungrammatical.

 

[Tarheel]

FS, what was wrong with the answers they gave you at WR?

 

[emsr2d2]

Thanks for your answer. Actually I just wonder if "How many meters timber (or anything)" can be used instead of "How tall ...?" Is it good English?

Please note my corrections above.

 

[Tarheel]

Do they use timbers in British English? (I'm familiar with boards.)

 

[Rover_KE]

No.

 

[bubbha]

How long should the timbers be in meters?

 

[tedmc]

The questions asked by the OP are meaningless. A cabin/house is not built from one size of timber but many different sizes for different parts of the building e.g. the main structural supports, the frames, the claddings, the fabric/covering, the walls, flooring, fixing battens, etc.

In construction, the quantity for each size of timber (for estimation and pricing) is expressed in foot run(US) or metre run (Europe). Lengths of timber longer than usual (4-6 metres) are not the standard produced by the sawmills and have to be specially ordered.

The quantity of timber is also expressed in weight i.e. in tonnes /tons for lower quality timber which consists of a mixture of various lengths e.g. timber battens for fixing purposes.