You probably shouldn't take my advice because I am Canadian...but! Is there any reason why you can't wait to mill till the carpenters can give you a more exact estimate? If not, I would get the extra redwood milled for your possible renovations (close the window etc) and store it because at the rate we are going with politics, who know what might happen ? The general rule of thumb is to order 10% more than the square footage - more if there are lots of weird angle cuts and less if there are lots of windows/garage doors. And I would double check with a (non Canadian) expert about best storage & wrapping practises.

Hi mramsey: Yes, we've already got the 10% rule in place, and we're guesstimating how much we'll need for the repairs. Can't really know until the work's happening. More than that is the discretionary question ... get extra for down the line or just use cedar as issues come up? I'm inclined to just use cedar as it comes up, but I'm interested if anyone knows something I don't, or has a strong feeling that extra milled wood is important.

Buy just a little more than what you need, but tell the carpenters to not throw away any cutoffs. You can build a router table with a coping sled in several hours at most. Using a finger joint bit and exterior grade adhesive, you'll turn your drops back into boards. If your siding is tapered, you're going to get funny looking elongated adhesive lines, so this will probably only work if you're going to paint or stain the siding.

Just seeing this advice about turning pieces back into boards. We've got lots of smaller pieces left over - tanks for the advice!

hi, im in your exact same situation and was wondering who did your custom millwork for your redwood siding? btw, im also in Norcal (east bay).