Raw Spruce siding – GreenBuildingAdvisor

Hey,

Im in coastal maine, 6a.  A couple of years ago I milled the red spruce up that I had on my land and I now have 175@ 18 foot 1×8″ rough sawn boards dried and stacked next to my house, a 1000 square foot single pitched PGH.  

I plan on siding with it, raw.  There is a 2 foot overhang and a 3/4 inch rain screen.  The original plan was to plane it down and cut ship laps on each side and install it horizontally.  I recently counted the number of passes that would need to be made to get the boards in shape and was shocked.  Cutting the shiplaps with a table saw and planing would be about  7 passes per board for a total of 1200 passes. 

It got me questioning the need for shiplaps over a robust rain screen.   For that matter, aesthetics aside, is there an advantage in terms of drying, fire or woodpecker attraction/repulsion that planing it out of a rough sawn condition provides?

Finally, the boards are dry and will be installed in June/July during New England’s often humid summer.  I am planning on shooting it with a 15 gauge and installing it tight. Is this wise?

Thanks,  Stephen