Air Drying Lumber In Attic

At this complex the largest of its kind in the u s robert has the responsibility for air drying and then kiln drying about 70 million board feet of hardwood every year.

Air drying lumber in attic.

Typically you can achieve a moisture content of 10 15 percent by air drying alone although this will vary according to your local climate. Here are some tips and cautions. I ve had small stacks of wood drying in the attic the basement and the garage. Though attics are typically hot and dry a leaky roof or pipe condensation or severe weather can cause water to enter your attic.

Air drying lumber over time can help reduce stress in boards. Lumber is air dried first. That made it much easier for me to hoist all of those boards into my attic for longer drying time and storage. When you airdry lumber it s not unusual to lose up to 10 percent or more to drying defects.

Also air drying for a period of time prior to loading it in the attic might be a good. You can air dry 4 4 lumber indoors from 15 percent to 8 percent in a single heating season. Osb sheathing makes for a cheap. Here s my experience with attic air drying.

Lumber defects occur when drying is too rapid which leads to surface checks and end splits or when drying is too slow which results in sticker stains and discoloration from fungal growth because air drying is at the mercy of the weather drying rates are difficult to control. Sticker lumber on hard surface ground floor or 2nd floor of shop. See monitoring the stack page 51 air dried wood contains no internal stress. Instead of bringing the lumber to the heat i set up a box and with fans and hoses sucked the attic air to the lumber.

Just bring in enough to satisfy your needs for the coming year. Since we are planning to use these resources the idea is to air dry the lumber until it will give up no more moisture without assistance and then look at different ways to complete the drying process. Water in your attic can damage wood. Here is how it works successfully for me.

How to air dry lumber find a knowledgeable sawyer. Wood will reach an equilibrium air dry mc or emc at that rate but it will continue to lose moisture and shrink when brought indoors. Do some research on the drying schedule for the type of wood you are considering drying. After reaching 20 moisture content stack the lumber in a place where it can remain for an extended period of time until it reaches a point of equilibrium.

Drying wood in the attic the attic is a handy place to dry small quantities of lumber. Drying times can vary significantly depending upon wood species initial moisture level lumber thickness density ambient conditions and processing techniques. You might get a lot of degrade in the lumber. Allowing lumber to passively sit at a given humidity level in order to obtain a desired emc air drying may be the simplest and least expensive method of seasoning wood but it is also the very slowest.

Robert mcguffy has headed up the wood drying sequence at the anderson tully company s vicksburg mississippi hardwood processing facility for decades.