Air Drying Lumber In Attic

That made it much easier for me to hoist all of those boards into my attic for longer drying time and storage.

Air drying lumber in attic.

You can air dry 4 4 lumber indoors from 15 percent to 8 percent in a single heating season. Here is how it works successfully for me. Drying times can vary significantly depending upon wood species initial moisture level lumber thickness density ambient conditions and processing techniques. Air drying lumber over time can help reduce stress in boards.

Water in your attic can damage wood. 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. Sticker lumber on hard surface ground floor or 2nd floor of shop. How to dry out an attic.

Here are some tips and cautions. See monitoring the stack page 51 air dried wood contains no internal stress. 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. Lumber is air dried first.

Though attics are typically hot and dry a leaky roof or pipe condensation or severe weather can cause water to enter your 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. 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. The thicker the wood the longer the drying time.

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. How to air dry lumber find a knowledgeable sawyer. Here s my experience with attic air drying. Osb sheathing makes for a cheap.

You might get a lot of degrade in the lumber. Just bring in enough to satisfy your needs for the coming year. Robert mcguffy has headed up the wood drying sequence at the anderson tully company s vicksburg mississippi hardwood processing facility for decades. When you airdry lumber it s not unusual to lose up to 10 percent or more to drying defects.

I ve had small stacks of wood drying in the attic the basement and the garage. Remember you don t have to bring in the whole stack at once. Drying wood in the attic the attic is a handy place to dry small quantities of lumber. 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.

Also air drying for a period of time prior to loading it in the attic might be a good.