Flooring

[uplander]

 I was having a discussion with a friend. I recently put down nearly 1300 square feet of flooring in a new house I constructed. I purchased the flooring from a well known distributor and finished it myself.
It looks great.

He asked me why I did not mill it and manufacture it my self since he knows I have the knowledge and equipment to do so. I replied that I thought it would take too long to get to the proper moister content.
I think that without a kiln I would have to put it in the barn loft for 6 months and then put it in the house stickered for about 4 years and then resaw it and run it on my shaper.
It was red oak flooring by the way. sitting in the house I think it would take 4 years to get equilibrium.

Uplander


What does the group here think?

[ely]

I don't think it takes that long, I do not have a moisture meter, but I have built a lot things off my mill, and I dry in a shed for anywhere from 20 years down to a few months and I haven't really noticed anything moving to the point of ruin.
I do have a bathroom door that gets a little sticky at the bottom corner from time to time. and I sawed a bunch of red oak that a friend made kitchen cabinets from and he had one raised panel door wake him up one night when it came apart. they remade that door and it is fine now. they only air dried that red oak for about 4 months and then inside A/C for about 6 months.

[beenthere]

Stickered in the house with heat on in the winter, and AC on in the summer to keep RH down, should not take 4 years. IMO

But combination of heat and relative humidity is what will determine the drying rate and the equilibrium moisture content over time.

[WDH]

I stickered some air dried red oak in my house, planed to 13/16".  It was 13.5% moisture.  I checked the moisture content every few days with a Wagner MMC210 pinless moisture meter and wrote the reading on the top boards.  It was in the house from Mid-March to late August, essentially over the summer.  In four weeks, the moisture content went from 13.5% to 9.5%, and that is where it stayed.  It will not take anywhere near four years in most modern houses. If it goes in the house air dried, and if it is stickered and not flat stacked,  it should only take a few months, not years.

Moisture meters are your friend.  There is a common belief that it takes wood a year to the inch of thickness to air dry.  This might be the case in some places, but not here.  No reason to guess if you use a lot of wood.  Buying a good moisture meter can be a good investment.   

[Larry]

When I built my house I air dried red oak for one spring/summer.  In August I stacked about 3,000 board foot of red oak in the completed garage of the new house.  My kiln was a big dehumidifier and a couple of fans seen here.



I ran my kiln with this highly sophisticated instrument from Radio Shack.



I monitored drying progress with this.



The lumber dried from  the air dry condition of 14-15% to 10-11% in three or four weeks.  At that time I started running casing and baseboards through the molder.  When I got done with doing that, the wood in my "kiln" was down to 9-10% and I built all the cabinets.  When I was done with cabinets the the little bit of wood left in the kiln was a solid 8%.  I could have did the 1,600 or so feet of hardwood floors but I let the experts do it.  The way I work it would have added another 6 months to the house build and Kathy was.....wanting to get moved in. :D

[WDH]

Very similar results to what I got. 

[ET]

You make this drying process sound much less problematic as Im anticipating. They are starting today with putting in my concrete floor in my new barn build. Getting a kiln going will be one of my first projects. I like hearing success stories such as this one. I know each species is different but this thread has given me a better insight into drying. Tks!

[WDH]

Once oak is air dried, you can hammer it pretty hard to get down to the final M%.  Takes a bunch of the risk away. 

[Okrafarmer]

Once oak is air dried, you can hammer it pretty hard to get down to the final M%.  Takes a bunch of the risk away.

???   

[WDH]

Hammer = Run The Kiln Maxed Out  .

[jim blodgett]

When I saw that lumber stacked and stickered in Larry's garage, then read ET say he was having his new slab poured, I was reminded how much moisture concrete
releases as it cures.  In which direction(s) it's released varries, depending on insulating/moisture control techniques used.

It's worth considering if you intend to use a freshly poured slab in an enclosed building to dry wood on, is all I'm saying.

[ET]

I also had 1ft vented overhang all the way around and a vented ridge. Just won a Wagner moisture meter at the pigroast today and cant wait to start using it. Ive never had one before. Still learning!  Got another 150 miles to get home. Left party 2 hrs ago had a wonderful time