Hi everyone,
New to the forum and as an aspiring DIY'er I may be coming up with ideas that will cause me grief in the long run.
I'm looking to update a room in my house and put up cedar planks on top of the drywall. I plan to put an oil based stain on one side of the cedar.
Now, the cedar I procured was not kiln dried and still is green. I purchased an inexpensive probe based moisture gauge and I'm getting readings of 12 to 18% across some random samples.
I'm expecting some shrinkage so I plan to dado cut the wood, stain, and overlap the planks so that the drywall will not be exposed once the wood shrinks. Outside of that are there other problems I could potentially run into - mold issues with the drywall, stain getting damaged or other things?
Thanks!!!
Welcome to the Forum. What type of cedar? Depending on the accuracy of your meter you may or may not be some what OK, or in for a real mess. ERC will develop a white, crystal looking mold on it, if it's too wet and does not have enough air flow. If you really are at 12% then you should be fine, if you are really at 25% or more then, results will be largely impacted by ambient moisture of the area, overlap, etc.
Additional info can only help.
All the cedars dry pretty easily and quickly. Sticker it in the warmest place you've got, put some fans on it and get it dry first.
If the 12-18% reading is correct then you wont need to worry about mould, below ~20% it's not an issue (this is why construction lumber is dried to ~19%) Test some random dry wood with your meter, if it's under 10% in your house, and 10-15% outside, then the meter is reading what you should expect, even if it's not super accurate. +/- A few % wont matter in this application.
Cedar shrinks less than most woods, so a shiplap profile should take care of any movement.
ideally stickering it and getting it down to under 10% would be great, and should only take a few weeks. But if the moisture readings are close to correct you should get away with putting it up now.
I wouldn't be so sure you won't get some mold on the drywall paper. Depends of course how accurate your inexpensive moisture meter is. You should probably edit your title, 12-18% moisture level is far from green lumber.
FWIW, my moisture meter is a gunpowder scale and a microwave oven. Weigh a sacrificial piece of wood (I do a small piece say 1 x1 or slightly larger), microwave it until bone dry then reweigh it. If you passed grade school math your home free with a spot on moisture content. :D
I agree, cedar is the easiest of all woods I've dried.
Put up 15lb roofing felt over the drywall.
That way the drywall face paper won't be in contact with the wood.
Don't use poly sheeting
Wouldn't that be kinda stinky there Bruno? Maybe rosin paper instead?
Hi everyone,
Thank you all for the great advice!
So I ended up not using the cedar, which I'm not sure on the type, I know it's not red for certain though. I used Ianab's advice and tested some other random samples of wood that was dry which did register about 4 to 6 % lower, so I think it's off as once I pulled out and got out the router the wood was clearly moist, very moist. So all I can think of is my moisture meter is not that effective given the prongs only go in so far.
I ended up going a different direction with my project and used kiln dried pine that was already tongue and grooved. I used Tung oil for the finish and I love the look. This is for a walk-in closet that will be used as pseudo mudroom for the kids and misses to put away and organize all their stuff. I still have some trimming to finish up and complete the bench; but, it's come along.
I also love the idea of using a barrier like felt or rosin paper, would have not thought of that. I'll file that idea away for the future!
Thanks everyone!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/60381/pic.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1589298642)
Nice closet - I just finished one with red cedar.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/50848/IMG_8063.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1589303272)
Acclimate it in the house for a couple months. I assume you're house is air conditioned?