I did a search on the Internet for the average moisture contact of a home with central heat and air. The answers I got were typically 30 to 40%. My question is why dry wood to be used inside down to 10%? Would it only expand a little bit over time?
Think you might be mixing terminology, relative humidity in your home and timber moisture content aren't the same number.
Relative humidity of 35% in a 70F home let's say, equates to an equilibrium MC of more like 7%.
The industry standard is to dry hardwood flooring to 7% MC. Even at 10-12% you will end up with movement, shrinkage, and a poor floor.
Start here and holler back if it's clear as mud;
Equilibrium moisture content - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equilibrium_moisture_content)
What is the industry standard for SYP ?
Quote from: trimguy on September 10, 2022, 09:46:52 PM
What is the industry standard for SYP ?
Construction pine is usually only dried down to below 19%. At that number it can't stain or rot. The wood you buy may be less if it's been stored for a while, and of course it dries out over time. Bit if it's wall stud for example, no one notices if it gets 1% narrower over time.
But with floor boards or furniture, you notice the gaps or other random movement.
The 7% MC for "furniture" dry hardwoods is basically an average that works for most of the continental USA. Other areas, especially coastal, might have a higher EMC. It's more like 12% here.
10% on SYP. Below that and it gets brittle, splinters, and tears apart hard when milling.
The "turn that truck around" point in Raleigh for cabinets, millwork and furniture which isn't too far from you was 13%. We could maintain 12 in the open shops but not much drier. With SYP when I left there more high temp kilned wood was coming in. Very slightly darker but the main thing was I could hear the difference at the whirlwind saw as I broke it down. I'm pretty sure the sound was an internal tension set from the very rapid drying.
Sorry, I knew what I meant 😂. I was talking about pine for trim work, wall paneling, flooring, etc. Thank you.