The Forestry Forum

I am loving the new building. It sure makes things easier on me. One problem I'm having though is not enough air movement. 


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There is a large 20' garage door in the front. In the rear there is a man door. 

All the lumber stacked along the wall is overflow that comes off the edger. I have it separated by length and width. 

It has been incredibly rainy and humid this month which I know doesn't help. 

Today I found that the bottom half of my stacks were molding badly. I set up fans but don't want them in the runway all the time as I'm in and out of there often. 

If I mounted oscillating fans on the ceiling above the piles do y'all think it would make any difference? 

Looking for options 

 Your stacks are way too wide.  Steve

This has been a difficult year in the Northeast for keeping things dry. When it's not actually raining it's so hot and humid it feels  like a steam bath outside. Fans might help some but what we need is dry air.

Kill two boards with one stone... :D

1.  The best way to get airflow through the stacks is to put the fans between the stacks, and force airflow through them.  I typically use one barrel fan per 8 feet.

2.  The wet stacks with fans blowing through them will act as a swamp cooler, and the evaporative cooling will help lower the temperature in your shop.  I have seen as much as a 10 degree drop in temperature on the downstream airflow coming out of a wet stack of wood.  The wetter the wood, the more airflow impacts moisture removal, so fans work very well on green wood.  

Then it is important to exhaust the moist air out the building, so use exhaust fans and open the doors.

There is a tremendous amount of water in wet wood, consider if is 30% to 50% moisture and if you have 10,000 lbs of wet wood, then you'll have to remove 5,000 to 3,000 lbs of water out of your building.  

If you can move your green lumber drying stacks outside, at least though the initial stages, it would be better.