This is why you always sanitize lumber

Stephen1 · March 11, 2019, 08:28:29 AM

gdady01 be careful if you haven't started sawing. Once you inhale that 1st taste of Sawdust you will be hooked. Look at the rest of us on this site. We all suffer from this issue.
Run now while you can!

:D

PA_Walnut · March 14, 2019, 04:12:09 AM

Quote from: YellowHammer on February 18, 2019, 08:03:39 PMI have to take such extreme efforts because we sell wood as a business, can't use chemicals, and although its a little intimidating, I must have the confidence and chops to stand behind my product, to sell my wood to customers or builders who are buying it because they are replacing, under an insurance claim and lawsuit, wood that they bought from someone else which wasn't sterilized and had and caused insect damage. That will give you second thoughts and make your skin crawl as a business owner, I guarantee it and make durn sure the old kiln hit the magic 150F for a day!

Wait a minute!?!? I thought you could just buy a $240 Amazon chainsaw mill, slice up some walnut slabs, and cash-in on a great Facebook Marketplace gig selling green wood? I see it all the time...big price tag "freshly sawn" slabs. Silly us with kilns....wife likes less vacationing. ;D

alan gage · March 14, 2019, 12:06:35 PM

We're fortunate being so far north to have much fewer insect problems than you have down south. But this late summer/fall I milled up some ash for flooring in my house and planed it down to 7/16". I stacked and stickered them in my basement to finish drying before install and got a good number of hatched out red-headed ash borers down there and have had a few upstairs since the install as well. Good thing it's my house and not someone else's. At least they keep the cats entertained.

Alan

GeneWengert-WoodDoc · March 15, 2019, 08:58:44 PM

As a quick review, for hardwood lumber, the only insect that is active under 12% MC is the lyctid powderpost beetle (plus the termite). Basically, the wood is too hard to bite and chew for other insects. The lyctid is indeed serious as it can infect adjacent lumber even though the insect may not show up with its holes for a year or two.

PA_Walnut · March 16, 2019, 07:11:28 AM

Gene,

What about softwood lumber for construction purposes? Since most of it seems to be "kiln dried" to a standard that is WAY less dry than hardwood, what is the net effect?

Also, can the PPB do enough damage to effect the integrity/strength of building material?

Just curious...thx

GeneWengert-WoodDoc · March 16, 2019, 07:24:18 AM

The lyctid PPB only affects grainy hardwoods. It can make tunnels during its lifetime that greatly weaken the wood. Other PPB can affect wetter wood and softwoods. Some foreign countries host other PPB that affect dry softwoods.

So, there are no lyctid PPB or other PPB in kiln dried softwood construction material...the kiln process if over 150F kills them and any eggs and after kiln drying and planing the moisture is too low and the surface too smooth for new eggs, etc.

YellowHammer · March 16, 2019, 08:27:14 AM

Quote from: alan gage on March 14, 2019, 12:06:35 PM
We're fortunate being so far north to have much fewer insect problems than you have down south. But this late summer/fall I milled up some ash for flooring in my house and planed it down to 7/16". I stacked and stickered them in my basement to finish drying before install and got a good number of hatched out red-headed ash borers down there and have had a few upstairs since the install as well. Good thing it's my house and not someone else's. At least they keep the cats entertained.

Alan

Very good information. So I'm curious about the drying and process you used. It was air dried in your house then run through a planer? Do you know what the moisture content was? Did it have a finish applied? I've had people tell me that if they used an oil based finish, the fumes would kill the insects still in the wood, but I never really believed it.

alan gage · March 16, 2019, 05:21:29 PM

Quote from: YellowHammer on March 16, 2019, 08:27:14 AM
Quote from: alan gage on March 14, 2019, 12:06:35 PM
We're fortunate being so far north to have much fewer insect problems than you have down south. But this late summer/fall I milled up some ash for flooring in my house and planed it down to 7/16". I stacked and stickered them in my basement to finish drying before install and got a good number of hatched out red-headed ash borers down there and have had a few upstairs since the install as well. Good thing it's my house and not someone else's. At least they keep the cats entertained.

Alan
Very good information. So I'm curious about the drying and process you used. It was air dried in your house then run through a planer? Do you know what the moisture content was? Did it have a finish applied? I've had people tell me that if they used an oil based finish, the fumes would kill the insects still in the wood, but I never really believed it.

It was air dried outside down to 10-11% during our dry fall weather before being planed and ripped into strips. Then stacked in the wood stove heated basement until it was reading 8.5-10%, which is what the exposed basement framing read as well. Obviously it would have been better to plane and rip after the final drying but my nicer shop equipment is 15 miles from my house and I didn't want to cart it back and forth.
After the install it received a single coat of shellac and then 3 coats of water based poly.
Alan