Drying lumber in a pole building

[Hammerhead]

I have 2000 bdft. red oak to cut this week. The owner wants to know if it would be OK to dry it inside his new pole building which has a cement floor and would be closed up most of the time. It does have ridge vents though. What do you guys think? Thanks .

[Ianab]

Hi Hammerhead

I dont think that would be such a good idea as there would be no airflow over the wet wood to dry it. It would likely grow mould and I believe that Oak gives off acid as it dries, which he may not want in his shed.
It would be better to dry it in an open shed or outside with a cover of some kind on top to keep sun / rain off. Once it's reasonably airdried it should be OK in the shed for storage and slowly completeing the drying, but I wouldn't put it in the shed green.

Ian

[oakiemac]

Hammerhead, this winter I put about 400ft of green red oak in my pole barn and I'll never do that again. As lanab said, it molded up pretty good. Better to stack it where there is more air flow.

[Norm]

Hammerhead I use my morton style building to air dry in, this time of year you have to careful though. Red oak is the next to hardest wood to dry properly in it, white oak is the worst. You can air dry outside but I find that I would rather have some mold than surface checks from it drying too fast with a warm wind outside. If your concerned about air movement than a dairy barn fan will help. My shed can get very hot this time of year so drying too fast can be a problem with it also. I try to time my cutting of the oaks to the fall and spring if I'm going to air dry it.

It would still be best to put it into a kiln as soon as possible after cutting for controlled drying rates.