Mold??? growing on drying red oak

[genedieter]

Hello all!

Please excuse my ignorance....as I am new to all of this.....

I have already learned so much by navigating around this forum. I appreciate all of the information and ENTERTAINMENT!

I have a problem....and am hoping that you might help......

here we go.......

I recently built a 3 car garage with an apartment over top on a parcel of wooded land in NE PA (ALLENTOWN). I had some of my Red Oak trees that were felled to allow for the long driveway and the building site milled by a portable mill that a friend of my father's brought over to the house back in October. My intention was to let it dry in the garage over the next 3-4 years and then use it in the house that I will build on the same site. I used a dehumidifier for the first month or so, but with air getting dryer and the garage getting colder I had to abandon the dehumidifier lately.

I was checking on the wood earlier today and as I flipped a few of the boards (4/4) over I found a substance that looked like white fur (kinda fuzzy : ) growing on the underside of the top boards and on the stickers and most of the boards underneath. Some boards had an orangish kind of mold....or fuzz growing on them as well.

I am going to Staples right now to get an adapter for my digital camera to show you guys the picture. I'll send as soon as I can....

Just wondering what you guys think I should do.....I am hoping to use these boards as floor boards in the house that will be built in a few years....wondering if they could be saved????

Thanks for your advice!!!!

GD

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.
You stated   ""..but with air getting dryer and ......""

This is the only miscalculation I see in your 'plan', in that the air is likely not getting dryer, but instead is getting 'wetter' with the colder weather. The relative humidity goes up when the air is cooler, and the oak lumber is very wet.
I think I'd try to get some heat in the garage and also set up some way to move some air through the stickered pile.
If the mold is of concern, I think I would take the pile apart and lightly spray the wood with a mild bleach/ water solution and restack.
You may want to look into getting a reading on the humidity around this stack, and then add heat to control that humidity for careful drying of oak.
Sounds like too good an investment at this point to lose your wood.

[Ga_Boy]

Gene,

As Beenthere pointed out, your problem lies in the lack of air flow and low tempertures.  You need some heat to dry your lumber out.

Mold grows when the air is wet and not moving.  Get some fans and point them such that the air is flowing through the stacks.  Add little heat and put the dehumidifiers back to work.

A good publication to read is "Drying Hardwood Lumber".  It is a Forestry Service publication, you can down load a copy over at Wood Web.



Mark

[genedieter]

Thanks Mark and Beenthere!

I'll get the air flow moving through the stack. I can get the heat up to around 50 to 55 degrees F.

Will the Dehumidifier be okay running at that low of a temperature, or would it be better for me to get the wood outside?

What would you suggest the solution percentage bleach to water be to kill the mold growth on the wood?

thanks for the assistance!

GD

[Tom]

When I use a household bleach for killing mold on my wood, I mix it about 3 to 1 or a little less.  The use of a 3 gal garden sprayer makes it easy. About a half gallon of bleach and fill it up with water.   Mist the surfaces until damp.

Air movement is the most important thing.  Mold won't grow in dry air.  It needs the sugars from the wood and water.

Cold air has little ability to pick up water even though it is dry.  

Do you have the wood stacked up against wall or in a corner?  That will prohibit air movement even with a fan.

The de-humidifier probably isn't doing much good.  I would guess that there is too much water present in the wood and the garage for the machine to handle anyway.  Fans are the best bet and venting the air to the outside, daily, to get rid of the wet air will help too.

It's difficult to move aire from inside of a stickered stack of wood. There is not much room between stickers.  It take s pretty good flow and a place for the air to go. Stacks that are too wide are a problem too.  Keeping the stacks 4 to 6 feet wide is best. Stickeres must be lined up in a column for weight purposes but also to create a plenum for the air.

Stackin your wood using green (wet) stickers from the milling operation is a last choice.  Wet stickers on Wet wood makes drying difficult and allows the growth of mold too.

Clean the boards of sawdust.  Sawdust holds moisture and will cause "Shadow Stain".   It could be that a lot of the mold you are experiencing is in the sawdust rather than the board.  It will still stain it.

Get 4 to 6 inches of air between the concrete floor and the stack too.  Concrete will wick moisture into the air.  You need to have good air flow under the stack as well.

[Ga_Boy]

Gene,

There is a commercial operation near me that uses three "home" use dehumifiders and a home made wood stove to dry his material.  I mention this as a reference point.

I have assumed that the dehumifider are residential grade.  If this assumption is correct then these units are designed to work in the tempreture range you mention; you should be able to raisethe tempertures to the 70-80 degree F range if the energy is not to costly (here I have assumed electricity).

Check the owners mannual for high tempreture range foir safe operation.

Most molds are surface molds that are removed in the planing operation.  So all is not lost yet.



Mark

[Norwiscutter]

Before I built my kiln, I had some pine that I had to dry for my kitchen floor. Was in january so it was pretty cold in my uninsulated garage, but I built a kind of make shift kiln with a wood frame and 6-mil plastic. Put my dehumidifer at one end and a small portable space heater at the other.  The space heater was sucking in air from the outside and I built a small hole in the top that i used for ventilation.  I also put a couple of fans in there to circulate the air. This makeshift method got hot enough for the dehumidifier to kick in, and the Humidity level in the chamber droped down to 0%.  

That being said, oak is alot more finicky than pine, and has alot more potential for loss in the drying process. I would keep a close eye on what ever you choose to do with it.