Air Drying Hardwood Lumber

At an additional cost your hardwood lumber can be dried in a matter of days.

Air drying hardwood lumber.

We offer an express kiln drying system also as an option for drying your lumber. This will accelerate the drying and keep it more even throughout the lumber pile. Lumber is stacked in a special way to maximize the surface of each piece of lumber exposed to the air and to support each piece so it will dry straight and without unnecessary warping. Air dry isn t dry enough for indoor use.

Depending on the species and your climate it can take from 2 to 12 months to bring 4 4 lumber from green to air dry 12 to 20 percent moisture content depending on your location. Kiln drying your lumber is the best way to get the most out of the your hardwood lumber with the least amount of effort and space. Proper stacking of lumber for air drying involves building a strong foundation careful placing and spacing of the boards in the stack and providing roof protection figure 1. The most common method used to air dry lumber is to lay narrow sticks perpendicular to the layers of lumber to create an air space between each layer so the moisture can escape.

As long as the air temperature remains above freezing then the wood can make progress on drying. If you re planning to use the lumber for outdoor projects airdrying outdoors is fine. At this complex the largest of its kind in the u s robert has the responsibility for air drying and then kiln drying about 70 million board feet of hardwood every year. Robert mcguffy has headed up the wood drying sequence at the anderson tully company s vicksburg mississippi hardwood processing facility for decades.