How long to dry lumber?

[KeithB]

OK guys, answer this: How long would it take to air dry wood to make usable framing lumber if it was kept in a controlled humidity environment? We have a lot of trees on our business property and almost 2.5 acres of trees on a residential property we may end up buying. At the price of lumber I'm wondering if it might be worthwhile to clear out some excess and turn it into dimensional lumber.

A friend of a friend has a portable sawmill and I'd buy a wood planer if I had to. Not sure of the mix of tree types, I'm going to try to get someone from the Purdue Ag extension office or maybe the Life Science department at the University to come out and catalog things. Some of the trees may well be 100 years old or older, I know nothing has been done to one of the properties in 50+ years.

 

[JustJim]

Rough rule of thumb is 1 year per inch of thickness. That may or may not apply in your drying conditions, but gives you a starting point. Drying in a controlled humidity environment can be a headache: most ACs etc were not designed to deal with the volume of water say, 1,000 bd ft puts off. You may be able to find someone locally who has a kiln and will work with you. Or you might be able to get approval to use a solar kiln or other homebuilt kiln.

Check the local building codes before spending money. Some code requires wood to be kiln-dried.

 

[Ian]

^^^^^^Absolutely spot-on.

 

[RicinYakima]

Coming from a logging area, before spotted owl, justjim and Ian right.

 

[RBHarter]

Air movement is huge .
As a working example I had a pickup bed level with green oak a number of years ago , also a trailer stacked 6×12×3 . The trailer lost around 750# between Amarillo Texas and Kingman Arizona and another 3-400# from there to almost Reno . The wood in the bed was displacing so much water that the boot legged Lone Star in the tool box in the bed was cold when I stopped just north of Vegas at Indian Springs . It was late afternoon and had been 114° in Vegas .

I've had KD lumber literally splash when sinking nails . At 20-24% water content a 8' 2×4 weighs 5.5-8.5# in hemi-fir #2 and better KDHT . Kept dry with free air movement stack with 1/4" spacing 12 wide air/sun dry should make atmospheric in 3 months or so when it warm say May thru September 6-8 over the winter here in the wet county .

 

[Ian]

Those ink stamps on commercial lumber have great meaning to contractors.

 

[fiver]

I see a lot of wood [douglas fir] that's still wet too.
if it gets nailed in place before it dries it doesn't twist around like an amusement park ride.

 

[RBHarter]

That's marked sel/str . There's a book for this stuff but I long ago decided that actually means either seldom straight or sell straight (as in right now while it still is .

 

[Petrol & Powder]

During the time it would take to air dry a useful amount of lumber, the market is likely to change.
The current lumber pricing seems to be more about distribution and transporation than supply. Making big expenditures now may not pay off several years from now.
I've seen people make thier own lumber for building projects, including my neighbor. There are some bragging rights to "doing it all yourself" but I'm not sure you save any money in the end.
There may be a lot more profit in selling the timber and letting someone else deal with the risk, expense, storage and all the headaches associated with production and distribution.

 

[Fiddler]

I know a sawyer uses shipping containers with an air conditioner(s?) for drying. He monitors the amount of water removed from them.
Very important to put 'sticks' between the layers to allow for air circulation. 'Sticks' are narrow strips of scrap wood left over from sawing the logs.

 

[Bret4207]

Keith, drying wood is kind of an art and science all on it's own. There's a lot of good advice above, particularly the part about building codes and requirements for graded lumber. Personally, I think it's a lot of nonsense for the guy supervising his own building project since only an idiot would use bad lumber in something so expensive, but I suppose you have to set the bar for lowest mental giants out there.

 

[JonB]

While some of us bullet casters are the independent type, who would build a house in a municipality with Timber we cut, in these modern times in the lower 48, where there are building codes and such, it would seem more logical to sell the standing Timber to someone else, then apply that money toward building a house.
That's my 2¢

 

[KeithB]

I contacted one of the arborists in the Urban Forestry group at the local Parks and Rec department. They will do a tree assessment for free and make recs on what can be done. I'm thinking that if local codes require kiln dried lumber for structural use we could still probably get enough lumber for flooring. Our current home has 5" wide Brazilian Cherry in every room on the main floor, would like to have native hardwood floors in the new crib.

Lot of good advice here, thanks. I don't really want to log the property, just clear out enough to keep things healthy and get enough lumber to defray some of the costs.

 

[JonB]

well now, framing lumber and Flooring are two different thangs...
I was assuming framing lumber.
I think your Flooring Idea is a great one.

 

[KeithB]

I WAS thinking framing lumber but the talk of codes and such is changing my mind. I don't think flooring and wood trim (window casements etc.) need to be kiln dried or certified in any way. And thinner pieces should dry even quicker than thicker framing lumber.

 

[popper]

hardwood floors - just buy the stuff.
Kid had 70 some acres mixed hardwood removed, enough to probably pay for re-planting. 50$/ton (in BOARDS) at the mill, IF you can get that. About 25$ if used for pulp. My experience, loggers will take ALL of anything they can make $ on. They will destroy anything in the way of profit and YOU get to clean up. What they used at her place. Plus a dragger and longarm. Neat to watch but lots of cleanup. Saving all my oil changes for burn piles. This is one of the cleaner areas where they cut. Lots of 5-8" wood left to cut (fire wood) or burn.

 

[fiver]

and unfortunately the cutters ain't the ones making or paying out money to cut right now.
it's the saw mills putting out 1/3rd the lumber at 3X the price.
the retailers just click on their usual markup and listen to the complaints.

 

[Bret4207]

While some of us bullet casters are the independent type, who would build a house in a municipality with Timber we cut, in these modern times in the lower 48, where there are building codes and such, it would seem more logical to sell the standing Timber to someone else, then apply that money toward building a house.
That's my 2¢

The amount of $ he gets for the logs isn't going to even put a dent in the retail costs unless he's got a good 40 plus acres of marketable timber. He's talking thinning the stand, which usually means taking the worst first. Unless he's got some real nice stuff there it's not likely going to work.

 

[popper]

Unless he used the timber for underlayment it needs to be dried anyway so shrinkage doesn't produce 'cracks' between the boards.