Question about Non-Kiln Dried Wood

[pkirby]

I need your expert woodworker's advice, because I've only dealt with kiln-dried lumber that comes from the lumber yard. I'm looking at using 1x10 pine for the siding of a children's playhouse (it's going to have a barn style look to it). I found a local sawmill that has non-kiln dried pine for $0.46 per board foot. Here's my questions:

1) Will it warp and shrink a lot as it air dries?
2) Is it possible to pay someone to kiln dry it without a lot of warping?

Thanks,
Paul

[steve_g]

I think that's why "board and batten" style barn siding was developed... Has the wood been stacked, stickered and air dried at all?

SG

[myxpykalix]

First, i'm not an expert but my experience has been that pine has a lot of resin or goo or whatever you want to call it, so it doesn't seem to warp as much as some of the other hardwoods.

You can kiln dry anything but if it is done too quickly you just wind up with a lot of cracked wood. Check the cost of kiln drying you may find you can purchase already dried wood for the same price without all the hassle yourself.:eek:

Depending on how thick your wood is a rule of thumb is 1 yr per inch of thickness on air drying. If this is for a kids playhouse i'd just use it as is. The kid will outgrow the house before it goes bad and frankly i think you want it to take on the look of an old barn.
Good luck and post pics when done

[genek]

how much it will shrink i do not know.. but it will shrink. mostly on width.. around 1/4 to about 3/8... if it was me i would put it up wet... but the wood together side by side up and down just like on a barn.. to keep it from splitting around the nails drill a slightly larger hole but smaller than the nail head and about 2 inches in from the edge and nails in the center of the board.. try to space them out and offset the nails.
.. pre-staning will also help slow the shrinkage.
then when the building is finished. take 2 inch strips and cover the seams.. at first only drive the nails in the center where the seam is. after the wood has dried on the building for a year.. then you can drive more nails where it is needed to correct any warps.. after six months come back and put nails in the strip over the seams on each side and offset those as well... would use stainless steel nails. normal ones rust and the galvanized ones will turn it dark at the nail site.
an easy stain and long lasting one is diesel fuel and a quart of transmission oil... two quarts to a five gallon bucket... stinks for a few days... but bugs etc will never bother it... brush it on heavy. we do this after it is built... it does darken with age... there is a chart and i do not know where i found it long time ago that tells how much a board will shrink.
if you plan on air drying it before you build it is best stored under sheets of tin roofing... this gets the wood hot enough to kill beatle's the stain also kills the beatle's
for wood to air dry it takes 6 months for 2/4 thick board.. 12 months for 4/4.
not sure what a kiln would charge to dry it for you... depends on how soon you need it... do you have a insulated garage that has a good seal on the doors.. if so run a good dehumidifier and keep the garage at or above 90 degrees... there is a formula for how fast wood should dry.. drying it to quick will cause it to warp and split... to slow and it meldews to help stop end splits use a water block paint on the ends... this is where more moisture is lost in the drying process and this helps the wood to dry correctly with less warps and splits... best if done as it is sawed or before...

[bobmoore]

Hi Paul. Any wood can be kiln dried without a lot of warping but the process is species specific and I am not familiar with Geogia pines. Some wood needs slower heat, weight to hold warping in check, painted end grain to slow the process, ect. Best to have the experts do it so you don't end up with firewood. If I am building a play house for kids I would plane or sand off a lot of the slivers and really think through the wood treatments for safety reasons. Just my input safety first.
Bob

[Jerome]

Years ago a friend of mine talked me into throwing together some green lumber for a dog pen. I nailed it together on a Friday by simply butting the boards to each other. when I came to work on Monday I could almost stick my fist through the joints.

They tell me the old timers used boards and battens. They would nail the batten on one side only. after the boards dried out they would nail the other side.

[blackhawk]

Paul - Here is a link to a wood shrinkage calculator.

http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl?calculator=shrinkage

Problem is that you probably don't know the current moisture content. I would guess that it is at least 50%. Outdoors, the pine will probably get down to around 12% once it finally dries out.

[bcondon]

Paul,

I had a white pine taken down and rough saw using a bandsaw mill,
flatsawn the boards. I would estimate that the boards started about 50 pounds (1 " thick, 10-20" wide, 10 feet long) and now they are about 20 pounds each.... A lot of water.

I stacked and stickered for 3 months and they could be used. I strores some inside and some outside under large covers (gray tarps)

I did not see any warping at all, but it was all stcked and stickered. I do know that my logging friends recommend banding the stack so that it will dry and stay pretty much straight.

.45 is about the right price. I get white cedar in 1" boards (rough) with 2 good edges for .60 per BFT

I am planing and T&G with vgroove of 350 BFT for a friend.

Thanks

Bob Condon

Bob Condon

[pkirby]

Thanks guys for all the help. I'm going to call around and see if I can find a local kiln dryer. I'm too impatient to wait for air drying:D

[bruce_taylor]

T1-11 plywood is made to look like board and batten and maybe a cost effective solution for your application.

[myxpykalix]

try finding a small sawmill many times small sawmills will have their own kiln and do it cheaper then a big operation