Green lumber

[Mr Mom]

     I want to add on to my house play room and storage space.
     If i mill my wood how soon can i use it???
     I know that one year  is the best but the wife wants the rooms two years ago :D :D :D.
     All the help will be great.
     Most of the wood will be made out of maple. 2x6 walls,2x10 for rafters,floor joists and some kind of 1x for siding.
     I Should have a mill around april of this year. (praying)




     Thanks Mr Mom

[Jim_Rogers]

The first thing you need to do is create a set of plans. Once you have the plans drawn then the sizes of the timbers can be accurately determined, and the load carrying capacities of these sizes can be checked, based on the type of wood you'll like to use.
All green wood will shrink, when drying out.
The smaller the wood size the less it will shrink.

Jim Rogers

[Thehardway]

Mr. Mom,

You may want to clarify a little.  It sounds from your post as if you are planning a conventional "stick built" framing system.   Using green lumber for an application such as this would be ill advised in my opinion as it will not be able to properly dry once you insulate and wrap the addition (required by code).  It will be prone to mold, mildew, infestation etc. as well as severe warp, twist, shrink.  If you are doing true timber-frame (ie. large timbers w/ pegged mortice tenon joinery) then it is a little different.  Timbers should be air dried a min. of 6-8weeks after milling to see if they are going to be prone to movement before beginning to do any joinery cutting.  6 months to a year is ideal.  Movement/shirinkage in true timberframing applications is considered and allowed for in engineering but in dimensional (stick-built) lumber framing it is not.  State and Local building codes may also prohibit the use of un-inspected un-stamped dimensional lumber for stick building.  Be sure, not sorry.

[Mr Mom]

     Sorry guys.
     I will stick built and planning to let the wood air dry for a couple of months.
     I was reading a post about using rough cut lumber so i called the building dept and they said that it was ok to use the wood i just had to get a building permit. : : :
     What is the least amount of time to let the wood air dry befor i use it??
     There is a place that kiln drys wood maybe i should get some prices.



     Thanks Mr Mom

[Thehardway]

Air dry rule of thumb is 1 year per 1" of thickness for softwoods and 1 year per 1/2" thickness for hardwoods.  There are a few ways to speed that up slightly but your best option would be the kiln.  Glad you checked code first ;D

[Don P]

If you build well elevated piles and sticker you should be below 19% by early fall, after a summer's drying. I build with wood from the building supply all the time that is well above 19%. I work slow enough that it has always been dry by the time I button things up.
If you think about it, even the code required 19% is only half dry compared to the in-service moisture content. That's why wood gets squirrely when you pop the bands and open up a bundle, its still moving as it dries more.

Headers are the main thing I check for shrinkage and shim at the jack studs if necessary. I have to do that with lumberyard wood too. Most other framing shrinks as a unit if the design is simple. If its only one story I wouldn't worry.

Pull the permit now  :D

[Mr Mom]

     Don P---Thanks for the info.
     The only person that will be doing most of the work is me so work will be really slow :D :D :D.
     It is only one story just a bump out the size might be 12x30.
     The room is going to be half the size of the house.
     I thought about building a timber frame over the house that is here.

[Don P]

I've been doing an experiment here on white pine drying rate. I milled the wood 4/4 during the summer and had it stickered under tin until last week. I planed it to 7/8" and dead piled it to take to the job. I brought 1 board into the house and stood it in the stairway not too far from the woodstove, ceiling fan at the top of the stairs. The house is running about 8.4% emc.

Saturday nite I brought the wood in and metered it at 15%
Sun nite it was 12%
This morning and again tonite it reads 9% and is likely as dry as I'll get it without really cranking the stove.

I'll take the pile to the job and sticker it upstairs in the garage where we have a good heater and fan in. Should be dry enough in a week easy.  I'll finish plane it and rip it then. (Someone denied my request to sticker the pile in our living room  : ;D)

Your maple will dry considerably slower than pine but it does show that if conditions are right drying can happen pretty fast. However its all about temperature and RH. I think that's probably where the rule of thumb came in. In the course of a year the wood will have been through a good drying period. All depending, you can't guarantee that if the period is under a year.

[Mr Mom]

     Don P--- Thanks alot for the info.
     what if you mill the boards 3/4"???
     I had planned on putting up board and batten and mill it 3/4" for siding.
     i heard that any boardunder 1" bows and twist alot.
     Good idea or not??

[Part_Timer]

I cut a couple hundred bf of hard and soft maple at 5/8 of an inch for some thinner stuff so as not to have to plane to 3/8 or 1/2 if lucky.  I worked fine for me.  Air dried for 4-5 months before it went into the kiln

tom

[Mr Mom]

     Thanks Part_Timer.
     Don P--- I just asked my wife if i could put the wood in our living room and she said that if it got the rooms built faster than go ahead  8) 8) 8).
     
     

[Don P]

My sweet wife put up with stacks in the living room for several years. She finally moved my supply out of our woodfired kiln, er I mean home, and I think she means it  :D

In order to promote marital bliss at your houshold though, If your mill is coming in April the heater will be off and the heat is coming on outside, the best drying conditions then are going to be under shelter outside with good airflow 

This link is to the American Wood Council's Span Calculator for dimensional lumber, it does have a catagory for mixed maple as well as red maple.

http://www.awc.org/calculators/span/calc/timbercalcstyle.asp

[IL Bull]

How dry does wood have to be to be able to dead stack it and for it not to mold? ???

[Mr Mom]

     IL Bull--- that was going to be my next question.
     How dry does wood have to be to build with??




     Thanks Mr Mom

[Corley5]

My house and many others have been built with green lumber with no problems.  Mine is stick built from 95% big tooth aspen.  The trees were cut and hauled to the mill on day 1, sawed and hauled here the next and nailed up the third.  The roof, windows and doors were put in right away along with house wrap on the outside but I didn't finish the inside walls or ceilings for a few months so it could dry out and the siding was put on the following summer.  I worked on the electrical, plumbing and insulation through the winter.  Lumber is straighter and easier to work with when it's green although heavier ;).  Put it up fresh cut and nail it good with ardox or ring shank nails so it can't move.  Try pulling one of those nails after the lumber dries out ;D  Dry lumber isn't necessary ;) ;D ;D

[Mr Mom]

     Corley5--- That is what i wanted to hear.
     I think that i will let it air dry as much as posable before i do any work with it.
     You are very right about houses being built with green lumber.
     Just trying to cover all the bases.