Plank flooring

[bman]

I am building a timber frame house and have cut on site plank flooring in 1" and 1.5" inch thichness by 8"-12" width by 25' long planks out of doug fir. I am in western oregon and have sticker stacked said planks outside and covered the top with black plastic to shed rain. The ends were sealed with anchor seal when the trees were felled last fall. I milled the planks and finished stacking about 4 weeks ago. Any one want to guess how long too dry in this manner before I can reasonably expect to install plankswith out getting too much shrinkage?. The pile is covered as mentioned and gets sun the first half of day and a good breeze blowing thru the stack from one side to the other. Have had mild weather the last month and will be heading into the heart of the warm season in the next six weeks. Comments please, Thanks bman

[HARLEYRIDER]

although I dont have first hand experience in drying yet, I have a simular project going right now(6"Qs R. Oak), and have asked many of the same questions. I've also been in the wood flooring trades for 15 yrs.

you dont want to install this untill your under 10%...8%would be better. and being stacked outside, you never get the moisture that low. maybe if you build a solar kiln around the stack, you can control the conditions better using fans, vents, and a dehumidifier. 6 weeks may get you dry enough like this.

[beenthere]

I'd get a representative board from the pile (not the one that will be dry first) and remove a small sample from it after having weighed the sample board.  Then oven dry the small sample, and from there determine the actual moisture content starting out. Then periodically weigh the test board being sure to keep it in its original spot and not drying faster than the others. Then I can calculate the moisture content of that board and plot the progress of drying.

The kiln manuals will also tell how to do this. It will be good to know what is happening, or not happening, to your flooring as time goes by. Possibly you will want to address some slow drying if the wood isn't losing moisture fast enough for your building schedule.

[bman]

I had thought about moving the planks into the house as the main timber frame is wide open with no partions as yet. The house is finished on the exteror and there is a wood stove in the middle of the house. What if I stacked planks inside, closed the doors, set up box fans to circulate the air and fired up the wood stove and kept it going? The inside of the house is bone dry. I can lay a sheet of plastic on the slab for days and I get no condensation on the underside.

[HARLEYRIDER]

that might get them dry in your timeframe. stack with stickers,...fans, dehumidifier, woodstove on rainy days

[Cypress Man]

I am not sure of the relative humidity in Oregon but here in Southern Louisiana, its impossible to air dry lumber below 14%.  I would highly recommend having the wood kiln dried to below 10%.  One inch thick lumber will take approximately 1 year to air dry to its maximum potential.  If you cant wait, dont have access to a kiln, and can make room inside your Kitchen or livingroom, as I did, you can greatly reduce the moisture content by stacking it inside.  Your air conditioner or heater will effectively dry the lumber, simular to a kiln. 

[4woody]

is that wy my eyes dry out when my whife truns on the ac