pine floor mold prevention

[fivedogs]

Hi  everyone  we have  begun to put down  the pine  floor  section  of our  barn  redo   we are using  green white  pine   2 inch  thick planks  of  different  widths

the barn  is insulated  and sealed  very  well  currently  we have  one  open  window  about 2x2  open to the air   worried  about 

mold  our  first  test  piece   appears  to  something  like mold   green  dotted   sections   should  we put  a fan  to it  indoors  or   

stack  outside  and use  some type of  salamander  heater   to dry it  enough to prevent  the mold   from forming   any ideas  would

  be  appreciated.   thanks  fivedogs

[Don P]

A roof or tin over a stickered pile outside in the breeze will get it down below ~25% fairly quickly at which point it has not shrunk yet but it is below fiber saturation point which will stop the mold as long as nothing is rewetting it. You've crossed that line when you can look at a freshly cut board end and not see moisture.

[Roger Nair]

Fivedogs, a salamander is very good at two things:  Heating a building and adding moisture to the air, which is only natural since it is an unvented combustion heater, whose combustion gases have a huge water component.  If you could use some type of vented heater, you will advance the cause. Fans are good, exhausting storage area good and temperature should be steady but moderate.

[MbfVA]

Good point & it sounds like that would be true of any unvented propane heater, including the Mr Heater types.

Here's a crazy suggestion, comments welcome, wrap the building openings up to where it is somewhat airtight, and put in a few dehumidifiers.  May not be practical, because of the nature of what you have there  how it's built , but it might work with a more sealed building.

Maybe it's possible to somewhat "tent" the area that you want to dry out and put the dehumidifiers underneath-- The goal being to cut down the area that you have to dry to as little as possible air above the wood.  I'm out in the middle of a field just treated with biosolids, so my thoughts may be a little scattered, no punny metaphor intended.

[Don P]

airflow at the green stage will do more than anything. Continually sweep that bulk of rising free moisture off the surface. For most of us that is usually a stickered pile under tin where the breeze is good.

[fivedogs]

thanks  for the great  feedback   I think we'll try  stickering  outside  under tin   how long do you think  it would take  to dry enough 

we live in upstate  ny  in the Adirondacks  pretty open where we are    thanks again 

  fivedogs

[Don P]

If it stays mild, low humidity and breezy a couple of months will probably get you there.
       Winter is coming.

If this is a lower floor over a crawlspace cover the dirt under there with plastic, tape the seams, pile dirt around the edges on the plastic to seal it to the foundation wall... keep that moisture out of the building. In our case it's a working livestock barn with a dirt floor... there's all kinds of moisture. About all you can do there is provide lots of openings, watch the runoff and vent the barn as much as possible.

We are borating everything in that poplar barn, doesn't hurt. Borate does not stop mold or bluestain, it does help with wood eating insects and decay fungi, low mammalian toxicity.

We sawed up the loft flooring as we went so it has been stickered and air drying in a relatively open hay barn, most of it for several months. They started the metal on the roof yesterday. when it is done I planned on planing the floor planks, install and then spray it with borate again. I don't presume the flooring has really shrunk yet, I expect gaps in the finally dry floor.