Storing Lumber: Unheated garage, or a shed outside?

Good question!

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

I am storing a bunch of cedar in my unheated garage in Minnesota. I am sure moisture is the key, more so than temperature, so that is what you have to deal with.

-- Maplewood, MN

the key is to keep it dry. your lumber will reach equalibrium moisture content no matter where you store it so long as you keep it dry. Kiln dried lumber at 6 % MC will gain moisture in higher humidity environments. here in N.C. we have fairly high humidity therefore my lumber tends to be around 10 to 12% MC. If I was to send a project to arizona there will probanly be some issues with it. the lumber in question will be fine in the shed but I would protect it on the sides from blowing rain and such. remember it still needs to breath.

-- hey honey! watch this!

If you do cover it with plastic, allow room for air movement on all sides, don’t seal it completely.

-- Dick Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Take a listen to one of the latest Matt’s Basement Workshop Podcasts. His latest interview with Hendrik Varju on wood movement goes into this topic a great deal. You may be surprised by how easy it will be to store the wood outside.

-- Shannon

I store wood outside and move it into the shop a few weeks before I’m going to build with it. I live in CA too, just south of SF, actually, and this works well.

What you want to do is allow air to pass around each board. Sticker the boards, seal the ends, etc. Keep it out of direct sunlight, but not under anything like plastic. Inside my shop, I have wood on those bracket elfa shelves, also stickered. That’s the stuff which gets used next. I try not to accumulate too much wood; it’s far too easy to do, and I don’t have a lot of space. I basically have on hand what I can use for the next project.

Can’t say I’ve had many problems…been doing it this way for 2 years.

Part of my stock of lumber is stored outside in a purpose built shelter (very dry- no water, lots of fresh air and not stickered). Some of the lumber was kiln dried (6%) – But now it is sitting at about 18%. It takes a few months to re-aclimatise its self (dependent upon conditions) back to the 6 – 8 % it originally was (the workshop is kept at 30 to 45% RH, ave temp 15°C [60°F]).

• Keep it DRY
• Let it Breath
• No direct SUNlight
• Keep it flat
• Keep it a minimum of 12” above the ground
• Allow plenty of time for it to dry out again in the shop (Months, not weeks), depending on the MC of the wood.

Good Luck

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

Dan I have been in this woodwoking for a long time. I have had wood stored about everywhere you can think of. I live in westren New York. Everyday the weather may be diffrent.

Outside is good—use a cheap plywood for cover. Sticker and leave sides open. If it get wet it will dry back out. No hurt. Make sure you keep it off the ground no less then a foot.

Inside works well and depens on if you are heated or not. Sounds like you are not. I built racks high in the shop. Stays real good.
When you sticker use the same kind of wood to make your sticker out of, long term storge and getting moist or wet will leave black mark on the wood that will be deep and very hard to get off. You said you had maple, this is light color and will mark easy.
Good Luck hope it helps.
Enjoy the woodworking.
Dick

-- Just believe and God will take care of the rest

Dan when you build the plywood roof leave 8’ to 10’ overhang.

-- Just believe and God will take care of the rest

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement, everyone!

The current shed/patio awning structure has that sort of an overhang (sides and roof of corrugated metal and fiberglass), so, yeah, my thinking was to stack it well out of the way in the back of that. Clear of the weather (the cement it’s on doesn’t get wet that far back), so I don’t have to wrap it and risk rot. Not quite sure how I’m going to satisfy the suggestion that I get it at least 12” off the ground, but I’ll figure something out there, might even build some sort of rack if I can figure out how to get things in and out easily (We’re still waiting for the toy coffers to refill to get a bigger router for the router table, so a MIG or TIG welder is out of the question for now).

I was going to use pine or fir for the stickering, ‘cause it’s cheap, but I’ll test some of the maple with that first to see if it discolors any. I envy you New Yorkers your eastern hard maple, this is a softer western broadleaf, so it may discolor differently.

I guess I need to see what I can do rack wise and figure out how to get it good and high up, and move it out there!

-- Dan Lyke, Lagunitas California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Hi Dan, I live in the sacramento area. I bought around 12,000 Bf of figured Big Leaf Maple one time and stored it outside for around 2 years without any problems. I first put heavy black plastic on the ground and then put 2×10 beams on top very well leveled with each other. The largest planks, which were from 3” to 4” thick, went down first. Then the stickering followed. 3/4” was fine. I also agree that you should use the same species of wood for the stickers. I made stacks about 4’ high and 5’ to 6’ wide. After everything was done, they were covered with heavy black plastic and then a thick plastic tarp. I left the ends a bit open, but with enough overhang so as not to allow water to get in. None of the wood got damaged. I have since built a large detached 2 car garage to store what is left of this wood and other species as well. One thing I suggest you do is to buy those home pestiside cans and toss them in the pile once in a while. Keeps the black widows and mice and other unwanted guests out of the wood pile.
One other thing, you should be happy to have some big leaf maple. It is very nice to work with and takes a great finish. Also, it is not as hard on the tooling. Is the maple figured to some extent?

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

Dan – do not use Pine, it leaks resin, it is too soft and will compress if you stack it really high & heavy. Use a cheap hardwood, like Alder, Aspen, Birch. The Black marks mentioned above are probably mildew, because the moisture got trapped and did not have enough air circulation in order to keep it dry/dry it out.

When the MC is reduced to about 18% or less, you should not have a problem with Fungus’ or mildew.

-- Tony - All things are possible, just some things are more difficult than others! - SKYPE: Heron2005 (http://www.poydatjatuolit.fi)

If you must store wood outside, keep insect damage in mind. Sprinkle the boards with Borax. Stickers are a good idea, especially for wood that has not been kiln dried. Space the stickers about three feet apart and in vertical alignment.

Also, when beginning a project, bring the necessary amount of wood into the shop environment and let it stablize for at least three weeks. Otherwise, it may move and warp as you cut it on a day to day basis.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

John, yeah, it’s got some figuring. The guy who was getting rid of it makes rubber stamp handles and said he can’t use the sap/heartwood interface, but we love that look, so we think it’ll make great cabinet frames. Oddly, the birch he threw in is really gorgeous, we’ve got one piece of that we’re using along-side some really nicely textured heartwood cherry on the face of a vanity because it’s got such great lines.

Tony, thanks, I forget, pine has been my cheap go-to wood for years, and now that I’m trying to do better work I forget that it’s soft.

8iowa, any risks from the Borax on the wood? We’ve got diatomaceous earth around the house (and underneath), a layer of that on the concrete underneath is definitely in order.

-- Dan Lyke, Lagunitas California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

Diatomaceous: consisting of or containing diatoms or their fossil remains.

(My wife is the geologist, so I had to look it up on Dictionary.com; thought I’d post that for anyone else who didn’t know what it was… I love woodworking forums. Yesterday I learned the meaning of “autodidactic”, which is a person who has learned a subject without the benefit of a teacher or formal education; a self-taught person. )

Out of curiosity, how does that fact increase the need for Borax?

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

Dan, Buy a bucket of a product called Timbor or Boracare.. You just mix it with water at the solution on the directions and spray it on the wood. Let it dry and then sticker it. It will not effect the wood and will kill any wood boring bugs and other types of bugs that eat cellulose. I use always when storing wood.
Try combining some nice dark figured walnut with the big leaf also.
John

-- Oldworld, Fair Oaks, Ca

John, thanks! More for my shopping list. We’ve got a bunch of recycled Peruvian Mahogany to use with the maple, but if we’ve got the light color to compensate I could see going as dark as walnut, and I love the figuring.

Ethan, it’s used in pool water filters and for killing ants, we bought it in pool water filter labeled boxes and spread it inside our foundation (because when you use it outside you don’t want to be running them inside, and then along the outside of the foundation. I didn’t know whether it would increase or decrease the need for Borax, but I’ll be protecting the wood against crawling things with that.

Running across this stuff out in the real world is pretty cool, the picture is me (before I took off all my hair) holding a big chunk of “rock” along side a road cut in northeastern California. It weighed maybe a few ounces.

-- Dan Lyke, Lagunitas California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke