I
doubt that it's feasible to make your own flooring unless you
already have a shaper and a planer. Flooring demands a lot of
precision. But the wood can be used for lots of finish carpentry
projects and woodworking.
Yes you can air-dry oak lumber,
or any wood.
I've never done it, but I have
read about it and I've spoken to people that have done it. My
understanding is the wood only needs to be:
- Off the ground by a few
inches.
- Exposed to breezes if possible
- Kept out of the rain
- Stacked with
"stickers" (spacer boards) every couple of rows. The
more air gaps you provide, the faster the wood will dry.
This implies that drying outdoors
is possible. Apparently drying outdoors is most common since the
lumber can take up a lot of space. But count on taking a year or
maybe two years to reach desired moisture levels.
I would store the lumber indoors
in the winter and move it outdoors in the summer. From my own
experience with composting yard waste, which needs to stay moist,
I would say that wood stored outdoors won't dry much during colder
winter months.
Small quantities of wood could be
stored indoors, with lots of air space, and should be rather dry
within a few weeks or months. A circulating fan would help. This
is like storing firewood indoors (which is common) only cleaner.
When installing hardwood floors the general rule is to let the
wood sit in the house for about a week to acclimate to the house's
moisture level. Damp wood would take longer. You can tell a lot
about the moisture content by sawing the wood by hand. Wet wood is
very tough to saw with a regular hand saw.
Here's a really bizarre idea
that I thought up a few years ago:
I've wondered about modifying a
furnace plenum (the main duct) to be able to slide some boards in
place. The constant hot dry air bath would probably dry out the
lumber in a few days, but the capacity would only be a dozen or so
boards. It would also humidify the air in the house. As long as
the wood is clean there shouldn't be any negative side effects,
but I have to wonder about tiny mold spores that might reside on
the wood, or some organic chemicals that might be given off as the
wood dries. We're talking about a natural product that shouldn't
cause any harm, but then a lot of people have allergies to various
things.
I'm not suggesting you try that
because I can't say there would be no consequences. But if I had
some wood to dry, I'd be opening up the end panel of the furnace
plenum, maybe installing a metal access door made from sheet
metal, just to try the idea. Just a thought.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
