Milled Oak Storage

[Sierradmax]

I'm having some White & Red oak logs milled from my property. An estimated 1800 board feet. I have the perfect place for storage but I have a couple of questions. I plan on storing the milled lumber under a screened in porch that's 12'x8' and there's 40" of room beneath to a 3/4" stone bed.

1. Can I spray the wood to deter bugs? Or should I just treat the ground surrounding?
2. Can I use plywood strips (free) as stickers or will the glue from the plywood affect the boards?

 

[Grey]

1 & 2 Don't worry about either. With oak, the keys are: 1) Seal the ends! 2) SLOW drying to prevent surface checking and honeycomb. 3) Your pile will give off a lot of acid fumes, so be careful what else is stored with it. It will corrode just about any metal. Trust me, I know. I dried a 1250 bd-ft stack in my barn, and after about 6 months, every bit of exposed metal in the barn was rusted/oxidized. Lesson learned.

 

[Grey]

 

[RunnyRunnerton]

I may not know what Im talking about, but I had a buddy remove Cherry, live oak and Magnolia for a construction project. Shipped the logs to his farm, milled them and the mobile saw mill guy advised us to keep them covered by a room but allowed to breath and covered in 20 mule team borax to keep the bugs off. My .02c. Wood turned out great after about 6 months up to over 3 years. Further they never dry kilned any of it, they only trued and milled it within days of using it. Wood was in Florida.

 

[Sierradmax]

The ends are sealed with anchorseal. I've had them cut to 1" (4/4" in milling terms) and after cured, I plan on planing them down to 3/4" boards.

Here are some pictures after scrubbing them down.






So far, seven 9 foot logs yielded 440 board feet.

 

[Jumpsuit]

I thought I would piggyback my oak drying question onto this thread. I live in Wisconsin. On the ground in my front yard I have one bole 10' and one stump 44" of white oak that was cut down in May. I have had the pieces covered with tarps all summer and have periodically wetted them. My plan has been all along to mill this into thick slabs (7/4" for the bole and 12/4" for the stump) in early October, when I can borrow the Alaskan mill.
My question is, is it okay to mill, end seal, and sticker the planks in October right before winter sets in, or would it be better to wait until the spring, to ease the planks into drying with the humidity that comes in summer? They will be stickered and stored in the garage for two years, then to conditioned basement to finish.

 

[Grey]

End seal as soon as possible after cutting. Mill it whenever you want. Be very careful about the acid fumes from oak, make sure there is good ventilation. Be careful about "finishing in the basement." Many times below grade basements have very high humidity and this may actually drive water back into your air-dried lumber. Definitely check the humidity in your basement and set up a dehumidifier if it is above 50%-ish.

 

[pete_86]

Hello Sierradmax, nice pile of lumber you'll have. Very cool! Not to be burden of bad news but I'm looking at some cherry stacked out here on my 8x16 patio and I'm keeping it below 4' high. I'm running out of room, but I have another area in mind once I clear some brush. I was just thinking that you might not have enough room or it'll be very tight. Either way, good idea for a use of storage. Show us a pic of that good looking stack of lumber if you wish.

 

[Dave Boyt]

Only concern is about the plywood. Nothing wrong using plywood, but how thick? Under 3/4" will restrict the airflow some. Otherwise, sounds like a good plan. It will be hard to impossible to weight down the stack, so you may have to accept the loss of some wood due to warping. Assuming 1" boards, 3/4" stickers, and 10% air space between boards you will need 290 cubic feet of space, and you have 288 cubic feet under the porch. A tight squeeze!