wet weather effecting drying time?

[TJ-Bill]

I was a little late getting my wood in but as soon as I got it I split and stacked it. It's been raining for at least 3 weeks and before that we had 2 weeks of very humid days. How is this going to effect the drying time of wood? With so much moisture in the air the wood has to be sucking some of that in.

 

[cjcocn]

That much wet weather will definitely slow down the drying time.

Some moisture can be a good thing as it will help draw the moisture out of the log (esp pitch, etc), but some good sunny days are required to do that. With essentially 5 weeks of wet weather, I would hazard a guess that your wood has not gotten much closer to being dry, if at all.

I am not sure how much of an effect the wet weather has had on your wood as you probably have it all under the wood sheds that you had (and built, as you posted in your "It's Wood Time" thread).

I subscribe to the belief that green wood should be stored uncovered so that the sun and periodic wet weather can work together to dry it out. Ideally, that entails getting some rain, then at least a few good days of sun and heat (then rain, then sun and heat, etc). Whether that scenario would work for you depends on your climate (and in many cases depends on the time of year as well).

HTH

 

[woodbooga]

Here in NH, we've had a flood watch for like 9 consecutive days. I know that much of the Northeast as a whole is pretty soggy. Given that we've been in this pattern for about a month, I'm surprised no one else has started a thread on this topic. I've noticed that many of my plants - esp. the hollyhocks, whose leaves are turning black.

 

[blackdogon57]

No doubt wet weather wil slow drying time.

Here in southern Ontario we have had the wettest summer on record in our area. I am warning customers that my wood will not likley be a dry as past years. Mold is also a big problem right now. I am advising my customers not to store inside until we get a few weeks of dry weather.

 

[wdchuck]

Stacking proper from an 8' high toss pile, and the bottom 2/3 is as wet as from splitting in April, and the bottom one foot or so is wetter than fresh wood, not to mention the fungii.

It was tarped throughout the long heavy rains we had earlier, and uncovered once it was nice out, but overall, I'll be lucky if its usable by march.

So, its going in driest wood on bottom with wetter towards the top, stacked nicely under a tin roofed lean-to, open on 3-1/2 sides, due to a half wall.

Anything I"m finding with bark off, dead, standing has been getting cut/split/stacked out in the open for full sun/wind exposure, and only two rows deep on pallets. Need to have 8cords+ for this winter, and its going to be close, good thing the wood continues to dry after its stacked in the basement.

Was hoping to have many cords to sell off, but we'll see, I'd rather wait a year than sell wood too soon and get complaints.

 

[iCreek]

Not to bad

We also have had lots of rain in the mid-west (Missouri). I took a walk this morning down to the wood pile and took this photo. Most of the wood was already seasoned logs we cut and split last winter. We did throw some green wood (small limb trimmings etc. on right side) onto the pile also from the winter's ice storm. Overall I think it looks ready for winter burning.

 

[wdchuck]

That's what mine looked like on the surface too, underneath was a wet surprise.

 

[iCreek]

That's what mine looked like on the surface too, underneath was a wet surprise.

Hmmm, good point, I might want to toss a few off and see what it looks like down under...

 

[spike60]

I subscribe to the belief that green wood should be stored uncovered so that the sun and periodic wet weather can work together to dry it out.

HTH

+100

Sun and air is the best and quickest way to season wood.

How can you dry anything by covering it with a tarp?

 

[woodbooga]

Additional dangers of sustained rains

Just talked to a forester from the UNH Cooperative Extension about another matter - how folks are coping with the millions of board feet worth of timber felled during the recent tornado that cut a 50-mile path of destruction across NH.

We also discussed the potential problem our recent wet weather is wreaking with firewood dealers who are trying to accommodate demand created by soaring home heating oil prices.

In addition to this problem, the wet weather could pose a huge potential risk should we get a major hurricane. With the saturated soils, a major wind event could uproot hundreds of millions of board feet of timber that would take years to salvage, as was the case in the wake of the 1938 hurricane. Especially if winds came from the southeast, as opposed to the NW, which our forests have evolved to better resist.