A Proper Wood Storage Room

[Roger Perez]

I have begun to build the proper enclosed wood storage room adjacent to my new workshop. Can anyone with experience assist me in identifying the proper building materials for the walls as well as what equipement is needed to maintain the proper conditions for wood to dry or simply not crack, etc.? The workshop is in the mountains and will be subject to many different temperature changes. As part of this project, i will be looking to enclose an air compressor and dust collection system in order to be a good neighbor. Has anyone done that successfully and willing to share the process?
I would appreciate any help on the subject. thank you.

 

[Richard Coers]

Wet wood, or kiln dried wood? Both? The keep wood from cracking is throwing me off. If you are going to try and make this a kiln to dry the wood, or add humidity to keep it from cracking, you are going to need two rooms. Three rooms if you want to add the mechanicals of air compressor and dust collector. Both of those machines won't play well with wet wood storage (reads rust).

 

[Harry Robinette]

Richard I'm with you need more info to be able to tell him anything.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Conditions in the prepared wood storage area should be the same as in the workshop. Storing wood with more or less moisture in it than the place you work it just ensures that it will have to adjust.

Figure a nice, human-friendly relative humidity for both rooms. Sixty five percent is a pretty good choice for most of the country. Equates to about 12% moisture content at a human-friendly 68F (20C). Fifty is about 9%. If you get The Wood Handbook from Forest Products Labs, you'll have RH to MC tables and maps of averages for places in the US.

If you're going to use it as a place to cure wood, as mentioned, then don't plan on storing wood there. You'll introduce a lot of moisture when you add stock, only to find what you stored climbing as well.

 

[Roger Perez]

Sorry if i wasn't clear. The new room would be accessible through the work shop and since i'm building it now, i can set up it's own climate. I mentioned the air compressor and dust collection in order to get help with sound proofing the enclosures. They are not related to the wood storage but will simply be in the same space and they will be enclosed for noise containment.
I have amassed a lot of wood over the years (big surprise to most of us) and i will be moving it from my home in the city to the house in the mountains. I simply want to care for it the proper way and was wondering if there were any steps to be taken in that new room to do that. For example, I have read that fans are a good idea for air circulation, etc.

 

[MichaelMouse]

Whenever the dust collector is operating, you'll be swapping air with your storage room, right? Put filtered returns to the shop from the wood room or from the soundproof box around the DC. Have your wood room insulated and perhaps share the circulation with a fan or dehumidifier handling both rooms. The dehumidifier may not be needed, so you may add it on after you find out how much you add in the way of moisture to the air in the rooms by working there a few hours. If you add a lot, and the space isn't heated save when you're there, it should keep things below the dewpoint. Have it on a timer for an hour or so after you leave so it won't ice up.

 

[Bill Boehme]

If you have a lot of wood that is already years old and just moving it to a new location there is no reason to do anything different since the wood is already stable. Freshly cut green wood is the only type that needs any special attention and basically that would be to keep it out of the weather -- at least out of the hot weather and rain.

My perspective is that the best way to handle any type of green wood that has a tendency to crack is to rough turn it and then have it very slowly air dry. If you have too much to handle at once, then coat the ends with Anchorseal to slow down the drying. Leave the wood in as long sections as you can reasonably handle and that will also help retard drying.

 

[Roger Perez]

Thanks for the good advice. I am already in the habit of rough turning my wood and allowing it to dry naturally over time. The rest of the wood that I acquire, I coat with Anchorseal until I get to it.
I’m not sure that I understand what “swapping air with the storage room†means.
I plan on insulating the wood room with normal R rated insulation. Maybe R19 or should I use rigid insulation? I was also thinking of installing a fan on the wall of the storage room just to keep air circulating. The problem there is that it will also allow outside air to come in (hot and cold). I can install a dehumidifier once I’m settled and working in the workshop and keep it on a timer. Otherwise, it appears that keeping things normal by just moving the wood over is the order of the day?

 

[Steve Worcester]

I’m not sure that I understand what “swapping air with the storage room†means.

It means that if the dust collector is running, it is sucking air from somewhere. Assuming it is in the same room at 1000CFM, the air gets recirculated in that room. The air has to come from somewhere and if the air is in a different place, the 1000 CFM has to be replaced. Otherwise, you are creating a vacuum.