You know wood is an important fuel in many parts of the world. Not only as fuel, it is also used for construction material, furniture and other such areas. So, freshly cut wood has to be seasoned before use.
One thing that you certainly don’t want is your seasoned wood to get drenched in the rain. Unfortunately, if this happens the question that often baffles people is how long does it take for the wood to dry after the rain.
If the seasoned wood gets slightly wet, it dries within a few days. If it gets soaked for a prolonged time then it takes a few weeks to dry.
Drying your wood depends on various factors like the severity of the rain, climate, wood types, wood size etc.
Are you living in a dry or wet climate? Is the wood softwood or hardwood? These are some factors that will influence the drying process time.
To speed up the drying process, cut the wood into small pieces, stack them on a rack and separate them so that the air flows between them. Also, properly cover them.
That said, exactly, how long does it take for the wood to dry after the rain?
It usually takes up to a week to dry depending on the climate. If you are in a very sunny and windy climate, the process of drying the wood could take either 1 or 2 days. On the contrary, if in a gloomy climate, the process could take over a week.
Are there any tips to speed up the drying time? Yes there are several ways to hasten the drying process. Continue reading the article and you will be introduced to the tips on speeding up the drying time.
How do You Know Whether the Wood is Dry Enough
A moisture meter will help you to know if your wood is dry. It measures the percentage of moisture content in wood. Fix the meter against the wood and record the percentage of the moisture content.
When soaked in the rain, the moisture content of the wood would be 30%. So, you need to bring down the percentage to below 20%. If the meter measures below 20% then the wood is dry enough to burn.
Even if you don’t have a moisture meter, you can tell if the wood is damp or not by touching it.
Here are some more tips to consider for speeding up the drying time of the wood.
Tips for Drying the Wood Faster
Stack and store the Wood in a Rack
Stacking and storing requires the wood to be cut into small pieces. Once the wood is chopped into small pieces, store them in a rack. Cover the top of the rack and leave the other sides open so that air flows between the wood pieces. This will help the wood to dry quickly.
Splitting the wood in a particular way is important. Meaning, you need to cut the wood in such a way that the wood can easily be burnt as well as dry quickly. In addition to this, it is important to pile the logs in such a way that the air touches each log.
Dry the Wood Indoors
You can dry the wood in your garage with a heating system. The heating system produces dry heat that speeds up the drying time. Otherwise, you can find a warm room where you have a fireplace that will help dry the wood faster.
If you put the wood near the fire it will dry out quickly because it doesn’t soak up water very deep. When you put the wet wood on a hot fire it will burn quickly and steam for a few minutes. Now it is good for use. In case you are unable to dry all the wet wood, you could put the wet wood near the burning wood which will help speed up the drying process. With the sunlight and the wind, the wood pieces dry up quickly.
Dry the Wood Outdoors
Sunlight can be a big bonus when drying the wood outside. Try to have a stack outside and store the pieces of wood in the stack in sunlight. The wood will dry quickly when it is under the sun every day.
Use Dehumidifier Along With High Volume Fan to Dry the Wood
Use a high volume fan along with a dehumidifier and place them next to the stack to dry the wood quickly. The dehumidifier will absorb the humidity from the wood and when it works along with a high volume fan, the drying process speeds up exponentially. Place the dehumidifier in the center of the room and set it to the highest extraction setting. Within 24 hours the dehumidifier will extract the moisture from the wood. To hasten drying the wood out, place fans blowing across the surface of the wood to aid the dehumidifier.
Dry the Wood with a Kiln
If you have access to a kiln then you can use it to dry the wood quickly. A kiln is an oven where it’s temperature and airflow helps to bring down the moisture in the wood. You can control the humidity and temperature levels. This enables you to control the moisture content. This dries the wood faster than the air drying process.
On the other hand air drying means to stack wood outdoors and leave it exposed to the outside air. The stack could take several months to dry depending on the wood and the required moisture content.
The main advantage of using a kiln is that when you put the wood to dry, the kiln removes most of the moisture from the wood. This makes the wood burn hotter and last longer.
What is the Importance of Having Dried Wood?
If your wood is wet and soggy then it becomes difficult to burn the wood. Even if you try to burn the wet wood it slowly burns at a low temperature and emanates lots of smoke. It is also possible that wet wood would end up with bugs and pests which would make it unusable.
The other problem with having wet wood is, it becomes too heavy to carry around. When you burn the wood it gives a pungent smell and is also one of the main causes for campfire smoke. So, drying wood addresses the above problems.
As they say, prevention is better than cure. Here are the preventive measures that you can use to avoid your wood from getting damaged by rain.
How to Prevent Your Wood From Getting Wet
The best way to prevent your wood piles from getting wet is to cover it. Apply plywood on the top or else store the piles in a storage area which will keep the moisture away from the wood. You need to do this in the early fall season as there is moisture in the air.
Even when you are thinking of storing the piles in a storage area, make sure it is clean and dry. If it is not clean then there is a possibility that the wood would be exposed to the moisture, causing warping. The moisture present in the specific areas makes them shrink in size, causing a dent. This is warping.
Few ways to store the wood piles properly in a storage area:
- Place them on a flat base and put weights on them to avoid cupping.
- Space them out to provide airflow.
Summary
As you know, seasoned wood usually takes 6 months to dry for it to burn. Unfortunately, if your seasoned wood gets soaked by the rain then how long does it take for the wood to dry after rain?
The time to dry the wood after it is soaked depends on several factors like climate, wood size, wood species etc. Usually the wood takes a week to dry. If you are in a warm climate, the drying out process will be sooner. When you try to dry wood in this climate whose moisture content is 70%, it will take a few days to bring the percentage of the moisture content to 15%.
One of the tips to hasten the drying time is by stacking the wood properly so that there is enough airflow between the pieces. If this is not done properly, it could lead to infestations by insects or rodents, fungus, mold and premature decay.
Once you start following the above tips it will help hasten the drying time process by removing the moisture from wet wood and make it burnable.
Hope this article answers the question “how long does it take for wood to dry after rain?”
