Stack lumber on aligned stickers at least 30-45 cm off the ground, under a roof with open sides, with the end grain sealed, and allow about a year per inch (25 mm) of thickness: 25 mm softwood needs 6-12 months but 50 mm hardwood needs 18-30 months. The workshop guide’s single 6-12 month figure is right only for thin stock, so a shop that plans on it and uses 50 mm hardwood will build with wet wood.
Part of Workshop & Forge Design
Lumber storage is the roofed, ventilated stacking of sawn boards and beams so that they dry evenly to a stable moisture content before they are built into anything.
The Store Is Planned By Thickness, Not By A Single Number
The workshop guide gives a covered, ventilated space for lumber, says that green wood needs 6-12 months of air drying before use, and asks for stickers between layers and a weight on top. The seasoning guide (Seasoning Wood) gives the fuller picture: the rule of about a year per inch of thickness in a temperate climate, and a table that runs from 6-12 months for 25 mm softwood to 18-30 months for 50 mm hardwood, 3-5 years at 100 mm and 5-10 years or more beyond 150 mm. The workshop guide’s range fits only the first row. Size the store from the stock you actually cut.
Worked Example: How Much Stock And How Much Water
Inputs from the seasoning guide: fresh timber holds 50-200% moisture content (water weight as a share of dry wood weight); tangential shrinkage 6-10%.
- Water to lose. A board with 100 kg of dry wood and 100% moisture content holds 100 kg of water. Dried to 15%, it holds 15 kg, so it has lost 100 − 15 = 85 kg of water, which is 85% of its dry weight, through the surface and mostly the ends.
- Shrinkage. A flat-sawn board 300 mm wide can shrink by 6% to 10% across its width: 300 × 0.06 = 18 mm to 300 × 0.10 = 30 mm. That is the movement a joint built on green wood must absorb, and the reason for seasoning.
- Store size. If the shop uses 50 mm hardwood and the guide’s 18-30 months applies, stock must be stacked 18-30 months before it is used, so the store holds 18-30 times a month’s use at once. A store sized for 12 months of use holds too little.
What You Need
- Piers or timbers to lift the stack 30-45 cm off the ground, set level
- Stickers: dry strips 19-25 mm thick and 38 mm wide, every 41-61 cm along the boards, directly above each other (seasoning guide: 3/4 to 1 inch thick, 1.5 inch wide, every 16-24 inches)
- A roof with open sides, or a cover on the stack with the sides left open
- End sealer: paraffin wax, thick paint or similar, applied within hours of cutting
- Weights on the top cover to stop the top layers warping
Method: Stack It To Dry, Not To Rot
Step 1: Level the foundation. An uneven base gives the whole stack a permanent twist.
Step 2: Seal the ends right after cutting. Moisture leaves end grain 10-15 times faster than the face, and the ends crack first.
Step 3: Lay the first layer, then a row of stickers directly above the supports, within 50 mm of each end, and repeat.
Step 4: Cover the top and weight it. Leave the sides open to the air.
Step 5: Label each stack with the date and thickness. Check the date, not the feel.
Step 6: Finish drying under cover near the bench for some weeks before use, because boards dried in the open stop above the moisture a heated indoor room reaches. This is a judgement, not a corpus figure; test a board with a moisture meter or by weighing it at intervals until the weight stops falling.
Common Mistakes
- Wet stickers or mixed thicknesses. Wet stickers stain; uneven stickers bend the boards.
- Wrapping the stack in a tarp. Moist still air breeds mould.
- Using wood after the guide’s lowest number. The 6-12 months is for thin softwood only.
- A stack taller than a person can safely reach. The stack can topple as the weights shift.
Safety
A lumber stack is a woodpile
Sticker-spaced timber has air on all sides, so a fire in it spreads fast. Treat the store as the fire guide treats a woodpile: at least 10 m from any building, doubled for combustible walls, and not in the line of a forge chimney’s sparks (Fire Prevention in Settlements). A tall stack of heavy boards can topple; keep children away and stack low.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Tool Wall & Organization — the next system in the shop
- Combine with: Wood Properties — how species differ in hardness and use