But wouldn’t wood that’s more dense absorb less water in the same amount of time though? Meaning that more dense wood would better resist the abuse of transport.
Comment on The Home Depot tax at work!
MBech@feddit.dk 2 days agoThe wood will be stronger, sure, but in modern framing you don’t actually need the added strength. Slowly grown wood is going to be as crooked as fast grown wood. It’s a question about how and where it’s kept. If the wood goes through a lot of drying and remoisturing (not a native speaker, it seems like the wrong word, sorry) the wood will begin to twist and turn. If it’s being kept at a stable moisture and temperature, or at least being dried out consistently, it will stay straight.
Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
MBech@feddit.dk 2 days ago
Possibly, but in practice it’s not going to be that much of a factor. If a piece of wood is laying in the middle of a big pile of wood in a warehouse without humidity control or temperature control, with a big garage door opening and closing 1000 times every day, like most building suppliers have, the wood is going to be twisted as fuck no matter how dense it is.
sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
That’s not true at all. It really depends on environment and proper curing. Where I live, carpenters will rarely use dimensional lumber that’s been stored indoors for these very reasons. It’s stored sheltered outdoors, where the air is dry but temperatures can fluctuate between +30C and -30C depending on season. When it’s been through that, it doesn’t automatically screw up like a silly straw the moment you bring it indoors into a warm and more humid environment.
sugarfoot00@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
No, it’s not. Slow growth leads to a tighter grain, greater density, and reduced moisture content. All of those things make it stronger and more stable. That means less twisting and warping.
But because it is increasingly rare, it is generally more expensive.
I recently did a renovation on my 1953 bungalow. The Douglas fir studs I removed from a wall are both laser straight and tough as guts. That wood is so hard that you can’t drive a modern nail into it without drilling a pilot hole first.
MBech@feddit.dk 1 day ago
Sure, but in practice it’s all going onto a pallet and stored in badly humidity and temperature controlled warehouses, where it will dry out, then rehumidify, dry out, rehumidify, and so forth day after day. It doesn’t really matter how “good” the wood is, when its storing conditions are shit.
As a carpenter, I really have to ask you, why would you ever want this though? Sure, you may only need a post every 6 feet, but in reality, nomatter the strength, you’re going to frame it to be compatible with with your interior lining. Strength of wood is seriously not needed or wanted today. It just makes the wood expensive, heavy as fuck, and difficult to work with.
And while the wood may very well have been very straight, that’s what happens when you nail it into a frame, which will straighten it out, and place it in a controlled environment like inside a wall for 70 years. It’s going to conform to that shape. I have seen plenty of dense wood in buildings be crooked as a bow, because it wasn’t limited in its movement, or because it wasn’t shielded from constant change in the environment.