Flooded lumber

[Clint Baxter]

Looking for advice if anybody has been similarly affected. House and shop got flooded by the local river and most of my lumber and turning stock that was left behind got to soak there till the water went back down. Some of the lumber had at least three weeks in the water and the rest has been sitting in a very messy wet garage and/or shop.
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I'd like to salvage as much of the lumber as possible. I'm guessing there is around 300 - 400 bd ft in there one place or t'other. There is probably silt and/or mud on a fair amount so I'm guessing I going to need to take that off and then dry the wood. Thinking of taking a pressure washer to do the cleaning, (assuming I can ever get water for the pressure washer. We got hit pretty hard.) Will try to get some stickers and air dry the wood. Most of it is unsurfaced, (thankfully),

Has anyone else out there had experience with this situation? Any suggestions on what you'd do differently?

Thanks in advance.

Clint

[Myk Rian]

I think a light pressure wash and stickering is a good way to go.
Bummer.

[Jim O'Dell]

I don't have any ideas for you on drying the wood, except what you propose to do sounds like it would work. So sorry to hear of your flooding. Hopefully the house is ok? Repairable? Prayers for a speedy recovery. Jim.

[Jeff Duncan]

OK this is out of my field of experience so take it for what it's worth. My biggest concern would be mold, so I would attempt to get the wood outside and stickered well as soon as you can. Sitting wet inside for too long is going to be a bad situation. I like the power wash idea. I just wouldn't wait any longer than absolutely necessary, even if you have to sticker the lumber and come back later to wash it. Luckily it's only 300 or so bd. ft. so not a back breaking amount to deal with. I'm guessing getting your home livable again will be more the challenge here.

good luck,
JeffD

[David Helm]

You may have just discovered a very expensive way to get spalted wood. Not to make light of a difficult situation, but you may find some very interesting wood in your stash.

[Clint Baxter]

House is pretty much gutted on the main level and drying out. Today is the first day we've been able to get back into the basement and it still has some water on the floor along with all the mud that washed in. As Jeff said, would like to prevent if possible, and contain if not possible mold growth. There is a fair amount on the sheetrock in the garage where the wood is stored and we trying to keep the place as aired out as possible till we are able to get it cleaned up. Would prefer to avoid mold stains on the wood as the majority is either cherry or quarter-sawn white oak. Wish me luck.

Clint

[David Nelson1]

Tough situation to be in. Take care and keep us abreast of your progress if you can.

[Henry Ambrose]

Get it out of the house, wash it and stack it on stickers, covered or under a shade tree. If stacking is too much given your circumstances lean it up on anything in the shade where it can get some airflow. It'll be OK if you let it dry - just not too fast. I'm very sorry to hear of your troubles.

[Peter Scoma]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. Were the turning blanks waxed at all??

[Clint Baxter]

I got all my waxed turning blanks out when we evacuated. The logs I left behind had anchorseal on them. I've noticed some pretty extensive mold on the end of one of them so far but haven't made it through the shop to clean up much of the mess to date.

Clint

[Quinn Granfor]

I live in Minot as well......I've gotten quite a few donations lately of destroyed furniture and such to try to reclaim the wood. The stench these things are giving off is quite "impressive". Gives me an excuse to finally get a jointer though I guess.

[Randy Gazda]

I agree with the pressure washing. After that I would treat it just like fresh sawn lumber. Find a level place outsite to sticker it and either weight the stack down or wrap with racket tow straps that you can tighten as it dries (out of the sun is good). There are plenty of posts on here on how to dry fresh sawn lumber so I will leave it at that.

Good luck

[Jeff Monson]

Clint, sorry to hear about the flooding, that happened way to quick! Your pics bring back some memories for sure. I used alot of bleach/water mixture in a pump sprayer for mold on pine 2x4's it worked well, not sure about hardwoods. I'd think pressure washing the hardwood would be the best resort.

[Scott T Smith]

Hi Clint; I'm sorry to hear about your loss. I operate a mill and kiln drying business, and will try to share my insight.

First and foremost, rewetting dried wood is usually not a good idea. Having said that, if it were me I would do the following.

1 - pressure wash the mud off of the boards, trying not to let them dry out too much between the time that you move them from the basement and the time that you pressure wash them. This will also remove any surface mold.
2 - stack and sticker the boards. Use 12" - 16" centers between your stickers, and weight your stacks. Because of the summer heat, try to do this in a shaded area - with oak you do not want it to dry out too quickly. It would be a good idea to put some weight on the top of your stacks, 150 lbs/sq ft if possible.
3 - within 30 - 60 days your lumber should be below 20% MC. You can air dry it as low as you can outside, and then stack and sticker indoors with either a dehumidifier or air conditioner running to dry it the rest of the way.

Any mold that develops will most likely be surface mold, and I would not worry about it, as it should plane off when you surface the lumber.

Best of success to you recoving from the floods.

Regards,

Scott Smith