What's the minimum sticker thickness for storing wood?

[Ty Williams]

I have a shop-built lumber rack that's full and has oozed out onto living room floor. I'm sure you can envision the results of that. The rack is used only for storing "dry" lumber brought home from the store, but of course we all know how much the definition of "dry" can vary! Right now, it's all stickered with 3/4" thick stickers because that's what I had in scrap when I first built the thing so I just kept going with it. The problem is that most of my wood is 4/4-nominal or even thinner after I've resawn it down to 1/2"-true or thinner for a project (not to mention the thin offcuts from that process). I have more air gap than lumber in some parts of the rack!

How thin can I go on stickers for wood that's supposedly already dry but mostly just needs to acclimate to the humidity in my house and shop? 1/2"? 1/4"?

[glenn bradley]

I'm sure there's a science to it but, for properly stored lumber bought at he lumber store 'ready for use' I use 3/8" square stickers. I used redwood as I have some scrap lying around and it has never left any marks. I just re-sawed the material, planed to 3/8" thickness and ripped off 3/8" strips. since they are the same dimension except for length, I don't have to pay attention when laying them out. Do you live where the humidity swings a lot? Once acclimated to my shop, I worry a lot less about it as we have mild swings in weather here.

[John TenEyck]

Whatever has been in your house for a month already is acclimated and can be dense stacked. Whatever new stuff you bring home, sticker it for a month and then transfer it to the dense stack.

John

[Joe Hillmann]

When we had a sawmill we cut stickers 1/4 thick and about 1 to 1 1/8 wide. And that was for air drying the fresh cut lumber.

[Todd Burch]

Paint stir sticks would work fine.

[Jeff Duncan]

I don't use stickers in the lumber rack at all, no real need to if your buying kiln dried material. As mentioned when you get a fresh load in you can sticker it for a while if it makes you feel better before you use it. Once your finished and have extra, just stack it in. I usually buy in quantity so the only thing that gets stickered at all is 8/4 material for passage doors. That material will either be on a cart or if more than a couple hundred bd. ft. on the floor. Everything else goes right into the rack;)

As far as thickness of the sticks go, again for kiln dried it probably doesn't matter all that much. When your air drying it's different as your trying to create air flow though the stack. I think 1/4" sticks would be just fine.

good luck,
JeffD

[Keith Hankins]

No such think as standard. Most of the ones I've seen are 3/4" x 3/4" but it can be anything. Worked with a guy in IL that us to do a lot of cutting and stickering for a year prior to putting in his kiln. I carried more wet boards to be stickered than I ever want to see again!

In my shop I keep about 500bf at a time stickered and I've used 3/4" stickers that he gave me in a stack I bought. The best I've found is to take mdf and rip to pieces and use them. Keep a bucket of the them handy. Work great and cheap. One sheet will give you a bunch. Big thing is to keep them the same thickness and all stickers lined up. I've got 1/2" and 3/4"

[Jim Andrew]

I used to frequent the wood web. The wood doc there recommended 3/4 x 3/4 till the wood is dry, then board on board.When wood is wet and stacked without stickers it can mold. Wood that is dry, but not acclimated to your house won't mold, so the stickers aren't really necessary.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Whatever has been in your house for a month already is acclimated and can be dense stacked. Whatever new stuff you bring home, sticker it for a month and then transfer it to the dense stack.

John

No real argument with J-10. It depends on the "in house" conditions IMO.

At the same time, if it was my stuff, the thickness of the stickers would be dependent on the length of time that I planned on leaving it there.

For example, I have stuff that has been stickered for lord knows how long. On thin strips of nominal 1/2" ply. All cool. It is good now, and will stay that way until I make a move.

There is other stuff that is on 3/4" or on 1" - that I plan on tearing into shortly. "Shortly" seems to be a moving target, however.

[Jim Matthews]

I use matching pairs of ripped stock that is thick enough to keep the boards from touching at the ends, or between the stickers if the board bows.

In practice, nothing thinner than 1/2" - preferably 3/4".
I have a damp basement, and stickering prevents the formation of mold.

It might not be necessary elsewhere, but I'm near the Atlantic ocean and the basement isn't climate contolled.

[Val Kosmider]

I have a pretty good stack of woods--Cherry, Red and White Oak, Hickory, Fir and Poplar (separate stacks; side by side) that is stickered with 3/4 kiln dried pieces (because that is what I had). The stack is nearing one year old, with widths going from 4/4 to 10/4 all rough cut. It is drying very nicely with that set up. Most of it, even the thicker pieces, is down to low double digits after almost one year. I am ready to start cutting some of it. It seems to be that if you go much lower than 1/2" in your stickers you are congesting the amount of air which can easily flow through the pile. During the summer I ran a small fan which pushed air through the stack just to keep the air moving. Seems to have done no harm. Maybe I am overthinking how much air must flow through the stack to carry off the moisture.....trial and error on my part.