wood slab decay problem

[selman dinler]

Hi everybody,

As usual i have a problem. Being a rookie in woodworking isn't easy as you know. I found a walnut log wet somewhere, took it to a mill, made it slabs. Stacked it in the basement with stickers. One or two weeks passed. Then after recent snows and storms i cut some logs of fallen trees, very old cherry and some pine. Made them slabs too. Stacked them yesterday and today i found out that walnuts are not in good condition. Fungi i guess. And in the last picture you see cherry slabs. Some parts are rotted and i even saw a fat worm and some ants. What should i do about these wild things?

I am posting the pictures. This is the basement of my workplace. No heating, windows open always. My city is near to sea 50 kms and humid. I read articles about drying wood. But i need more. Any diagnosis, opinions and remedies will be greatly appreciated. Should i put an electric fan?
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[Bill White]

A fan will help with the moisture, but the bug infestation requires chemical treatment of some sort. I don't have any idea as to what types of chemicals you have at your disposal, but here in the states, we have a product called BoraCare which is a borax based product. It is good for the treatment that you need.
Hope this helps.
Bill

[Peter Aeschliman]

That doesn't look like rot to me, just surface mold... which indicates that moisture is too high. Probably a combination of the wet wood, a damp basement, and a humid climate.

Keeping the air moving is probably a reasonable solution, but the best case would be to get climate control down there... a big dehumidifier, or better yet, an air conditioner. Probably not what you want to hear though. :)

[Ted Calver]

Selman,
The sapwood on walnut degrades pretty fast when it's laying on the ground, but the heartwood generally is very slow to rot and the bugs don't like it. As Bill said, moving some air through the stacks will help dry them out and slow/stop fungal growth. You don't need a lot of fan power, just enough to circulate the air through the stacks. If you can find some BoraCare, great. Others might disagree, but I wouldn't hesitate to lightly spray some "safe for inside the home" bug spray on the surface and around the stacks to kill the ants and other crawly things. It will get machined off when you process the wood.

[Joe Hillmann]

I have a sawmill and when I need to speed up the drying of wood in the winter I stack it in my basement with a box fan blowing on for several weeks. If I don't put the fan on it right away it will mold within a few days. With the fan it dry nicely. After two weeks or so I can shut off the fan and not worry about mold. At that point it isn't dry but the easy to evaporate moisture in it is gone and in my situation at least that is the moisture that causes the mold.

As far as the bugs go, you will have to identify them to figure out how to get rid of them, Since they are in the wet wood I would guess that they will die once the wood dries. At least in northern climates that is often the case. In warmer climates their are many more types of bugs that eat dry wood and require some type of treatment.

[David Ragan]

Lots of times wood eaten away by fungus/parasites, etc is prettier.

We felled down a maple a few years ago, and it was spalted. Now various family members want stuff made of it. Really pretty.

There was a FWW article a while back about how to put your wood in an enclosure with some type of 'seed' growth and get spalting.

I made an uncle a knife cabinet last year that, as a central piece had a worm-eaten part. Everybody loved it.....says "custom made piece"

[Prashun Patel]

Do you have a dehumidifier in your basement?

[Jim Becker]

You really need that material stacked outside where there is airflow. A basement isn't a good place to try and dry lumber, even if it's a "dry" basement! You need the air movement.

[selman dinler]

Thank you all for your kind answers. Well i don't have a dehumidifier in my basement. It is a very large place, which hasn't been used for many years. So some windows are broken too. It is too big to dehumidify i guess. I think trying a fan and moving these stocks to a drier place are two options for me now. I desperately think of heated or windy places that i can use now and try not to think about buying a dehumidifier or an air conditioner. No, no :)
For mold and bugs, there are many solutions sold here for protecting wood against rot, decay etc. Mainly used for outdoor projects. I am not sure if they contain borax but i will talk to local dealers. I think bugs can be killed with any kind of these solutions.
From what i read, the bottom line is, moisture should drop urgently. Maybe i put a fan, work it 4, 5 days and check if it is enough. Since i don't have a moisture meter as well, it is not easy to decide i guess :)
God, i now understand why people had to invent mdf and particle board :)

[Jim Becker]

Selman, you don't need heat...you need airflow. So outside is actually the best place to dry your lumber, stacked and stickered and if necessary with a "lid" on it to keep direct rain/snow off the top of the pile. The sides shouldn't be covered. Even in cold, winter temperatures, moisture gets wicked off by the air flow, albeit slower than during the warmer summer weather.

[Keith Pleas]

How about a humidity meter in a few places in that big basement - one room or area might naturally be drier.

[Ted Calver]

The stacks are small enough that it would be relatively easy to build a plastic sheet tunnel with a fan at one end to direct air flow through the stacks.

[Mark Wooden]

First off, don't panic, you can still save it all. Like everyone said, getting air moving through the stacks is what you need. Cut off any really rotted and wet wood and if you have ants/grubs in any pieces, separate them and get them away from your good wood. Stack and sticker the piles in a moderately sunny space, cover them from direct sunlight and turn the pieces every month or so until dry enough to bring inside.
You can kill the bugs by wrapping the wood in black polyethylene and putting them in the sun for a day- the heat will get above 160 degrees and kill them- but it could wreck the wood also

[selman dinler]

All right no panic :) I moved the wood to a room in the second floor so it is drier there. But wind factor, that's still absent. I think i will move them outside today, put something on to prevent rain. But should i scrub them with something to kill the mold first? Or when the wood dries will they die on their own? Will the walnuts look patchy, discolored do you think?
Well Mark thank you for your advice but i think polyethylene is way complicated for me to apply. What i need to is basic and thanks to everyone, they explained it good enough. But this lazy genes of mine are trying hard to find the easiest way. Thanks again guys, i will post later pictures, so maybe this will add to the pile of information.