Lumber storage

[Tom Porter]

I have my shop in an unfinished basement and I recently put up walls dividing it the basement into two rooms. One will be my shop and the other half will remain as storage. There's a basic layout attached and I won't bore anyone by going into the reasons behind why it is the way it is or even give much detail unless someone particularly cares. My issue is this: after getting a feel for the space after finishing it, I'm trying to find a good place to store lumber. I don't typically have a lot as I buy it as needed and rarely stock up on wood without an immediate use. I'd like to get it out of the shop section merely to better utilize space. What I'd like to do is store it in the on the wall opposite the furnace and hot water heater, which is on the other side of the shop wall. But it seems like storing it that close (about 36-40 inches) from the gas furnace (and gas hot water heater) may not be ideal. The furnace doesn't seem to put out a lot of heat there but though I haven't measured it, I suspect it's warmer there than the rest of the shop. So this seems like it might not be the best place to store the lumber, at least for the wood. Any thoughts?
Wall layout.jpg

[John TenEyck]

Temperature is secondary; RH is the primary concern. Measure the RH in your shop and furnace room. If they are within 10% I think you are more than good to go with storing lumber in the furnace room. If not, either add a humidifier or dehumidifier to move the outlier closer to what the RH is upstairs.

John

[Al Launier]

If you could add some air flow, even just a small fan to circulate the air, that would also help, at least initially after you purchase & stack the lumber. The dehumidifier would draw off bulk of the moisture driven by the fan.

[michael dilday]

If I am reading this correctly you want to store the lumber on the shop side of the wall with the heater on the opposite side of the wall. If so you probably have wooden studs in the wall so your lumber would be better protected than the studs.

[Tom Porter]

Actually, I mean in the furnace "room" as John refers to it. It's open to the rest of that side of the basement but is closed in a bit. Like an idiot, I forgot to mention the dehumidifier, which sits next to the hot water heater (though it could be moved). I'll test the RH throughout but I suspect it is fairly consistent throughout the whole basement. The walls I put up are not even remotely sealed (for lack of a better term). The walls are OSB on studs and are there to sort of separate the shop from the storage and to provide structure for electrical and shelving and there's plenty of room for air movement in the ceiling joists, etc. So I'm guessing there's enough air exchange to equalize the entire space.

Thanks for the advice!

[Nathan Jordan]

If you already have a dehumidifier, I also suggest a small fan. If there is a temperature gradient from the heater then a fan should help disperse it.