Acclimating T&G Pine Before Installation

[Robert Engel]

I wouldn’t worry about it too much. T&G is installed with movement anticipated to occur.

Only nailing one side like a shiplap back allows expansion/contraction in and out of the groove.

The wood is kiln dried you’re not going to get much shrinkage in 6” anyway.

Don’t worry about the butt joints.

I have installed this type material before over black roofing felt just in case of a gap.

[Andrew Seemann]

I say nail it up before it warps. The entire point or T&G is to accommodate movement, that is why you only nail one side of the board. The northern half of this state is pretty much all T&G, and I doubt much of it was stickered and acclimated before it was put up.

You can get some shrinkage along the length of a really long board, say 12 or more feet, if the MC is high enough when it is put up. If you are worried, just 45 the ends so they overlap.

[William Hodge]

You need to know what you're dealing with before you decide how to proceed.

The important numbers are the moisture content of your wood, and your wood width. Buy a moisture meter.

https://www.amazon.com/Lignomat-USA-...07802380&psc=1

If you are using Eastern White Pine, the wood will expand and contract 3/16" per foot, wettest to driest. (Understanding Wood, Hoadley). If your wood is 5%, and it's winter, that wood needs a little more room so that it won't buckle in the summer. If the wood is 17%, expect some shrinkage. Check the moisture content of other objects in the building. If everything is pretty dry all year, you will know what to expect.

A moisture meter could save you a ton of work. If you buy the lumber, and every piece is 9%, you're good to just install it without months of stickering. Whenever I leave a lift of stickerd lumber in the dining room, the Mrs. is sure to say some thing like "What do you think, we live in a saw mill?" It hurts my feelings, because in fact, we do live in a restored saw mill. She knew it when she married me, and everything was all back to the land lets live in a saw mill and grow rutabagas for a living. Having a Chase Machine Portable Sawmill running the length of the house was "Groovy". Then little things started happening, like we had a kitchen, and tobacco spitting was no longer allowed in it. A few "oopses" later and now we have three kids and their friends, and the sawmill got put out in of all things a barn. Stickering wood in the living space would be as bad as me going back to having a weird beard and running the sawmill in sandals. I'm sorry, but the stickering the woold in living space just triggered me into talking about the way things aren't anymore. So, buy a moisture meter, nail the wood on the ceiling, and be done with it.

[Tom M King]

I guess I'll toss one more question in here while I have your attention. The T&G is not end matched, and I was planning on straight butt joints throughout the install. I know most expansion/contraction will happen across the width of the boards and I'll be nailing close to all the joints, so this should be enough to ensure large gaps don't appear, right? Keep in mind this is a "rustic" cabin, so joints don't have to be perfect or invisible.

I built one 45'ing the ends. Some of it is going to shrink lengthwise, especially if the grain is not straight. You can still see some gaps in the one with the overlapped ends, but only from one angle. Neither I, nor anyone else, thought it was worth the trouble. There shouldn't be many butt joints to open up, and people just don't notice them, like we would.

[Bill Dufour]

Wow, lots of different opinions in here. Thanks for the insight, especially from those who have installed a lot of this stuff. I'll likely keep it packaged inside the cabin and just open when I'm ready to install (which will probably be in two weeks).

Bill, if your location really is California, I think you have your seasons backwards. I'm in Rochester, NY. It just hit fall, and is only going to get colder here in the northeast.

Your original post did not have our location, you fixed that, for some reason I thought you were in South America.
Bill D

[Jim Dwight]

Andrew,

Seems like you have a plan. I suspect based upon installing hardwood floors, that regardless of what you do, you will have boards that do not want to go into place easily. I'm sure you know a short piece of scrap will to help when you need to provide persuasion but also protect the tongue. When that was not enough, I found it handy to drive a large screwdriver into the sub floor (in your case ceiling joist) and use it as a prybar to move the wood into position. Your fitup may have more flexibility than a floor but it might also be a technique to think about if you have a problematic piece of wood. I also found the holding power of 18 gauge brads to be insufficient for warped boards. 16 gauge were a lot better but I preferred 15. It wasn't as handy, I have a 18 gauge battery powered nailer but I mostly used a flooring nailer so I had the compressed air there too.

Jim

[Thomas McCurnin]

I too have a wilderness cabin and I too have installed this stuff. I would open it up and let it breathe. I would also pre-finish it, if with nothing more some water based poly. Add some yellow and orange tint to the poly if you want to replicate the old, yellow shellac look. In that weather, it will likely shrink, not expand.

[Thomas Colson]

I just did this. I'm assuming you're buying "Cabin Grade", 6-12$ a board? As others posted, it's gonna start turning into banana's soon. I pre-finished mine, only bought what I could finish and nail in a weekend till I was done. Don't over think this, you're not installing 20$/ft hard wood floors. "Kentucky Windage" it. If it's super humid, pound the $hit out of them to get them tighter than $shit so you don't get 1/2 inch gaps when they shrink. Super dry? Install them loose (don't pound the $shit out of them) so they don't split when expanding. When I installed, one day would be 90% humidity, next day....40%. Just understand the conditions and "knowing that wood moves" and not "trying to make a wall that will be featured in FWW"....a year later, I'm pretty happy. Some minor gaps here and there, but only I can find them. The tongue really accommodates all your mistakes!

As for your "end butts": cut them opposite 45 degree kerfs, and put some wood glue on the end grain. Make sure the ends land on studs, shoot a 18 ga nail through the face, some matching putty on the nail head, rub some saw dust on the joint, then ROS sand when dry. Again, I have to look hard to find most of my butt joints. They really won't expand "that much" across their length, and in a 40 foot long wall made up of 3 T&G boards, expansion will move the 18ga nails before it breaks the TBIII glue joints. Haven't had one joint crack yet.

Disclaimer: I did have one board split/crack near the end, but it was also a "Pith" board (one that was the center of the tree, flat sawn). If you can, place your boards that were from the center of the tree at top/bottom of the wall, where expansion is "less expensive" and keep your tight growth ring boards in the middle. If you can't tell, look at the end grain, google "Reading end grain". Using CA glue and activator, I was able to conceal the split now I can't even find it.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Most TG car siding and beadboard has ends TG. If your's doesn't and you want them supported, use a biscuit. You can skip the glue on one end if you want the biscuit to float a little.