Oak Tongue And Groove

dlcj

summer before last we built a 2000' ranch house where the owner wanted all the interior walls and the ceilings done in wood cut from his farm. Most of it was white oak with some cedar, red gum, poplar, and cypress. The boards ranged in width from 3 to 12" and some was installed virtically, some horizontal and some diagonal. We even done a couple of patterns at no extra charge. It turned out beautifull and payed off with and unexpected bonus check from the owner. Well this past summer the h.o. called use back to look at the living room cathedral ceiling. The 8" wide oak boards where literly falling down. They believed the boards were swelling caused from moisture because of not enough attic ventalation. This is not true. We have plenty of sofit intake and 2 powered gable fans also there was no sign of moisture on the back of the wood. It only took us a minute to see that the boards were cuping. This happens when they dry out and there is nothing u can do to stop it. Nothing i know of short of face screwing 3" deck screws will hold, and still not good. Not an option. After a couple of hours trying to restaple them up we had to tell them it was not going to work and the whole ceiling had to be repaced. They agreed and we just temporarly shot it with the framing nailer to keep the boards from falling down while they could get more wood cut. We have not heard from them sense. Just the other day someone told me that some more boards on the walls were coming loose. My opinion is that the wood was not properly kilen dryed like they said it was. What u guys think.

Teetorbilt

You built a house out of green wood! What did you expect? Google 'drying lumber/boards'. You can get the cure times for species/humidity/temperature there for most common woods.

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neolitic

Air drying takes longer than most want to wait, especially an amateur sawyer in a hurry to build his own house.
That said, the ceiling especially should be "back" sealed.
I'm sure you can get opinions from the painters here, but even just a good coat of linseed oil will work.
If you have a different moisture level on one side of the board than the other---cup.
Damp side swells and dry side doesn't.
If you seal one side, you need to seal the other.
A good siding job always includes back priming.

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dlcj

I agree. It must have still been to green. We were told it was dry so we nailed it up. The h.o. comissioned a local saw mill to mill and dry his lumber. They done some trading back and forth on logs between the two and we dont really know whos trees they are or how old they were. We just put them up and somene else stained and sealed it. This is the 4th house this family has built on the farm with wood on the walls and ceiling in at least one room. We built 2 of them. Only this house and one built 3 years ago by someone else had problems. I just wanted to confirm that it was not the carpenters problem. They are a sueing type of family and i havent heard from them so i think they figured out that some of the wood was not dry.

neolitic

Next time use construction adhesive too.
Then he'll have cupped boards with big gaps between them, but they won't fall off.
He might also think about the reason that carsiding and bead board is rarely more than 5½" wide.

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Kingfisher

I'll second everything said so far but also point out that air dry all you want you still need to air dry it inside a heated space for the last step. My old boss had 1000 of br ft stick stacked outside, but under cover, air died for years but if you didn't let them sit inside for aleast a month or 2 you would have problems. Just my 2c

firemike

I know hindsight is 20/20, but it should have been checked with a moisture meter before installing. I always check any type of wood, learned the same lesson many years ago. The H/O got some knotty pine from their friend that owns a sawmill, he told them it was all "seasoned" & kiln dried and ready to go, so we installed it.

A few weeks later the boards started checking and cuping. Come to find out, it was kiln dried, but when the owners picked it up they brought it home and stored it in their lean-to for three weeks, (during the cold and damp fall weather) then brought it into the house the day before we installed it. I was under the impression by the conversation with the H/O that it had been there (stacked inside) much longer. Come to find out they really meant they brought it "home" three weeks ago, not "inside." Since then I always check moisture levels on wood before installing.

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