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What is Dry?

When is a rose by any other name, not a rose?  When there is no consensus on the definition of a rose. This is the current situation with the definition of dry.

The American Lumber Standards (ALS) Committee currently defines dry as 19% moisture content. This straightforward definition was developed for and only applied to lumber, which ranges in thickness up to a nominal 4” with a width range up to 16”. Simple enough, but lumber is not timber.

To this day, grading agencies assume that all timber—material that is greater than or equal to 5” in thickness and width—is produced and sold green or wet. FraserWood altered those assumptions with its development of dry timbers.

The only technology currently available for checking moisture content -- the moisture meter -- can effectively measure up to 1-1/4” depths. This measurement can confirm the dryness of 2”x or 4”x lumber to ALS standards. However, for the wider posts and beams, which can range above 12” in thickness with widths up to 48”, there is no simple, effective way to measure moisture content. A measurement that only penetrates the outer 1-1/4” tells us very little about the moisture content at the heart of the timber.

Until an industry authority sponsors and certifies the relatively new product of “dry” timber—those thicker than 5” nominal—dryness will remain vaguely defined, a matter of particular concern to designers and engineers requiring precise specifications for their projects.

Dry Timber That Truly Meets Your Specifications

From the West Coast’s Pioneer of Heavy Timber Drying

Radio Frequency Drying

Our proprietary moisture meter analyzes large timbers and can determine the dryness in all quadrants of the product. This ensures consistent performance.

For many projects, green timber meets all the design needs. When engineering or aesthetics dictates a  more reliable, predictable and dimensionally stable product, FraserWood provides superior timber drying services that assure a higher standard and the rock-solid conviction that the product you specify is the one delivered.

In 1997, FraserWood founder Peter Dickson recognized the need for drying large solid-sawn timbers. With a newly acquired Radio Frequency Dryer, he adapted the existing microwave technology to achieve that goal. Those early efforts and subsequent success have established FraserWood as one of the world’s leading authorities on Radio Frequency Drying of heavy timbers.

Three Levels of Excellence

Faced with the industry’s uncertainty of what constitutes dry timber along with competition from less-advanced drying service providers, FraserWood has made it clear and simple for clients by offering three levels of “dry.” These options allow designers and engineers to confidently specify the appropriate product:

  • FaceDry™
  • HeartDry™
  • HeartDry15™

Dry Scan ReportFaceDry™ Timber: Maximum 19% moisture content 1-1/4" from the surface. For uses where a finish, such as paint or stain, will be applied to the timber or log. The member is dried in FraserWood’s conventional kiln promoting acceptable performance of finishes and coatings and is comparable to most of our competitors' definitions of "kiln-dried."

HeartDry™ Timber: For applications with strict engineering specifications and higher performance expectations, such as commercial projects or for high quality timberwork where finishes and joinery must look just as good 5 years after installation as they did the day installed.

This timber is dried "to the heart" in FraserWood’s specially designed Radio Frequency kilns to maximum 19% moisture content 3" in toward the heart of the timber. This assures the designer, engineer and builder that the average moisture content is below 19% and that the product’s performance will meet expectations for safety and serviceability. 

HeartDry15™: Maximum 15% moisture content three inches in toward the heart of the timber. For use in more extreme circumstances, such as those in very dry North American localities where year-round relative humidity will typically remain at or below 30%. Fraserwood achieves this specification through increased dwell time in our radio frequency kiln.

Click on flyer or link for PDF of Dry Timber product sheet.  Dry Timbr Product Sheet

 

The Attributes of FraserWood Dry Timber

  • Crafted from superior western woods timber
  • Graded for peak performance
  • Exceptional stability and connection capacity
  • Custom requested levels of dry
  • FSC certification available
 


Available Sizes:

  • Widths: Up to 50"
  • Depths: Up to 50"
  • Lengths: Up to 60'

 



FraserWood Dry Timber Options:

FaceDryTM - The exterior faces have been dried to a 19% maximum moisture content to a minimum depth of 1-1/4".

 FaceDry diagram

HeartDryTM - Dried to a maximum 19% moisture content 3" in toward the heat of the timber. Average MC = less than 17%.

 HeartDry diagram

HeartDry 15TM - Dried even further, to a maximum 15% moisture content 3" in toward the heart of the timber. Average MC = less than 13%.

 HeartDry 15 diagram