Kiln Drying

In our two Nyle dehumidification kilns, we dry and sterilize lumber that we cut— either from your logs or from ours. Unfortunately, we do not offer kiln-drying services for lumber that we didn’t cut.

Overview of Process: Your Lumber

If we mill lumber from your logs, we will put it in one of our two kilns when the timing is right. For softwoods, this may be immediately after we mill them. For hardwoods, this may be months to a year after milling. As a general practice, we air-dry hardwood lumber to below 20% moisture content before we put it in our kilns. In the kiln, we can bring the moisture content to whatever level you request— usually this is in the 7-9% range, appropriate for indoor/climate-controlled environments. Please note that we only run kiln loads of lumber of similar kinds (softwoods or hardwoods) and similar thicknesses at a time.

Overview of Process: Our Lumber

We sell kiln-dried lumber in large volumes. If you need kiln-dried oak, then we can make that happen provided that the total order size is over 400 board feet and your order has similar thicknesses.

Kiln-Drying: The Time It Takes

Softwoods, such as pine and poplar, can dry much faster than hardwoods. From green, we can usually put 700-1200 board feet of 1” thick softwood lumber in our kiln and have it ready to be installed at 7% moisture content, and sterilized, in less than a week. For hardwoods, we prefer to let the lumber air dry for months to a year before putting it in the kilns. Once the hardwood gets below 20%, we can usually have it ready within two weeks.

Kiln-Drying: Cost

In most cases, kiln-drying adds $1 per board foot onto any lumber or a custom milling cost. So, if we mill 500 board feet of pine from your logs, then the cost to have it kiln dried would be $500. Of, if you ordered 500 board feet of 1” pine boards, and you wanted it kiln-dried, then it would add $500 to the lumber’s cost.

We like our fixed rate kiln-drying fee because clients can be confident that their costs won’t increase if we decide to slow the process down, for the sake of wood quality, and add a couple days to the kiln run. Quality is the most important value in kiln-drying, and drying requires vigilance and adjustments.

If kiln-drying requires more than two weeks, then additional fees apply. This is the case with hardwoods that enter the kiln above 20% moisture content (which we rarely ever do). If a client needs a hardwood load run from green, or above 20% moisture content, then we charge $1 per board foot per week, after the first two weeks, provided the kiln is full with that client’s charge. The per diem rate is the weekly rate divided by seven (days).

Kiln-Drying: Sterilization and Setting Pitch

Our two Nyle L200M kilns are able to sustain high temperatures to both sterilize lumber and set pine pitch. For setting pitch, we run the kiln charge at 160 degrees for a time determined by board thickness and our regular inspections. For sterilizing lumber, we typically do 140 degrees for 24 hours for every inch of thickness.

Kiln-Drying: Dimensions

Our two Nyle kilns run in 20’ shipping containers with 17’ length capacities. The maximum stack width is 48” and maximum height is 48”. For our purposes, we have standardized our pallets at the sawmill at 36” with 2-4” sticker overhang, which makes loading and unloading the kiln mechanically easier.