A lot. In Fact, some species of wood are more than 50 percent water in terms of their weight when freshly cut. Once wood is dry will it remain dry? Wood is always trying to come into equilibrium with the air surrounding it, so its moisture content can change somewhat after it's been dried.

Nyle offers the drying units only, and not the chamber structure. We do provide technical plans and specifications for the construction and/or supply of the drying chamber with each purchase of a Nyle unit.

Properly dried lumber sells for a higher price and is much easier to work with than lumber that has not been dried. Drying also improves the strength, kills infestations, hardens pitch, preserves color, reduces weight and controls shrinkage. When lumber is not dried under controlled conditions it is prone to damage, warping, staining and diminished sales value. Other benefits include reduced shipping costs and better quality of goods produced.

The necessary lumber is not necessarily "special" but there are some pointers that you should take under advisement. The longitudinal parts (stringers, gunwales and floorboards) can be milled (cut) from whatever is used to build houses in your area...typically 2 x spruce, fir or hemlock. Forget the 2 x 4 and look at the 2 x 12 they come from older larger trees and are more likely to have straighter grain with fewer knots. The bent ribs should NOT be Kiln dried.

We cannot provide you with lumber for most of our boats due to the length of the material. It's very impractical to try and ship anything that is longer than eight feet. You should be able to obtain the necessary supplies from a local lumber store.

It is a colored building product that is maintenance free, will not be eaten by insects, and will never splinter or rot.

See the bugs question above. It is important when playing on low resources because it allows you to build a farm immediately after finishing the town hall.

Most lumber is visually graded by qualified lumber graders. They inspect each piece and apply visual rules to establish its grade, which determines its structural design value. While visual grading works well, increased demand for high performance lumber for highly engineered truss systems has led to demand for more automated techniques. See What is MSR lumber, below.

MSR, or machine stress-rated, lumber is manufactured to conform to the National Lumber Grades Authority’s product standard and is graded mechanically. Lumber is fed into mechanical evaluating equipment, which measures and records stiffness, assesses strength and applies an MSR grade mark on the lumber. MSR lumber is also visually checked for properties other than stiffness which might affect the suitability of a given piece.

WindsorONE utilizes a custom outer coarse cut. Juvenile wood is formed up to the first 10 years of a tree's growth. This wood, at the center of the tree, has properties, that lead to a high degree of dimensional change: the reason that juvenile wood splits, cooks, cups, checks, etc. To avoid this, WindsorONE is manufactured from a custom,outer coarse cut of the tree, assuring that the dimensionally stable part of the tree is utilized.

Generally no, you will obtain nowhere near the same level of durability. Lumber must be pressure-treated to obtain the proper penetration depth and chemical level for adequate long-term protection of the lumber. Field treatment with organic solvent-based preservatives works acceptably well on lumber ends but not on the flat surfaces. This is because end-grain of lumber absorbs preservative up to 100 times more than the flat surface.

One advantage of kiln-dried lumber is that any live fungi present in the green lumber will have been killed by the heat of the kiln; in other words, KD lumber is sterile after leaving the kiln. However, if it gets sufficiently wet afterwards, then it is at the same risk of decay as any other wood.

Winter hut users will find large pots at the huts for melting snow. We advise that parties clean and refill snowmelt pots upon arrival at the hut, and snowmelt water should be treated or filtered before drinking. In the summer, water backpacks are provided for collecting water from springs and streams. All water should be treated or filtered before drinking. Distances to water sources vary from hut to hut (see below).

When first planted, water daily. It's good to fertilize at this time. Once established, only water during dry spells.