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<DIV>Maybe I can help a bit here. I operate a small sawmill in southwest
Missouri, and deal with some of these issues. “Heat treated” is a specific
term that assures the wood has been heated to a temperature for a designated
period of time to destroy the bugs that could emerge from the wood and cause
damage or become invasive. The USDA has the specifics on this, but it
basically requires the core of the wood to maintain a temperature of at least
135 deg F for at least an hour. Further, this has to be documented.
In the winter, my solar kiln will kiln dry wood to 8% moisture content without
reaching 135, so I supplement the heat source to meet this requirement.
Most industrial kilns surpass that temperature, but there is no guarantee,
unless it has specifically been certified as heat treated. Conversely,
wood can (and often is) heat treated without being kiln dry. Heat
certainly facilitates the drying process, but is not required, nor does heating
wood to a given temperature dry it to a given moisture content.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As regards to the original question, species is the critical issue, as heat
treating does not, in any way, prevent the wood from decaying—it just kills the
bugs already in the wood. For example, cottonwood, hickory, or sycamore
would be poor choices, since they quickly. Red or black oak would be much
better, and white oak better yet. Finally, kiln dry wood is the LAST thing
you’d want for exterior siding. It will actually expand as it picks up
moisture, and the wood can buckle and pull away. Lap siding and board
& batten are designed specifically to allow green wood to shrink as it goes
from green to air dry moisture content (around 12% in NE Kansas). Kiln dry
is only useful for indoor flooring and furniture. I built our passive
solar house out of “green” black oak lumber fresh off the mill over 30 years
ago, with no problems of warping or rot. No heartbreak here!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dave Boyt</DIV>
<DIV>Pottershop Hollow Tree Farm & Sawmill</DIV>
<DIV>Neosho, MO</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=ArchiLogic@yahoo.ca
href="mailto:ArchiLogic@yahoo.ca">RT</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, November 12, 2015 5:08 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=greenbuilding@lists.bioenergylists.org
href="mailto:greenbuilding@lists.bioenergylists.org">Green Building</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Greenbuilding] heat treated wood
siding</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV>Picture me scratching my ... head ... with left eye turned down in a
wrinkle and right side of mouth agape.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm wondering why the wood has been labeled as "heat treated" as opposed to
the term "kiln dried" that has been in use since long before I was born and I'm
OLD, real OLD. (Okay, okay. Just "not so young anymore".)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Using dried lumber for any sort of building task is pretty much always a
Good Thing. It provides a degree ("degree" depending upon degree of
drying) of dimensional stability, less chance of distortion (ie twisting,
warping, cupping, bowing etc.) and self-destruction (ie cracking and splitting)
due to uneven/uncontrolled moisture loss during drying (from "green" lumber
state) ... provided that the dried lumber is kept dry prior to and after
installation at all stages (ie storage by supplier, delivery, on-site storage,
in situ before finishing if finishing etc.) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I remember a little book from the olde days when the Whole Earth Catalogue
was in vogue extolling the virtues of building with green lumber (in one word
"cheap"). I think that the same author came out with a subsequent book with a
title being something like "The Heartbreak of Building with Green Lumber"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Using "kiln dried" lumber as opposed to "air-dried" provides a higher
degree of assurance that any bugs that were in the green lumber will have been
killed, and that's also a Good Thing. (Not such a Good Thing from a cabinetry
perspective though, but we're not talking about cabinetry here.)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>So if the appellation "Heat Treated" is describing a process that is the
same as "kiln drying", then one should be able to expect the same benefits as
one would expect in using "kiln dried". But they don't use the
conventional age-old term "kiln dried" which makes me wonder "Why not ?"</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The suspicious part of me thinks "because it's not the same and is just a
marketing term to make the product appear as though is they have done something
done to it to make it better but in reality is just that -- a marketing gimmick
that is akin to polishing a turd. But perhaps the reality isn't as
bad as that. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(I know that "Heat Treated" is a term that is used in the wooden shipping
pallet industry and I probably wouldn't lose a wager if I were to venture that
the standards in the pallet manufacturing industry aren't quite at the same
level as the home building industry -- or at least, I hope that's the
case.) </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>On Thu, 12 Nov 2015 16:56:55 -0500, Sacie Lambertson
<sacie.lambertson@gmail.com> wrote:<BR></DIV><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid">
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV class=gmail_default
style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,sans-serif">I am interested in
this group's opinion about using heat treated wood on the exterior of a house
in NE Kansas?</DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_default
style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,sans-serif"> </DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_default
style="FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-FAMILY: verdana,sans-serif">Thanks,
Sacie</DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><BR>
<DIV id=M2Signature>
<DIV>-- </DIV>
<DIV>=== * ===<BR>Rob Tom DT7-64 <BR>Kanata, Ontario, Canada</DIV></DIV>
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