I live in Northern California, East Bay of San Francisco to be exact and have a question regarding lumber storage. My workshop is in my garage and I also store my lumber in the garage. It gets really hot and dry in the summer months. I think it’s too dry, but I’m not sure. Is there a rule of thumb for humidity and climate for wood storage. Any help would be appreciated.
Tom
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In general you want to store the wood in the same environment as the shop so that the wood won't be gaining or losing moisture, and thus changing shape, as you work with it, so storing your wood in your garage/shop is normally the best place for it.
At the same time, if the garage is getting extremely hot, like the interior of a car parked in the sun, the wood may be becoming exceptionally dry which means that you will have to make allowances for it to expand more than usual once it is made into a piece of furniture and placed in a more moderate climate inside of a house.
If the garage is getting exceptionally hot the best thing to do would be to shade it, add some insulation, and/or improve its ventilation.
John White, Shop manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine
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