Matthew 22:36-39
Perfect Log Homes LLC Modern Rustic construction Log Homes in Illinois
Sell - General Contracting -Build (Mid - High End Luxury)
-Restorations - Maintenance - Inspections - Custom Live Edge Tops & Furniture -Kiln Drying and Slab Flattening Services
Servicing areas from Illinois to the Northwoods of Wisconsin
Start USING or SELLING your wood in DAYS and WEEKS instead of months and years!
High Efficiency Kiln Drying - Its not a Trick, it's just new Tech
By:David Aurbeck
Perfect Log Homes LLC - Owner/Operator
Updated: Jan-2022
If you have talked with anyone or even just glanced at Facebook Marketplace or Etsy then you know what amazing projects and family Heirlooms people are making out of trees and the lumber it holds within. Trees that were once cut up and burned by your local Tree Services or Arborists for sometimes around $3000 are now being milled up to create a masterpiece(s) for the same price if not cheaper!
Really...you can buy masterpieces like that from us! Give us some wood and some forever trinkets and well throw them in a river of epoxy and make a beautiful kitchen table that will last as long as those black and white photos you got from when your family made it here in the covered wagon!
Here's the catch... you can NOT build much of anything with WET wood that will be going in your house.
Why?
As you may know, wood expands and contracts with fluctuation of moisture content. For Example, oak can shrink up to 8% from when it was cut down/milled to when it's dry enough to meet furniture grade Moisture Content(MC). Some oak can take up to 200 days to dry from 75%MC when stacked to below 20%MC, See Link = https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplrn/fpl_rn293.pdf.
And if you live in humid Illinois!, you'll forget how to spell wood by the time that Air drys.
Most Importantly...Wood also carries with it bugs and it's own diseases that may "wake up" in your house. Do a quick search on Powder Post Beetles! They eat your house before you know they're there! Alot of people are buying "Barnwood!" OOOO, AAAHHH! Right? That stuff is like gold. Well, before you bought it, did you ask if it was Kiln dried or treated? Whoops, look out for little dust piles on the ground. Silverfish have come out of the wood and now disappeared into the wood in your house to lay eggs. All of Perfect Log Homes' "Barnwood" is treated twice before handing off to customers. We see alot of different kinds of infestations when wood is wet in our Restoration business also.
Now, if you wanted to cut down your own tree, maybe even get a portable mill and mill it yourself because you want to make flooring or a table top etc, you CAN! But your going to have to wait longer than most people remember they even have something out in the yard or shed to do something with. AND if you didnt stack it and protect it correctly you could have done alot of work to end up with a pile of wood that could be starting to or already rotting, infested with bugs that might not have been there when you stacked it, and its soo grey and possibly warped and cracked that if you could even save HALF of the stack, you'd have to shape/cut/or plane off 40% of the wood surface just to make it usable. Not to mention having to look at, mow around, shovel snow off this stack of wood for a YEAR!?
And just because the wood "feels" dry doesnt mean its dry enough to use or not start rotting. Free moisture is different from Bound moisture, See Link = https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr190/chapter_04.pdf. Free moisture may dissipate and make it feel dry but the Bound moisture could still be harboring bugs and potential rot as well as make the item susceptible to over expansion and contraction that will waste all your time you took on that project.
"SO THEN WHAT DO WE DO!?"
Our High Efficiency Kiln Drying process takes days and weeks instead of months and years to DRY & Disinfect (we all know what that means by now) your wood. We have a price per Board Foot per Day cost to get your wood from where it is when you bring it in, to where you want it when you pick it up depending on what you're doing with it. Costs are predetermined to enable both wood owners and wood wholesalers or distributors to profit from the process.
"BUT WAIT, WHY CAN'T I JUST BUILD MY OWN SOLAR KILN or whatever?"
You CAN! But if you're a homeowner that only needs one project to do, the cost of your time away from family and materials needed to support a solar kiln packaged kit is going to cost you alot more than just bringing it in to us and getting it back quick.
And if you're a business selling products, a Solar kiln is NOT going to Disinfect or cut that much time off from air drying. You're not going to be able to regulate it as well. The end result it not going to produce a better product or justify costs. You're going to have to spend more time culling out bad boards or shaping the good ones. Plus, they are not big enough. It's still a pinch point in your production. It'll only take a guy 3-6 hours to mill enough wood to fill your Solar Kiln. Yea you could keep milling and get stuff pre- air drying but your limiting factor is still the Solar Kiln drying interval to get a workable MC.
"But WAIT, Hardwoods will turn out horrible if you dry them too Fast!"
Right... in 'old school' kiln drying or a solar kiln drying yes you can dry to fast. But NOT in our high efficiency kiln drying process. There's really no argument, 12/4 oak has been coming out of these Kiln Drying units for years now and look better than any other kiln drying system.
And Yes, people build sheds and put a kiln or dehydrator unit in there. Which takes up more time and energy to babysit than a newborn.
Large lumber processing companies don't want to deal with small batches being thrown in the mix with all their stuff they have pre programmed in their Kiln run.
There are even other Kilns that dry with similar processes as ours. But when that kiln door opens at the end of the run, our specific High Efficiency Kiln Drying has proven to produce the best product for homeowners DIY projects and most importantly for Businesses that NEED and quality product that takes Minimal labor to turn a profit in an Economy now that is suffocating from lack of good labor.
"Ok,Ok...but I could just buy dry wood at Menards or somewhere right?"
You CAN!? Well kinda lol. If they have anything, its more expensive.
So Calculate that Board Foot(bf) Cost 7/16" x 3 1/2" x 4' = 6.125/ 12 = .5104bf
Approx $11.00 / .5104bf = $21.55/bf!!!!! That's nuttier then a squirrel turd on a Tuesday.
Contact us now at daurbeck@yahoo.com :
1. With questions or to schedule a Kiln-Drying Run for your products. Our Kiln is now open for service to the public by appointment only. Terms and conditions apply.
2. With inquiries for our Unique Live Edge Slab and Furniture services.
