Serious Humidity Problems With Wood

[CatBuilder]

I sure have plenty of questions.

I'm building in FL in a tent, but I'm not from here.

I had the lumber to make my mold delivered yesterday. I picked it all out and it was all at 7% wetness, according to my moisture meter.

Today, not even 24 hours later, it is now at 12-14% wetness!!

It's 86 degrees and it's 97% humidity out. It's 10AM!

How can I deal with this? Should I go and buy massive air conditioners for my shop? I am very concerned that my expensive boat building woods will be saturated by the time they are used. (luckily, they are not on site yet!)

What would you do? I know applying epoxy to wood that's not well dried is a disaster. How can I deal with this problem?

A second concern is that it was 93 in the shade yesterday (and is every day). My boat shed was up to 103 at one point with both ends wide open.

These numbers seem all wrong to me for boat building. I chose FL because everyone said it would be easier. So far, it's not... just cheaper.

What do I do??

[hoytedow]

You might check into these.:
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...u=04299701000P

[CatBuilder]

Hoyt, you're in FL, so I definitely need your help.

I agree the dehumidifiers are good, but my boat shed was 103 inside yesterday with both end walls wide open. If I close up and run the dehumidifiers, I'm certain I would reach 120 inside. Great for post curing, but not so great for getting work done.

Since air conditioners dehumidify as well, do you think that would be a better choice?

[hoytedow]

Get fluorescent lights and begin just before dawn, running dehumidifiers and fans. Quit by 10 or 11 am. Avoid the heat of the day.

[hoytedow]

Close the end flaps and power up dehumidifiers after sundown and let them work until you come into a more hospitable environment in the early hours.

[CatBuilder]

Will the cost of lights and dehumidifiers be the same as air conditioners in terms of electric usage?

Also, sunrise is at 6:28AM. If I start at 6AM (under lights) and work until 10AM, that's only 4 hours of work. I need to get in about 10-12 hours per day to stay on top of this build...

Just trying to figure this stuff out...

[hoytedow]

You could start at sundown and work all night, avoiding the heat of the day entirely. Use the day for sleep and leisure til you get past the glassing part. Switch to days after the worst is over with.

[CatBuilder]

I'm not good at staying up nights. This is a serious problem.

This isn't a temporary thing where I need to get past a particular part of the build. There will exposed wood that is then epoxied over through the entire build. This will be every hour of the entire build. I'm not sure I can work nights for 2-3 years.

I'm pretty damn nervous/scared right now because I'm already $10K into this

[hoytedow]

From: http://www.solarius.com/dvp/wdw/climate.htm

The chart below gives an idea of the average daily temperature for the Orlando area of central Florida. It will be hotter towards Miami, and the Keys, probably by as much as 5 deg C.



Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Celcius 21 22 24 26 30 31 31 31 30 29 25 23
Farenheit 70 72 76 79 86 87 87 87 86 84 77 73
Rainfall 2.3 3.0 3.2 1.8 3.6 7.3 7.2 6.8 6.0 2.4 2.3 2.2

[hoytedow]

The temperatures will start dropping in September along with the humidity. Unfortunately this is when hurricane season kicks into high gear. The rainfall will drop off dramatically in October and stay low until June. Those are the best times to do glasswork.

[CatBuilder]

Big relief!! It was a scare, rather than a disaster.

What seems to be happening is that the wood is absorbing the near 100% humidity you have from 3AM until dawn.

By noon, the wood that was 12-14% moisture early in the day dropped back down to 7% moisture as it warmed up. WHEW!!

That was quite a scare.

Thank for the input and help. Luckily, it would appear if you are careful about when you do your bonding and keep your moisture meter handy, things work out fine.

[AndrewK]

CatBuilder, not everyone told you that Florida was better. High temperature is good so you only need to decide if high RH is going to concern you personally. If not then throw out the humidity meter and just plow on, but if you are going to lose sleep over this then climate control is the answer.
I asked you this before but you did not confirm, are you going to charter this boat? as I think you indicated this in one of your early threads.
If so then the decision is not yours to make, at least in this part of the world it's not.

good luck
Andrew

[afrhydro]

thats florida dont like the weather wait a hour or two and it will change

thats why i quit using wood as much as possible and went to foam high density composites like coosa and tough board

[CatBuilder]

Andrew,

First, I'm not sure where you asked me if I was chartering this boat. Sorry... I may have missed that. Where did you ask?

(the answer is yes)

The vast majority of people I spoke with and that replied to questions I had posted (over 60% of people) said building in FL was best of my choices. I tended to agree.

Luckily, the high moisture that developed overnight was transient in nature.

Originally Posted by AndrewK

CatBuilder, not everyone told you that Florida was better. High temperature is good so you only need to decide if high RH is going to concern you personally. If not then throw out the humidity meter and just plow on, but if you are going to lose sleep over this then climate control is the answer.
I asked you this before but you did not confirm, are you going to charter this boat? as I think you indicated this in one of your early threads.
If so then the decision is not yours to make, at least in this part of the world it's not.

good luck
Andrew

[CatBuilder]

Originally Posted by afrhydro

thats florida dont like the weather wait a hour or two and it will change

thats why i quit using wood as much as possible and went to foam high density composites like coosa and tough board

Seriously!

It might have taken a little more than an hour, but the humidity drops like a rock all day long and rockets back up at night. It changes very quickly.