Kiln Dried Pine and Chins Follow Up

[Dan White]

Hi. I'm the chinchilla guy again. I noticed over at HD they had 2x4's marked as "KD." The salesman said that stands for kiln dried. They also had 2x3's. Any reason to believe these are not completely kiln dried? I ask because we all know that HD tends to cut corners to keep prices low.

thanks, dwhite

[Ba r r y]

Framing lumber is sold in multiple grades. The kiln dried stuff is more expensive, but usually straighter, green is usually cheaper. Kiln dried in softwood construction lumber is NOT the same as kiln dried in relation to hardwoods, other than both spent time in a kiln.

Grade information like KD is usually specific to a grading body, not a retailer. Here's a link to one such body:

Most structural lumber is dried to the neighborhood of 19% MC, much higher (wetter) than furniture grade wood.

Barry

[Dan White]

Thanks for the tip.

dwhite

[Ba r r y]

Anytime.

I forgot to mention that grading info on any piece of lumber, including sheet goods, is accompanied by the name of the standards body.

I've not found a grade standard organization yet that didn't have a website explaining the system. Google has never failed to put on the site!

For instance, when I needed flooring, the locally available good stuff was stamped NOFMA, which led me to NOFMA.org, which explained everything I wanted to know. Same goes for plywood: Hardwood dealers usually don't stamp the lumber itself, but simply make the grading standard they use public in some way.

If it doesn't have any grading body's name or initials, I'd be wary.

Barry