teak door

My dad was helping with the earthquake in Indonesia and while he was over there he got to know somebody who owned a furniture factory. He ordered a custom teak door with an elk carved on it and some furniture. He is supposed to pick up the container pretty soon. Assuming that the wood wasn't properly dried in Indonesia, what should he do to keep it from splitting or warping? He lives in Colorado where the humidity is quite low.

We are dying to see if the elk looks like an elk.

Reply to
rinfo
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If it was a factory (or even if it was only a group of craftsmen) why would you assume they wouldn't use dried lumber? It would seem highly unlikely to me this person could have a continuing business building doors and furniture (presumably much for export, possibly?) using green wood.

If this is finished furniture and door, if the wood wasn't dried before construction it is highly unlikely anything you will be able to do will be able to make much difference.

Reply to
dpb

Having spent some time in Indo I would suggest that it is something of a crap-shoot. A *Factory* might be a tarp overhead with a number of workers sitting on mats, etc. Stock for local market use is not dried sufficiently for export to USA. OTOH, if the factory is an export driven operation, then the chances are better that the stock would be dried properly. My suggestion would be to check the moisture level upon arrival. If you get high readings you might try placing the door in a basement or semimoist area. And, I would not seal the door in any way until you are sure it has stabilized.

Good Luck

Reply to
Joe Bemier

We've spent years in SE Asia and returned to the U.S. with a lot of teak and rosewood furniture. Even for professionally-prepared timber you have to expect that wood that has spent its life in a tropical environment where the ambient humidity is almost always high is going to react when it is brought into a permanently low-humidity environment. Most visible for us is that the dining room tabletop, which is a floating rosewood panel, has shrunk (but not cracked) so that the previously-concealed portion at the edges of the panel are now slightly visible -- they're unfinished and unstained. I assume your door is also going to have a floating panel for the design, and you may want to find a source for a stain that will let you touch up parts of the door. Also, I suggest you don't do anything to keep the panel from moving within its frame.

OTOH, we've had no real problems with cracking or loose joints in the furniture. We also imported three 8' x 9' carved teak walls from Indonesia, and made these walls part of our renovated bedroom, and neither the carvings nor other panels have had problems.

We do, however, very regularly oil our furniture and teakwood walls with teak or rosewood oil. Perhaps they wouldn't have problems even without the oiling, but we're not taking that chance. Regards --

Reply to
JimR

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