About two months ago I built a set of stairs using heavy white pine timbers for my timber frame house. The timbers (3×12 and 4×14) were relatively green when I made the stairs, and have since been drying in an unheated, cold house – thus very slowly. My question is, do I have to wait for them to dry more before I coat them with poly? If so, how long? I would like to seal them asap to protect them and maybe minimize shrinking, but I don’t want to do it too early and screw them up.
Mike Fitz
Thanks to an international effort to preserve traditional Japanese homes, an old timber frame is rebuilt in Oregon.
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Replies
Are you saying the stringers or the treads?
I would never cut stringers from green lumber because the shrinkage of the green lumber would make the treads tilt down to make for a dangerous staircase. You can't prevent shrinkage, you can only minimize the checking and warping by sealing, but if you seal in the bacteria with the moisture, you can find yourself developeing mildew spots under the poly. I would leave it be and wait to see what happens and deal with it after it cures.
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