How Long Does It Take Wood To Dry After Rain?

For a lot of people, working out seems like more of a chore than something to be enjoyed. But when you find an activity that you not only love doing but which also benefits your health, you’re onto a winner. 

Initially, you might think of running as a challenging form of exercise. But this isn’t the case once you get into it. Yes, when you first start out, you’re going to push your body into perhaps doing things it isn’t used to. But with time, you’ll start craving the high that running gives and you’ll find yourself getting more and more involved. 

If you’ve ever seen those running addicts on social media, you’ll know just what I’m talking about. But while running is a great way for you to set and achieve goals, it’s also fantastic for your body and in this article, I’m going to explain just what happens to your body when you run.

Using wet wood is never a good idea. For starters,  it’s a lot harder to ignite and even if you do manage to get it going, it’ll smoke like there’s no tomorrow. That’s just not good for the environment nor your health. There may even be local laws about heavily smoking fires in your area so it’s something you’ll want to avoid at all costs. 

But if you have left your wood outdoors and the heavens have opened, you find yourself in something of a predicament. Don’t worry though, in this guide, we’ll look at how long it takes to dry wood after rain and what you can do to help things along. 

How Quickly Does Wood Dry After Rain?

Wood will typically take around a week to dry out completely and it’s important that you give it the time to do so. Otherwise you’ll face some of the problems that we talked about above. 

When it rains, wood soaks up water and this increases its moisture levels. Ideally, wood should contain only around 15% moisture but after rain, this can often double. To be absolutely sure that your wood is fully dry, you should use a moisture meter which will give you a reliable reading. 

What Factors Affect How Quickly Wood Dries?

The length of time that wood takes to dry will depend on a few different factors. For example, the size of the piece of wood and the local climate. Other things include the type of wood you’re trying to dry out and how humid the surrounding air is. 

This can lead you to believe that it would be impossible to effectively dry out your wet wood but don’t be discouraged. Later, we’ll go through some ways to speed up the process but for now, let’s take a closer look at the factors you’ll need to consider. 

The local climate plays a very significant role in the length of time required to dry wood. If there is a lot of wind or the climate is very dry then it might only take a couple of days; perhaps even just a day for the wood to dry out. 

On the other hand, if the weather is wet, cold and dark, you’re going to be looking at well over a week before your wood is usable again. As we mentioned earlier, it’s really important to measure the moisture content using a moisture metre; you can even check it each day to monitor the drying progress, if you wish. 

What Can I Do To Speed Things Up?

If you have found yourself with wet wood and are eager to dry it out so you can burn it then there are a few things you can do to boost the drying process. 

It’s terribly important to make sure that you stack your wood properly otherwise it’ll never dry. Make sure that there is enough space to promote good airflow between each piece or you’ll find that the outer pieces will dry while those towards the inside of the stack remain wet. If they’re left like this for long periods, you’ll start having problems with mould and rot. 

Similarly, it is useful if you can split the wood into smaller pieces. It’s common sense that a bigger piece of lumber will take much longer to dry than a smaller one. Unless you really need them to be large, cut them down.

Sometimes, we just don’t have the time to wait for wood to dry out by itself and in this case you can give it a boost with fire. I don’t mean burn it prematurely but merely place the stack close enough to a fire, or even a heater, so that it benefits from the additional heat and dries out more rapidly. 

Where possible, always store your wood indoors so it is well out of the rain. If you have to keep it outdoors then make sure that the pile is protected by a wood store, tarp, plastic box and that it doesn’t sit directly on the ground.

Conclusion

There’s nothing more frustrating than having a pile of wood that inadvertently gets wet from an unexpected rain shower. The moisture will soak into the lumber and render it useless for burning. It could take anywhere from a day to over a week to dry out. 

There are things you can do to speed it up but it’s super important to make sure that you check the moisture levels before burning otherwise it’ll be a nightmare to ignite and will kick out a ton of smoke!