There are a lot of ways you could do to save time and money when it comes to timber preparation. If you have a construction plan in a near future, choosing the best timber product may protect you from headache caused by decayed timber just because you choose it wrongly in the first place. However, do you know that kiln seasoning could be the most reliable, effective and economical solution?
What is Kiln Seasoning?
Before you decided to choose this method, perhaps learning a bit about what kiln seasoning is very important to ensure you more that this is the solution you have been looking for. There are three steps in the process of kiln seasoning:
- Air
This process is requiring a large blowers or fans to force the air circulation from the timber.
- Heat
Through a complex pipe steam, timber is heated.
- Humidity
By using steam jets, the timber is humidified.
Each process is depending on the types of the material, size and quantity. That is why very important to decide which types of timber you want to use for construction in the first place, so the kiln seasoning process could be done in one time before the construction begun.
Benefits of Kiln Seasoning
Some of you might be wondering about what are the advantages you will get if you add this process to your construction plan. The list below will tell you that your decision to choose kiln seasoning is the best decision you could make for everlasting construction.
- Lowers the Moisture in Timber
Choosing timber with low moisture level is important for construction. The benefits are to prevent decay because the higher the moisture level is the easier the timber will decay. Low moisture timber is also more accurate to be shaped because it will prevent the shrinkage during the construction process.
- The Process Is Faster
Compared to manual wood drying process which is depending on weather, using kiln seasoning method is a bit faster. Manually, you need days, weeks or even months just to make sure the timbers are dry enough to construct. However, with kiln seasoning method, you could dry your timber in as short as a day, depending on the quantity and size of the timber.
- Reduces Losses due to Degradation
As mentioned in the first point, kiln seasoning method could help reducing losses due to degradation caused by shrinkage. It means, you could measure the need of timber in more accurate way. You could size or shape the timber without worrying the timber will be degraded due to high moisture level.
- Sterilizes the Timber from Insects and Fungal
After several years of construction, some people should prepare a specific budget to eliminate insects and fungal infection in their house. The reason behind insect and fungal infection is due to high moisture level that kept in a long time.
- Provides High Quality Timber for Construction
There are a lot of types of timber for construction. Though it is also important to choose the right timber for the right construction purposes, for example is super important to choose high quality timber only if you want to construct a house. However, you could choose average quality of timber if you want to construct a hut or garage. Aside from that, no matter how high the quality of timber is when it contains high moisture level will reduce its quality. That is why drying the wood before construction is necessary.
- Prevents Timber from Decaying
Decaying is usually forgotten when people start a construction. If you could prevent your house from decaying, you could save a lot of money for re-construction project in the near future. Re-construction is probably required but after a very long year after because you choose high quality timber in the first place that have been processed through kiln seasoning method to reduce the level of moisture that longer the age of the house.
- Friendly in Your Wallet
When it comes to budget, money and cost is really relative. Some people may find the kiln seasoning method is really expensive but it is only short term. Once you do kiln seasoning method you could save a lot of budget such as re-construction budget, insect and fungal eliminator budget, timber decay treatment. In other words, the cost you pay is only short term but you could save a lot of money long term.
- Safe for Environment
Kiln seasoning method is not only friendly for your wallet but also safe for environment. When you could measure the shape, size and quantity accurately you could prepare the exact amount of timber without the need to harm your environment by cutting unnecessary timber. It is also applicable for re-construction purpose because you could save more timber from this purpose.
Disadvantages of Kiln Seasoning
It is true that there is no wood drying method which is perfect and even kiln seasoning has its own disadvantages. The list below will give you some information that may change your mind a bit. However, you should see the long term advantages as mentioned above because most of the disadvantages below are only short term.
- It is recommended to use the kiln seasoning service in large quantity. It is important for you to save time and money. That is why planning your construction carefully is strongly required in this process.
- As mentioned in the previous point, kiln seasoning could be expensive. However, it is only one time. It is better to pay the expensive money but you could save more money in the future for reconstruction or fungal problems.
- The kiln seasoning process may change the natural colour of the timber especially for you who prefer to use the natural colour for your construction.
Well, from the benefits of kiln seasoning and the disadvantages of this method mentioned above, what is your decision? It is highly recommended to choose this process because though it is probably expensive in the first place but you could save a lot of time, money and energy in the future.