How to Pick Wood in the Chicago Suburbs Without Getting Burned

There's a lot of wood for sale in this part of Illinois. Some of it is excellent. Some of it is fine. Some of it is going to cost you the project. Here's how to tell the difference before you load it into your truck.

Step one: bring a meter

A pin moisture meter costs about thirty dollars. It's the single most useful thing you can put in your pocket before walking into a wood seller's yard.

Furniture-grade target is 6 to 8% MC. Construction lumber for an interior project should read under 19%. If a seller doesn't want you putting a meter in their boards, that tells you everything. Walk.

Step two: ask the three questions

Where did you buy it. Was it kiln dried. How was it kiln dried.

Acceptable answers describe a real kiln with controlled temperature, humidity, and airflow. Steam kilns and vacuum kilns are both legitimate — they have a defined schedule and a way to verify what came out actually got dry. Anything involving a heater in a shipping container, a dehumidifier in a garage, or "it's been sitting outside for a few years" is something else, and it's not kiln dried.

Just because the wood is dusty and old doesn't mean it's stable.

Step three: look at the ends

Cracks at the end of a board (called checking) are normal — wood loses moisture from the ends faster than the faces. A little checking, an inch or two, doesn't hurt anything. Heavy checking that runs 6, 8, 12 inches into a board means it dried badly, and it's likely going to keep splitting after you cut it.

Twist, cup, and bow are different problems. Lay the board flat and look down its length. A board that rocks on the floor or curves like a banana is going to fight you in every cut.

Step four: know the species you're buying

Chicago hardwoods you'll actually find here: walnut, white oak, red oak, hard maple, soft maple, ash, cherry, hackberry, elm, hickory. These come from urban tree removal — backyards, parkways, storm damage.

What you generally won't find local: tropical hardwoods (ipe, teak, mahogany), softwoods used for framing (those come from northern mills), or anything called "exotic" without a clear country of origin.

If a seller has 2,000 board feet of figured walnut for less than market, ask harder questions. Real figured walnut is rare. Most of what's sold as figured isn't.

Step five: pay for the air-drying or pay for it later

Air-drying takes months to a year. Kiln drying takes another two to three weeks for a 2-inch slab. That time is in the price.

Wood that hasn't been through both of those steps will keep moving after it's in your house. Heated forced air in winter is ruthless on under-dried wood. Tables crack. Joints split. Veneer pops. Six months after you finished the build, you'll know.

The cheaper the wood looks compared to everything else on the market, the more likely one of those steps got skipped. Sometimes both.

Step six: storage at home

When you get the wood home, sticker it. Put 3/4-inch spacers between boards every 16 inches, in a stack, somewhere with airflow. Let it sit in your shop for two weeks before you build. Wood acclimates to its environment, and your shop is not the same humidity as our yard.

If you're building furniture for an indoor space with central heat, that two weeks matters. If you're building a deck, less so.

What we run at our shop

iDRY Plus vacuum kiln, 4,000 board feet capacity, 6 to 8% MC out the door. TimberKing 2220 bandsaw mill, logs up to 48 inches in diameter, 12 feet long. CNC for flattening, $100/hr, detail to 1/32 inch. Custom drying for outside wood at $1.80 to $3.50 per board foot, 250 board feet and one week minimum.

We're at 1130 Carolina Drive, Unit C, in West Chicago. If you're not sure whether the wood you bought somewhere else is dry, bring a piece. We'll meter it for free and tell you straight.