Moisture Readings

[Degraffreed 21]

To those who are wood vets.

I just received my Delhurst Moisture meter.. Jlite, from Sunbrite, Thanks Pete, anyhow. I was doing a sample test on my own deck this a.m., what I noticed is that I was getting different reading from the same area of the deck.

Ex, used the meter on the first four boards from the door.

First board.... reading 25-30

Second board.. 18-20

third board.... 15-20

Is my readig different due to the diffrent grades of PT Pine, which absorb moisture different or is the wood drying at different times due to the placement of the sun before I did the readings.

Also when your taking readings to determine if deck is ready to stain, do you take reading in diffrent areas of the deck and do you wait until all testing area read below 12% moisture content before preceding with staining.

[R L S 14]

The boards further out from the house recieve sunlight first because of the roof over hang, therefore drying before the ones nearer the house.

I always check my decks in a few different places to make sure the entire deck is at the right moisture content.

[big mike 14]

You will almost always get variances in your readings. Try checking around a knot and see how high the moisture content is there (usually very high). Shaded areas dry much slower. Also, try to insert the probes to the same depth when taking readings.