Drying Lumber

Drying lumber is part art and science. It requires constant testing, patience, and time. Lumber is air-dried before going into dry kilns to reach optimal drying moisture content.

Drying lumber is one of the most important aspects of quality lumber. Quarter sawn lumber takes longer to dry than plain sawn and can take up to two months of additional drying in the kilns with daily monitoring to create the lumber needed to mill wide plank and long-length flooring.

After the lumber is dried, we take care to keep lumber in environmentally stable conditions. This attention to detail is incredibly important as our lumber and flooring are shipped worldwide and installed in different climates, from humid oceanfront homes to arid mountains.

The Hickman family is extremely confident in its drying abilities. It uses this lumber to make the best hardwood flooring in the country. The lumber’s consistent quality reflects how well it is dried.