A brilliant find. 

Air dried Timber is a must for any serious restoration work.

In the past, Timber was cut,sawn in to planks and rails,then stored under cover with  

 air spaces built into the drying stack.

This allowed the sap to dry out and become resin giving the timber a much higher resilience to wet and dry rot.

It has now become all but impossible to buy seasoned building timber, instead the alternative is Timber that has been Kiln dried.

This process heats the timber up, drying it out to stabilise it, the negative is that it takes with it, the natural elements that could protect it.

Air drying timber would take up to seven years, clearly, if new batches of timber were processed every year then continuous supply would not be a problem.

Many visitors to this blog understand the short of life of modern timber, is hardly a green process, a short life will mean that more timber is cut to replace it.

I found a cache of 250 year old timber in a skip in Tewkesbury during major alterations to a house.

The old floor joists were in perfect condition and would have been seasoned before use.

This has given the trust a supply of  seasoned timber to use for future restorations.