FAQ Vol. 1
Frequently Asked Questions. Boy, do we have a lot of these! We figured that writing a blog post every once in a while dedicated to answering some of Windy Lake’s most asked would be a great way to inform and educate our audience.
Let’s start with some of the basic questions that are commonly found in our inbox:
If I custom order a piece of furniture, how long will it take for it to be completed?
Typically, turnaround times for custom orders are anywhere between 4 and 8 weeks. This is, of course, completely dependent on the size of the piece you order, along with the complexity of design and whether or not there are epoxy inclusions. Epoxy typically takes 7-10 days to cure and be ready to cut/sand, so this adds more time onto your wait—but it’s always worth it.
I cut down my favourite tree from my back yard. Can you make me a ______ with it?
This might be our most frequently asked question, and unfortunately, the answer is always no. While we would love to use such a meaningful piece for your custom order, we only work with properly kiln-dried material (with a final humidity content of less than 7%). Any wood that has not been dried in a kiln faces one (or even both) of these stipulations:
a) moisture/humidity content in the wood is
too high, which will ultimately lead to
your finished piece warping or developing
cracks. This affects the structural integrity
of the finished piece and just ends up being
plain old disappointing.
b) the piece of wood is already warped or
cracked. Of course, we can always stabilize
cracks and natural voids with epoxy or
inlaid material, however, if the piece is
already warped or cracked and has not been
kiln dried, it will most likely continue to
warp or crack even after we’ve done our best
work at stabilizing it.
But what if I’ve had it sitting in my garage air drying for years?
Let us elaborate: kiln dried wood is not the same as air dried wood. When lumber is placed in a kiln to dry, it is heated in a massive dry oven where it is flash-dried over a short amount of time. In addition to this, kiln drying a piece of lumber dries from the inside out, ensuring that all bugs and critters are also eliminated, and there is no cracking or warping in the process.
A piece of wood that has been air dried for several years, in a potentially unregulated environment, is exposed to lots of factors that can affect its proper drying (ie. fluctuating temperature/humidity). If you have questions about your unique situation, feel free to shoot us an email or message on our social media.
I want to come check out your lumber stock. What are your business hours?
While our working business hours are Monday-Friday from 8am-6pm, and Saturday from 10am-5pm, we always ask that you contact us in advance to arrange a time and date for you to come by. Our shop has limited work space so we always like to prepare for when someone is going to come by so that you can get the most out of browsing and asking questions! Our time is quite flexible and we’re always ready to accommodate your schedule if you’d like to come by and shop our live edge lumber.
If you have any questions you’d like answered in our next blog post, send us an email or a DM on our socials.
Cheers!
