Showing posts with label humidity and wood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humidity and wood. Show all posts

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Humidity and Amish Furniture



Ah, as much as summer is a welcomed season after a cold winter, with it comes humidity. With humidity come sticky tabletops and drawers even in your Amish furniture. Wood is hydroscopic, meaning it sucks up water from the base and draws it up to its very tops. The water it sucks up is either liquid water or water vapor (humidity). Therefore, you can say, wood is like a sponge and with that being said only goes to mean that your Amish furniture is a sponge as well.

Say you lived in a tropical climate and moved to a dryer lower moisture climate. When you arrive with your Amish furniture, you may notice a change in the way your drawers work. In the tropical climate, your Amish furniture adjusted to the climate if you did not have air conditioning controlling the climate in your home and the doors likely stuck due to the moisture it absorbed over time. When you arrive in a lower moisture climate, your furniture naturally adjusts to its new living condition and will release the extra moisture into the air. This release will cause the wood to shrink.

Wood naturally swells and shrinks the most around the growth rings of the tree. When crafting furniture, the Amish must account for this movement or the wood may crack. With their long history in furniture design, they have this mastered it for the most part, but cannot do anything about the environment in your home.

If you are purchasing a new piece of Amish furniture, give it a good week to become accustomed to its new environment. Monitor the humidity level in your home and keep it in the 35% to 45% range. Summer humidity can cause some tabletops to stick tight. When you get the table open, apply some wax on the dowel pins and slides and it should remedy the problem in the future.

If you live in a high moisture area and cannot control your humidity level yet want to purchase Amish furniture, look into purchasing Amish furniture built from quarter-sawn white oak. It is naturally resistant to water damage and the quarter-sawing places the growth rings nearly vertical. This causes the wood to “swell” nearly vertical and allows the wood to expand and contract lessening the chances of twisting, cupping, or cracking.

ABOUT THE PICTURE
Escalade 7 Drawer Dresser with Mirror
The BEC-04 Escalade unit is a 7 Drawer Dresser that is 66" x 22" x 34" tall. It comes with the BEC-02 Mirror as shown. This unit is shown in brown maple with expresso dye stain. Choose from oak, quartersawn oak, cherry and your choice of stain colors.

AmishRetail.com has been selling high quality Amish Furniture since 1998. Although we are based in Salt Lake City, Utah, we have compiled an extensive selection of our favorite Amish Furniture products and accessories from manufacturers across the nation. We sell only the best products of the highest quality such as Amish Dinning room furniture and accessories, Amish bedroom furniture and accessories, Amish living room furniture and accessories, Amish children’s room furniture and accessories, Amish kitchen furniture and accessories, Amish office furniture and accessories, Amish hallway/entryway furniture and accessories, Amish home accessories, Amish dolls and doll furniture, Amish art, Amish jewelry boxes and bible boxes, and so much more.

Partly because of our refusal to sell anything but the best and partly because of our dedication to both our customers and our products, we are the leading Internet seller of Amish Furniture and accessories. You can count on us to provide you with high quality products, great deals, and excellent customer service.
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