Assess Wood Moisture Content

all right we're out here getting ready to do a fence today we're going to be oiling it with expert say seal self-leveling non-drying oil before doing any type of fence deck pergola anything that's raw wood make sure you test the moisture content if you don't test the moisture content you're going to have problems with the application down the road the wood's not going to soak up the oil like it should there's going to be adhesion and penetration problems down the road also so I use a device Ryobi moisture meter right here it's Bluetooth if I can select species of wood I'm going to be testing it's got two prongs simple and easy to use I'm just going to press it right into the wood I'm going to wait 5 or 10 seconds and it's going to give me a reading ideally what you're looking for is 16% or below I think it's really ideal if it's going to be 133% or below I'm looking for 11% or below so right here at zero this fence was installed over a year ago went through the whole summer it's completely dried out brand new fences they always come out extremely wet let them dry out make sure you test the moist moisture in order to verify cuz I got zero in order to verify that it's going to be working I'm going to test it someplace that I know there's moisture in some wood and I even got tree right here that's got a root right there so I know my moisture meter is working right there make sure you test your wood whether you're doing a deck fence pergola um anything wood before treating it with expert uh stain and seal self-leveling non-drying oil