Hello, just need some quick advice. I'm currently working on a home theater project and I'm doing some construction with 2x4's and mostly plywood. I've been doing all my work in my yard and last night I left everything outside, like I usually do. This morning when I woke up though I realized it was raining, and all my lumber is now soaked.

So since I am new to construction and have been winging it as I go, my questions are: Will this affect the wood in any way? When the rain stops tomorrow is it ok to keep working on it or do I need to wait a few days for it to dry? Also, will the screws rust (I'm just using 3" coarse threaded drywall screws) and if they do, does it matter since they will be covered in drywall anyway?

Thanks,
- Steve

I would wait for it to dry out before working with it again. If you're going to leave the stuff outside, I would suggest keeping it covered with cheap plastic tarps (the blue stuff) to keep it dry. Rust will not be an issue with the screws.

I would also recommend putting the wood in the room that it will be used in and let it sit in there for a day or two in order for the wood to get to the temp / humidity of the room, otherwise you may have some warping/moving when it fully dries. I did the same thing as you did (except it didn't get wet) but I stored it outside in my shed and brought the pieces in as I built stuff. A week later the straight boards were moving all over the place. The advice from a carpenter was to keep the wood in the temp / humidity that it will be used in for 24-48 hrs and if it does warp it is easier to use/bend when it is unbuilt. Just my 2 cents.

also, you're going to want to use proper wood construction screws rather than drywall screws. drywall screws are brittle and not as strong.

dan

Thanks for the tips everyone!

I bought one pickup load of lumber that turned out to be wet. Of the 20 pieces I could only use about 5 for wall studs. I stacked it carefully exposing all sides, let it dry, but it still had a mind of it's own.

The remainder I kept on hand and used when I needed a short piece and it didn't matter if it was straight.

as stated, you will be ok with the lumber once it dries if it dries fairly straight (you would be surprised how much you can twist a 2x4 straight with a pipe wrench once one side is nailed.....NLB walls dont need to be perfect, just need a nailing surface for sheetrock!)

be careful with plywood though...depending on how it got wet and for how long, it can delaminate.

Definitely wait for it to dry out - wood swells when wet, and all sorts of weird problems would likely crop up if you measured, cut and built walls with the lumber and then it dried and/or twisted in place.

As said above, you also want #8 x 2.5" or 3" general-purpose wood screws or specifically framing screws (they're sharper and coarser than regular wood screws), both with a #2 square drive head. Drywall screws are -not- rated for framing forces and will almost certainly break either on installation or eventually. The combination of tough framing lumber, a brittle screw, and the forces on its cross bit pattern will also cause no end of grief.

I wouldn't worry. I had all my lumber totally soaked for about a week before we framed. Didn't have a problem at all... Just wait a day or two for it to dry.