Best Ideas

Petersburg Mi Problems with the mantle

On my previous post about the mantle being twisted, I have a question from a visitor, and I want to address it in a post, because of the way blogger is (you cant always follow comments and replies easily) -

Superdave0002 asks: "Do you think it will stay once you get it untwisted?"

Well, theres no easy answer to this. The best I can say is, I hope so! I mean this:

I know I can untwist it. The problem is the area of the country we live in. In lower Michigan, it can go from 35 degrees in the morning to 85 degrees in the afternoon, like it is now. Thats a drastic change on the moisture content of wood. To make matters worse, the dead of winter around here is even more harsh, and we have a VERY dry climate in January, with humidity levels dropping to single digits. Wood typically likes to be around 8-10% moisture content in our region. Its possible that I can straighten out this mantle, hang it, and next year it could twist a little! The only options are to try, or buy another piece (which is not in the budget, nor easy to find quickly).

My saving grace in this situation is my method of hanging it. Im going to employ a French Cleat (google it up for a reference). If it re-twists and I have to replace it, I will be able to do so without too much trouble.

I hope so!
Thanks for the question - I appreciate everyone that watches my blog!