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I plan on putting stone veneer on the sides of 8" x 10" doug fir posts on my porch. The timbers were not kiln dried so know they have a high moisture content. Since it's been raining recently in my area, the surface of the posts are moist. Should I be concerned about putting durock and veneer on now while the surface is moist? Does it make sense to wrap the posts with roofing paper underneath the durock? Thanks.
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Wet lumber will shrink. Posts will shrink slightly in both dimensions (roughly equally) and probably check a bit. In my experience, posts check a lot more than they shrink, so the dimensions should be roughly the same.
Your backer board and your stone veneer won't shrink, so I don't think you have much to worry about. There will be some stresses between the wood and the backer board as the wood dries, but I don't think it will do a whole lot (at least depending on how you attach the backer board). Using a vapor barrier to retard drying probably isn't going to do much, so I wouldn't worry about that either.
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