How to buy your first live edge slab
A few months ago, I was commissioned for my first epoxy river table. This means I had to go purchase a slab from a sawmill. However, I learned a few things I would like to pass on to anyone looking to purchase their first slab. Just a heads up, the moisture meter listed below is considered top of the line. The link is an affiliate link so I do receive compensation if you purchase from that link. Any amount of help helps a small business like mine!
Slab Availability
After browsing through their online selection, my client picked out a slab that they really liked. When I called to schedule a time to view the slab, they informed me they didn’t have it in stock because it was sold and never removed from the website. Unfortunately, I had to go back to my client and inform them that the slab they wanted was not available. What was fortunate was there was another slab from the same tree available. So, crisis semi-adverted!
Make sure the slab is dry
Even if a slab is advertised as being dry, whether it air dried or kiln dried, you need to double check before you purchase. You DO NOT want to work with wet wood that has not been dried properly. Wood will warp, crack, shrink and sometimes twist as it dries. We want this process to be completed before we do the project, not after it is in your home!
To determine if a slab is dry, you need to use a moisture meter. Unless you can afford an expensive pin less moisture meter that reads deep into the wood, I suggest asking your sawmill to do it in front of you so you can see the numbers. While it varies by region depending on humidity, 6%-12% is a good range. Make sure to check all over the slab and not just in one place. Don’t worry about minor variations, just as long as it’s not over your threshold of too wet.
The slab I purchased was plenty dry!
Slab Size
Since this was an epoxy table, I was estimating the best I could for epoxy I would need so I could quote the client. Unfortunately, I was way off, and it ate into my revenue. Here are some of the reasons why I was so off.
The size of the slab was smaller than I expected. All the sizes were listed online, and the slab was supposed to be 3 inches thick. What I didn’t think about was that these were the dimensions when the slab was first milled wet, and not after it dried. So, there was nearly a ½” of thickness missing, and it was about 1 ½” not as wide at each measurement point. So, lesson learned, the slabs are smaller than advertised on the website and you need to account for that.
Also, with any drying process, the slab had some slight waves where the thickness was drastically different across the board. This isn’t a big deal as it will be surfaced to final dimension later, however, it was again something I did not account for when estimating epoxy cost.
I am going to go over the epoxy pour and estimation in a later blog, but just know I estimated 9.5 gallons of epoxy, however I ended up using 15 gallons. That is an expensive underestimation!
In conclusion, call your sawmill to verify any slabs you intend to show your client are in stock and not sold. Make sure before purchasing any slab, that it is truly dry. Skipping this step can lead to dire consequences and wasting thousands of dollars. While you can never know exactly how much epoxy you are going to need based on a photo of inaccurate measurements, there are ways to be more accurate than my first time. Always estimate and quote more than you think you need. Stay tuned because in a future blog post, I will be going over exactly how to estimate how much epoxy you will need!
