I bought 1,130 board feet of green pine today for dirt cheap. The trees it came from were alive a month ago. Lumber has been banded and stored in a barn for the last 3 weeks. I'm currently turning 700 sq ft house into a taxidermy shop as I've out grown my current shop right behind the house. I'm thinking of putting tar paper on the Sheetrock walls and running a 1/8" shim as a spacer down each stud location to allow the pine boards once nailed to have a little breathing room against the Sheetrock to prevent mold growth. I'm thinking once the boards are up and firmly secured they'll just dry and shrink a little but serve my purpose ok. Anyone ever used green lumber for anything like this or is this just a bad idea all the way around????

Will the lumber get air on one side ?

It will get full air on one side.

You will be absolutely fine ,Expect some shrinkage ,but you all ready know that , pine is fast drying ,so your good to go.

I dont know anything about pine in Tennessee. But the fact that it was cut in the winter might be a good thing regarding moisture content. Do you have access to a moisture meter? If it's below 20% I wouldn't worry about it a bit. Even if it's higher than that I don't know if I would be too concerned. As long as it can breathe a little for a few months I'll bet you'll be fine.

The only thing is the tar paper if this is inside you’ll smell that for along time, there are quite a few other products out there that would work just as well, and possibly better.

Build away. I've built with green pine a lot.

a moisture meter is 25 dollars , I have one I used for fire wood

don't know about building with green pine but moisture meters are not expensive and are easy to use

I used green aspen that was 1 inch thick (various widths). I nailed them up without any spacers, and they dried enough to be around 1/4 inch apart......but some were 1/2 inch. Green will shrink more than you think it will. That was on my own taxidermy studio showroom. It was near 33 years ago, and it still looks fine.

I would unband it and sticker it for a while , Keep it covered with air circulation, a couple of months will make a big differance. it .Depends if you plan to plane it and finish or just leave it rustic. If you leave it banded you will end up with brown and blue stain as the fungus will grow in the dampness. You can figure that a 12 inch will shrink about a 1/4 inch when dry. . good luck old243

Usually a rule of thumb for air drying is 1" of thickness per year- that's obviously without any type of kiln or solar assistance. I personally wouldn't build with green lumber, I would worry about cupping, shrinkage, pine pitch runs, ends splitting and nails pulling: here's a couple thoughts if you proceed:
1) Could you sticker the boards and tarp them in an adhoc tent and run a dehumidifier for several weeks.
2) Could you add horizontal firing strips to allow more air circulation and then run Board & Batten to mask any kind of shrinkage that may occur.
3) Sealing the end cuts with anchor seal will help with checking and end grain splits.
4) Using screws over nails would be a better option.

Good Luck

15 % or less is the moisture level I can put lumber or posts into the pressure treatment vessel. Comparing Poplar to Pine isn't a good one, they shrink different. Poplar much more. Though Poplar kept dry is very good building wood. The Pine, I would pop the bands, stack and sticker in two stacks. Grading as you go, big knots on board edges and cupped grain in one pile straight clean lumber in the other. Then you have long lumber and boards that can be cut into shorter boards as needed. Like your furs, if indoors get air circulation. if out doors cover with a dark tarp leaving ends open. Put stickers down to keep tarp off top boards, moisture will rise to tarp. Give it a month or so.

You can cut a wafer out of the board to get true MC. The green wt of wafer minus oven dried wt of wafer divide by green wt times 100 will give MC. Dry the wafer in the oven or MW until the wt does not change. This is how it is done with kilns.