When dealing with wood slabs, especially live edge wood slabs, there can be some issues of which you should always be mindful. This is why having a custom live edge wood table crafted by a professional will often produce superior results versus trying to construct your own table using a wood slab.
Below are three things that you need to be aware of when using wood slabs to craft a table, desk, or some other such piece for your Syracuse, NY home:
1) Soft spots in the wood slab.Bugs burrow into trees, rot can occur. There are any number of reasons why you may note a soft spot in the live edge wood slab that you are working with. Most often, you will notice these softer areas or powdery spots near the perimeter of the wood slab. Depending on how large the area, you may want to fill it with an epoxy. You can even use different colors in filling these holes or soft spots in the wood and thereby add more interest to your table or island top.
2) The slab may crack. This can happen with virtually any piece of wood used in any type of application. Why do wood slabs crack? For one, the wood may be dried too far beyond the recommended humidity level thus making it fairly brittle and yes, susceptible to cracking. Another reason why wood slabs crack is the way in which they get mounted to a base. Improper mounts of wood slabs can easily result in cracks becoming noticeable. To help prevent your live edge slab from cracking, you want to ensure that it is dried to the optimal humidity level and temperature. And you also want to account for natural wood movement in attaching it to any base type.
