Manke Lumber: Moisture Control Is Quality Control

In Washington State, Manke Lumber Company has made a name for itself in the export market, though it didn’t start out with that in mind.

“Manke is a family-owned business that started back in the ’50s with a portable sawmill at Lake Cushman which became Manke and Sons,” explained Craig McNeil, the treating engineer.

“Manke started to make chips for Simpson until they were able to purchase property in Tacoma, on the tide flats, which in two short years, became a domestic sawmill. In 1979, they then purchased property in Sumner, which became an export mill for the Japanese housing market. In the late ’80s, Manke then put in their own pellet mill.”

At the time of this 2018 article, the Sumner sawmill produced about 38 million board feet per year, and the Tacoma mill produced well over double that.

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Around this time, the company saw an opportunity. “They got into the export market in the 1980s and in 1985 they built the treating plant because they figured out that they could take all their lumber and get it treated,” McNeil recalled. “In 1996 they built a new state-of-the-art treating plant with a fixation process.” That gave Manke an advantage over its competitors.

“There was one set of dryers here when they bought the property in Sumner, and then in 1995, they put in four more dryers for the treating plant. Now we have seven dryers here and they run 24/7. There are also three boilers to take care of all export as well as treated lumber drying.”

“The Superior Wood Treating Facility, on the Sumner site, treats around 50 million board feet a year with ACQ, CCA, TimberSaver (which is a borate product that goes to Hawaii), and a fire retardant for multi-family dwelling market,” said McNeil, who runs that operation. “Most of the wood used for treating is hemlock, which is purchased from local suppliers.”

“In 2004 we jumped into the Japanese export market in a big way. Some of the dryers were used for the lumber going to Japan,” he added.

Moisture Measurement’s Significance

Accurate moisture measurement has been critical to Manke Lumber’s success for many years, according to McNeil. “When we entered the export market, it became more important that the lumber was dried correctly. We check the lumber as it comes out of the planer with the Wagner Apex In-Line system.”

The Apex system has a rugged touchscreen interface designed to hold up to moisture, dust, and the other harsh conditions found in many mills. Its menu makes setup and configuration simple, and sensor calibration can be checked and adjusted right from the console.

“We’ve used the Wagner L610 and L612 handheld meters over the years, and now we use the L622 digital recording moisture meter,” said McNeil. “The L622 read a couple of points higher than the L612 and the Apex In-Line meter, which is exactly what marketing said it would do. What amazes me is that it’s done that for quite a few years. We don’t have to recalibrate or anything else.”

Moisture Control: The Key to Asia

“Two to three years ago, we would ship the lumber to Japan and if there was a problem they’d let us know,” McNeil explained. “In 2013, we shipped 47 million board feet of lumber to Japan and we had one plank of wet lumber. But then a new marketing group came on that didn’t want even one piece of wet lumber because of their automated equipment over there, so that’s where the Wagner equipment came in handy, preventing that from happening.”

“Moisture control is key to quality control and you can’t have it too dry either,” McNeil continued. “That’s part of my job is to correlate everything so that we don’t have any wets in there or any that are too dry, making it a lower quality product.”

“Everything we do is based off of what the Wagner equipment tells us,” said McNeil. “We’re able to do a good job because of it. Our report is that our lumber is one of the best they have in Japan.”

Wagner Meters has helped Manke Lumber Company compete in both the domestic market and the competitive Asian market. To find out how Wagner can help your mill, call us at (800) 505-1409.

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Larry Loffer

Larry Loffer is a senior technician at Wagner Meters, where he has over 30 years of experience in wood moisture measurement. With a degree in Computer Systems, Larry is involved in both hardware and software development of wood moisture measurement solutions.

Last updated on October 9th, 2026