Wet wood shrinks and twists as it dries out, and you can imagine what that’s going to do to the drywall you’ve carefully hung and finished. That’s why dry wood is essential for most jobs.
S-DRY is shipped from the mill with a moisture content of 19% or less, and if you’re not using it right away, you should store it properly.
To keep the wood at least 6″ off the ground, start with a base of sleepers spaced about 2 feet for every inch of thickness in the wood. (eg. two feet apart for 1x lumber, 4 feet for 2x.)
Lay a layer of lumber across these sleepers, then put thin spacers made from dry wood across this layer, directly over the sleepers. Add another layer of lumber, and repeat. For good air circulation, your stack shouldn’t be more than four feet wide.
If you have the space, keep the wood in a well ventilated garage or shed, or leave it outside and cover it with a tarp. (Make sure air can get in under the tarp.)
Actually, you can leave the wood uncovered, but it’s going to soak up a certain amount of rain, and you’ll need to bring it inside to a dry, heated room about six weeks before you intend to use it. (You should always give wood a few days to “get used to” its new surroundings, anyway.)
And if you have the patience and storage space and you can plan well enough ahead, you can even get less expensive green lumber (S-GRN) and dry it in much the same way…
For softwoods, like pine, give it about a year per inch of thickness. Hardwoods, like oak, need two years an inch.