Uh Oh...Wood is Wetter Than I Thought......Advice?
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Ive seen 2 X's lay out for longer than that with out being rotten. I had a unpainted wood fence around a cattle yard for a lot longer than 3 years and it did not rot.fire_man said:
weatherguy
Minister of Fire
eclecticcottage said:
No first time, I saw the $2.99 sign so I told the cashier to charge me for 4 packs and Id pick them up on my to my truck(they keep them in front at my local store), I was surprised when I picked up a pack and only saw 3 big bricks. These must be the substitute.
corey21
Minister of Fire
Come up the weekend and trade me for some dry wood. I do not know what you drive but I would trade you load for load. PM me if interested. I am in southern NH
Hogwildz
Minister of Fire
fsr4538 said:
Kudos to you man. It is great to see when members step up to help others out! Lots of talk on here, but very few back it up with action.
Right on man!
eclecticcottage
Minister of Fire
MarkC
New Member
Just wanted to mention another huge benefit of storing a firebox-load (or two) of wood inside is that the wood is up to temperature as well as drier. Dumping an armload of 10 degree wood really knocks the stove temps for a loop.
Plus it is really nice to have a re-load right there at 2am when it's -15 out...
Plus it is really nice to have a re-load right there at 2am when it's -15 out...
Hogwildz
Minister of Fire
MarkC
New Member
hooldspark said:
Hah, no heck.
My POS Buck holds up on a fill up for about 6hrs, and it is a wood eating machine!
On the moisture content subject, I use that manufactured rubber matting, have a pallet shop about two miles down the road that will give me all I want. Keep the pallets off the ground and tarping, even in multiple rows, it gets plenty dry. I could build a pallet fort they trash so many pallets (burn them in a huge pit actually!) And like many of these posters, it has been very, very wet in TN this year. Actually, flood watches out tonight!
However, I did cut some dingy Norway Maple trees down nearby couple years ago. Those trees hold moisture for a very, very long time. I would not travel to cut one, but that wood has needed almost two years to get the moisture down. Also, I noticed these Norway Maples kill everything within a certain radius. Burn Noway maple, BURN!
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Hogwildz said:
Same here . . . I'm too lazy to get up in middle of the night to load the stove . . . stove is loaded up at 9:30 p.m. or so and then reloaded when I wake up at 5 a.m. . . . typically the temps have come down during the night, but usually there are enough coals for an easy reload and the oil boiler hasn't kicked on (I have the thermostats set to kick on at 60 degrees F.)
I also never could figure out the whole "warm your wood before you put it into the firebox" philosophy either . . . I mean I have a woodbox that I put in a day or so wood into every day . . . but not to warm up the wood or drive out any moisture -- it's just there so my wife doesn't have to go outside in the cold to get wood when I'm not home. Personally I have taken wood right off the stack on the porch (unheated) and put it into the firebox with absolutely no issues or changes from taking the wood out of the woodbox.
theonlyzarathu
Member
Get yourself a Bailey's Smart Splitter(http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=15720).
With this little baby you can easily split the wood that you already have into really small kindling. The smaller the pieces are the faster and more easily they will burn. And like was said, you can resplit some of your wood and dry it in the stove room or somewhere else much faster.
The key to burning wood less seasoned than you want is to be burning it in way smaller sections.
And one other thing.... You can only burn hot fires. You cannot stop the fire down with green wood. The logs must be heavily charred before you stop it down. And you must be very careful of this if you have an old non-epa certified stove because the old ones could be made to smolder--- a bad thing even with dry wood, and a very bad thing with wet wood. NEW EPA stoves won't smolder, they can't be closed down far enough. With the new ones after using it a very short time, you will know at what level the secondary burning stops(just look up at the top of the fire box). Don't reduce your draft below that level. The secondary burning is what keeps the creosote out for your chimney.
With this little baby you can easily split the wood that you already have into really small kindling. The smaller the pieces are the faster and more easily they will burn. And like was said, you can resplit some of your wood and dry it in the stove room or somewhere else much faster.
The key to burning wood less seasoned than you want is to be burning it in way smaller sections.
And one other thing.... You can only burn hot fires. You cannot stop the fire down with green wood. The logs must be heavily charred before you stop it down. And you must be very careful of this if you have an old non-epa certified stove because the old ones could be made to smolder--- a bad thing even with dry wood, and a very bad thing with wet wood. NEW EPA stoves won't smolder, they can't be closed down far enough. With the new ones after using it a very short time, you will know at what level the secondary burning stops(just look up at the top of the fire box). Don't reduce your draft below that level. The secondary burning is what keeps the creosote out for your chimney.
theonlyzarathu
Member
Well, 96ft, but no one is saying you can't stack it to 6ft high. That would bring it down to 64ft if 4ft wide.
spaceman spiff
New Member
theonlyzarathu
Member
BeGreen said:
ROTFLMAO
Yeah I could stack it 6 feet high and 16 feet wide x 16 feet long = 1598 cu ft which is about 12 cords. But that doesn't include the wood for this year hich is an additional 6 feet high by 18 inches by 16 feet.Of course that would assume that I actually have $5000 sitting around to buy this wood to begin with.
Just like the title says...my wood is too wet and I'm looking for advice. (Please don't say go buy dry wood!) We're hard up on cash with the newborn in the house and we were hoping to use the wood to save money!
A little history.... I bought 3 cords of "seasoned" wood in early October. I bought a moisture meter to see where it was at and found it to be in the mid 20's
This past week I've been burning from the two cords stacked next to by house (full sun). I've been having a hard time regulating the temp and I've been having to run it with the air open more than normal. I thought it was the weather but it was really cold a few days ago and it still didn't burn well.
Today I took a moisture reading and nearly fell on the floor! A small split was in the low-mid 20's when split and a large one was near 30 in the middle! CRAP! Well this is the wood I've got, so now what? I've got some cut up pallets that I've been mixing in but it hasn't been helping much.
What does a guy do with crappy wood?
BTW...its an Englander 30 with 5ft of double wall stove pipe and 17ft of double wall chimney.
I understand that this is a very old thread, but figured I'd post in the event that anyone else has been having this issue.
I work with wood every day, sell it, mill it, and build with it.
Split the wood until it's small enough to fit in an oven, or other closed heating device, keep it off the element with a pan and leave it in there for 2-3 hours, burping the oven every 30-45 minutes.
This is literally what the modern day kiln (what we use to dry large amounts of wood in short timeframes) amounts to. They are large convection ovens with timers to release steam; nothing more.
Understand that the larger and thicker the wood, the more time it will need. Also remember that nothing should ever be left running unattended in an oven. I've seen people try this hundreds of different ways, but when it comes to small enough pieces this is the most cost-effective and expedient method of drying wood for any purpose.
Just because it's wet doesn't mean it's crap!
Hope this helps someone.
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