Question about buying "Seasoned" Wood

Nowhere near dry enough to burn unless they were standing dead when cut. What type of logs?

Yup, that stuff is going to be as wet as the day it was a live tree. Needs two years from when it was split before it is seasoned.

The wood sellers believe that if it was split a last season it is seasoned. Two weeks ago it was fall, so I guess it fits the description.

Wormyone said:

The guy said it was oak

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You'll be lucky if you can burn it next year at this time.

You need to buy a moisture meter. They are available at Lowes and Home Depot for $30 or less. You split a piece of wood down the middle and stick the prongs into the wood in the middle of the fresh face. It tells you the moisture %.

With freshly split oak I'd be surprised if you were lower than 35%. I bet it bubbles, foams, sizzles, and drips when you burn it. Properly seasoned oak should be less than 20% and shouldnt make a sizzling sound when you are lighting it off.

EDIT....sorry, just noticed that you said "by looking". The answer is no, not really. After you've burnt enough dry oak you will know just by how much lighter it feels, but nothing scientific.

How much wood are you burning? Is it enough to have a nice and cozy fire once in a while or are you trying to burn 24/7?

Wormyone said:

So any suggestions on what to do about wood??????????

I know kinda of a dumb question

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Not a dumb question at all. First off, if you're buying wood, buy several year's worth so you won't have this problem in future years. Second and more for the present, try to shop around and see if anyone does sell seasoned wood. It's a long shot but you may get lucky. If you're in a position to cut your own, look for dead standing and concentrate on the tops and branches, which may be dry enough to get you through this season.

Wormyone said:

So any suggestions on what to do about wood??????????

I know kinda of a dumb question

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Avoid buying oak unless you plan on sitting on it for a few years. Ask the seller when the wood was split (not how long it is seasoned- most sellers think it starts seasoning before they cut it down). Most sellers won't know anything about moisture content %, but they will know when it was split and what type of wood it is.

In my experience all sellers tell you its seasoned, and they generally believe it is even though it isn't. Even when you ask them they throw out a date that would indicate seasoned wood but it probably isn't.

My neighbor is a tree guy and sells about 40 cords of wood per year. All the wood he brings home gets split right away and thrown into a large pile. Then when he starts selling he just starts grabbing splits out of the pile and delivers them. Wood doesn't dry in a pile. The wood in the pile was split at any time in the past year and is likely very wet.

If you have to buy wood, buy years in advance.

In the meantime you can find wood pallets everywhere just by driving around. Craigslist will have plenty too. If there are any furniture or cabinet makers near you they will have plenty of lumber scraps which work good. Search on craigslist for lumber or mill ends as well, you can usually get a large trash bag of the ends of 2x4's for cheap. Call hardwood floor installers and see what they do with their scrap.

Usually craigslist has free firewood you just have to be quick to grab it.

My neighbor calls wood "Seasoned" if it has been cut into rounds at least 3 months ago. He will split the stuff through the winter and burn it. He fell a cherry tree 1.5 months ago and is feeding that wood into his stove now.

You can burn wet or green wood but it is going to burn cool and produce little heat. You will have creosote building up every minute you burn the stuff and you better be cleaning that chimney on a regular basis and even then your taking chances.

Seasoned for some woods (Pine) can be as little as 1 year depending on who you ask but the general rule of thumb for hard woods is 24 months cut split and stacked and 24 months in min not max. Best imho is soft woods 18months min, hard woods 3 years.

I'm burning pine that was CSS in late April that is at 18-22%. Ash could probably probably be burned 8 months after CSS if the conditions were right. Cherry and Maple take over a year. For example if I CSS in April/May of 2014 they would be good for the winter of 2015-16. Oak takes forever. Two years at least in a super sunny windy location, 3 years otherwise.

Good stuff takes time. Wood sellers are still selling wood like we are using Franklin stoves.

Oh also wood sellers around here call Oak seasoned when its put into huge piles outside in the mud. They split it up but then its just stacked in the rain in piles.

Guy down the road has huge wood piles of oak and its been sitting there split for 6 months but again its been getting rained on all day today.

Do not buy that wood unless you are going to store it for a year. I would avoid the guy too if he said it was good to go. Sounds like he was honest regarding how long ago it was split. Storing 18 months means nothing, it is the time since it was split. Also the smaller the splits the faster it will season and when storing, do not stack in a pile, rather rank so the air can get to it. Direct sunshine is good too.

On the other hand if the oak this guy wants to deliver is at a good price... get it and let it really season for the future.

BurnIt13 said:

In the meantime you can find wood pallets everywhere just by driving around. Craigslist will have plenty too. If there are any furniture or cabinet makers near you they will have plenty of lumber scraps which work good. Search on craigslist for lumber or mill ends as well, you can usually get a large trash bag of the ends of 2x4's for cheap. Call hardwood floor installers and see what they do with their scrap.

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Exercise caution when getting scrap wood. Don't get plywood, treated or painted woods. Watch for oil soaked pallets or pallets showing chemical stains. All are bad for your stove and the air we all breath.

You really need to buy your wood for next year and/or the next now
and burn pallets/scrap wood that's dry and maybe some of the pellet/blocks now.

It's a hard and expensive way to start.

Dead standing trees you might find the top half of the tree is marginally dry.


Those grocery store bundles are horribly expensive to be using for heat rather than ambiance.

If your in a pinch see if you can find a local log home builder....sometimes they have off cuts that have been laying around for years and they will be debarked. Not perfect but sometimes you get stuck and that will be the best you can find. My .02

Wormyone said:

So I had another guy contact me about some wood he has for sale. He said that the wood is between 12" to 14" long and has been split and stacked for over a year. He said the wood is ash and cherry. I guess it's safe to assume that this is a better deal than the oak and he only wants $60 bucks for a full size truck load....thoughts?opinions?

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Get the ash/cherry for this year and the oak for future years.

Wormyone said:

So I had another guy contact me about some wood he has for sale. He said that the wood is between 12" to 14" long and has been split and stacked for over a year. He said the wood is ash and cherry. I guess it's safe to assume that this is a better deal than the oak and he only wants $60 bucks for a full size truck load....thoughts?opinions?

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It sounds promising. I'd recommend you tell him you'd like to split and measure a couple pieces with your moisture meter when he arrives. And if you don't have tools for that, I'd recommend you get them 1st. Good luck!

this is like deja vous all over again, lol. Last night a buddy called me on a three-way call with someone he knows that bought firewood at an amazing price and the seller is so awesome, etc. It's all oak for $100/cord. He's telling me how the seller cuts the logs and they sit for about a year, and then he cuts/splits/sells to you all nicely done up on pallets packed super-tightly and "seasoned". I'm saying there's no way it's dry enough. He's insisting it is. Then the clincher --- his F350 can only handle one pallet (slightly less than helf a cord according to him, since he stacked two pallets and came in at 3/4 cord) because of the weight. Truly "SEASONED" oak should never be THAT heavy! A full cord should come in under 4,000lbs - certainly no struggle for an f350 taking half that or less!

The funniest part was how the first call of the day started with my buddy asking me for "just 70 pieces or so of your firewood for my girlfriend, she's out of wood". After an intentional uncomfortable silence, I went off on him with some rant about how he'd have better luck asking to borrow my wife than my firewood, hahahahahahahahha.