Bringing wood in at what date

I am wondering the same thing and also had some free time. I brought some wood into my garage today. Due to my concern with bugs I did spray the wood with bug killer just in case.

Seems like the dry wood is not to much of interest to the bugs from what I saw. Hopefully the experts will chime in here with good advice.

I would wait as long as possible/practical before bringing wood in or stacking it close to the house. I usually top-cover my wood around mid-to-late September and find this to be a good time as temps in the evening are usually getting much cooler. Especially if your wood is marginal and not at 20% moisture content or below, you want to leave it in the sun and wind as long as possible.

I typically top-cover my wood and leave it where it is until the burning season starts, then bring it closer to the door. Also, remember that any chemical you spray on your wood will go through combustion in your stove, and it could foul your catalyst (if you have one) or potentially release toxic fumes into your house if you get any backdraft. Just my 0.02...

I leave mine out on the seasoning racks until the temp is below freezing and going to stay below freezing.

The freeze-thaw-freeze weathwr pattern can put a lot of condensate on my splits if they are covered too tightly or too close to the ground.

If you have a dry shed with vapor barrier in the floor ( i dont) tou can probably move wood into that shed as soon as the wood is dry. I look forward to building one of those.

For now, im already in shoulder, i bring in the wood i am going to burn tonight when i get home from work in the afternoon.

I generally wait until the first good freeze or so . . . typically late November . . . I figure by then the bugs will be pretty dormant, I am generally running, or close to running, 24/7 at that point and where I live in Maine at that point we could get snow at any point (sometimes earlier, sometimes later).

When I stacked wood on the porch I started the chore at the end of October, granted my porch space was fairly limited so I could only stack about 3/4 or a cord at a time. (3 week supply) Now that I stack in the driveway across from the garage (full season worth) I start in September as free time is more available. I'm not to worried about bugs in general, I spray around the house every spring for termites, and with wood or without wood I always have spiders, moths, some type of bug on the porch anyway.

In regards to bugs, I noticed when I wrapped my wood in shrink wrap to try the hillbilly solar kiln that the heat drove all the insects out.

Obviously not feasible and probably not worth it if you are only doing it for insect control, just something to think about.

I'm going to be making a temporary wood s hed for this year in a bit. Make a good one next year. I was wondering when to move the wood as well.

I will start bring in my wood from the shed in a few weeks then it's time to split the pile waiting to go into the woodshed.

My wood is stored in a concrete room attached to the house foundation. A garage door to the outside and a double steel door allows access to the basement. I don't have any bug issues whatsoever.

I stack and store a cord between my front porch and deck. Usually bring it up there starting early October. Never had issues with any bugs.

I finished filling my woodshed today. A little over 4 cords.

Sounds like it will be different for each person with their setup. We have been wet lately but should dry a bit in the next week or so. When the edges dry out, I will load 4 full cords into the boiler room. That will do the deed unless we get a worse winter than the last two. Five years ago that same strategy would not have happened due to the same floor space being used for income producing. Around here porches were built to take the weight of firewood and you should see some of them in late September. Large porches chock full.

I have mine in my shed. I see it's covered in spiders this year. I really really hate spiders so I'll wait until it is nice and cold out before I start stacking it inside.

I always top cover my wood before the fall rains starts.Latter this month or the first of next month for sure.

hman said:

I always top cover my wood before the fall rains starts.Latter this month or the first of next month for sure.

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Agreed, same here.

I top cover my burn stack in late September. Bring first stack up to house the evening before first burn. Wait as long as possible!

I will be tarping my out door stacks tonight, we are suppose to be getting 2-3inches of much needed rain over the next couple of days, I will be delayed this year on setting up the stacks in the driveway due to repaving and shed build. If it starts to get chilly I'll just bring in on of my racks into the garage. Its getting close to crunch time my friends.

kennyp2339 said:

I will be tarping my out door stacks tonight, we are suppose to be getting 2-3inches of much needed rain over the next couple of days, I will be delayed this year on setting up the stacks in the driveway due to repaving and shed build. If it starts to get chilly I'll just bring in on of my racks into the garage. Its getting close to crunch time my friends.

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It was down to 33F here last night. Won't be long before the bad weather starts. I've seen Octobers here that were foggy and wet for the whole month.

TommyTally said:

I typically top-cover my wood and leave it where it is until the burning season starts, then bring it closer to the door. Also, remember that any chemical you spray on your wood will go through combustion in your stove, and it could foul your catalyst (if you have one) or potentially release toxic fumes into your house if you get any backdraft. Just my 0.02...

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Diatomaceous earth is a good safe alternative.

I only move it to the front porch, a week's worth at a time, as I'm burning it.

As far as bugs, dry wood isn't interesting to them and whatever bugs are in my pile are picked out by the wood peckers and other birds well ahead of when I want to burn it.

The weather around here, as well as the way I arrange my stacks, means that I don't typically get a lot of snow/ice around the wood, so it's not much trouble to just move it as I go.

ElmBurner said:

I only move it to the front porch, a week's worth at a time, as I'm burning it.

As far as bugs, dry wood isn't interesting to them and whatever bugs are in my pile are picked out by the wood peckers and other birds well ahead of when I want to burn it.

The weather around here, as well as the way I arrange my stacks, means that I don't typically get a lot of snow/ice around the wood, so it's not much trouble to just move it as I go.

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With the weather systems we get here on the east coast of Newfoundland, most storms start out as snow and change to rain or drizzle and then freeze up again. It's some mess.