Newbie...trying to get seasoned firewood in late September

jscs.moore said:

Could use some advice...I'm getting ready for my wood burning insert (Hampton HI300) to be installed in the second week of October. I'm a newbie to all of this and am now (I guess) late in the game trying to purchase a cord or two of seasoned firewood in late September. When I call a local, and very large, provider of firewood recommended by several people...they said they sell only the best seasoned hardwoods (Oak, Maple, Walnut, Ash, etc.) and that it is seasoned for 4 to 6 months? Again, I am new to this but several people have told me it takes 1 year to season hard wood? Is this true? My problem is...getting started to this late in September doesn't give me a lot of choices I guess. So if I pull the trigger and order 1 or 2 cords of this 4 to 6 month "seasonsed" firewood, does that really mean it's still pretty green and won't be good for burning for another 6 months? P.S. I'm not planning on burning the insert 24/7 this winter...just mainly nights and weekends until I really feel comfortable with the whole process...my wife doesn't want me burning when were not at home yet either...I'll have to work on that Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

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4 to 6 months is a good start but far from what I would call seasoned. If you buy this wood you will be frustrated with its performance.

If it were me I would spend Half the money on a cord of wood for next winter and half the money on a pallet of bio bricks for this winter since you are not planning on burning it full time.

Get the cord of wood for next winter stacked in the sun and wind and you will be in great shape next year. If you have the money add an additional cord at some point through the winter for the 2017/2018 season after that buy a cord a year to replace the one you have just burned and you will never be out of dry firewood again.

And what is it with all these wives telling there husbands what they can and can't do? She is your wife not your mother.

You are correct. Hardwood needs a min of 2 yrs of GOOD drying. Ash might be a bit less if it has been standing dead, which a lot are. Many times hardwood will require 3 yrs. - especially oak. Added to that is that most wood lots will pile their processed splits into huge piles and anything except the top of the pile has very little chance to dry. Drying mostly comes from good air circulation.

If you re-split the wood so it's smaller and has more surface exposed, then stack it in a dry spot that is windy, you will have wood that is OK to burn, just not great. The vast majority of people burn wood that is not dry enough and it does work. The downside is that you'll get more creosote and you'll have to check your chimney more often and you'll experience more problems in running the stove. You won't get the high temps that you should and you'll waste some of the heat in the process of the fire burning off the excess moisture. All in all, it's workable, especially if you can scrounge some very dry wood and start your fire with it. Most people will never know how wonderful burning with dry wood really is.

It probably is a great time to buy the wood for the winter of '16-'17. Don't feel that you shouldn't use your stove this winter due to the wood. Next winter you will understand why all of us on the forum are so evangelical about properly seasoned wood. It changes wood heating from being a chore to a real pleasure.

Yeah, I'd say you will be frustrated with anything you can do this year. Unfortunately, first time wood burners learn too late that they need to lay in a supply of wood and let it season for a year or two before they can burn. I'd buy biobricks or equivalent for this year and any wood you can get cheap, save it for next year.

I got by the first year cutting standing dead elm (hence the nickname), but that supply is basically gone from my land. For my second year burning, I have probably 2 cords that are ready this year and 1.5 cords for next year already. I expect to run out of wood this winter though...need to spend more time out in the woods.

As for your wife...it's probably not a bad idea to only burn when you are home for a while. Takes a while to understand how your stove burns and how you need to tweak the controls to get the heat that you need out of it, extend burn times, etc without choking it off. The main immediate concern is over-firing it and with wet wood, that's unlikely to be a problem. The second concern should be chimney fires and that's definitely a reason to monitor your burns by watching the flames and/or looking at the smoke out of your chimney.

My wife was concerned at first, but the whole family fell in love with the fireplace and trust me to burn safely now.

Never yet seen a wedding ring that didn't morph from a guy's finger to his nose.

Back to wood- nothing you can buy right now short of someone who is selling honestly kilned dried splits is going to be worth anything this winter or has had the wood cut split and stacked for more than 1 year ( and this only applies to some species like big leaf maples, Ash, & a few others, but also depends a bit on the size of the splits) so your best bet is going to be the compressed wood blocks( those without any binder in them) and more than likely they will be cheaper than the aforementioned items. Generally the denser woods such as Oak, Hickory, Locust and others in that area are going to take about 2 years to lose enough moisture to be viable. Perusing CL in my area Oak is around $140 per 1/3cord(roughly 43 cu ft, sometimes called a rick or a face cord) and mixed hardwoods ( which can be any thing not classified as a conifer) isn't far behind.

Better get some compressed wood bricks, go to tractor supply.com and look up redstone fire bricks. Or google bio bricks, compressed fuel blocks, ect.. That will get you by this year.

I would approach this winter as an opportunity to enjoy your new investment. You can purchase the biobricks or the bagged kiln dried for holidays and weekends.
Save the wood for next year, and see if you can get any green for a cheaper price.
Wood dealers thrive on the unprepared. Dont fall victim to the sales pitch of buying SEASONED WOOD. Its basically a scam to sell wood at extreme prices.
And its that time of year...

jscs.moore said:

Could use some advice

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In no particular order

1) You will never buy ready-to-burn wood. It is unrealistic to expect a firewood guy to bank up dozens of cords of wood for 2+ years. Most people won't even do it for themselves.

2) "Seasoned" has no meaning for firewood. "Seasoned" wood can be completely waterlogged.

3) This year is going to be frustrating. If you get next year's wood now and get it split and stacked off the ground next you will be much less frustrated. You are going to run into a lot of problems this year (poor draft, fire not putting off much heat, smoke in the house, etc). You will dissect and analyze every aspect of your set up (chimney, stove, roof line, etc) to figure it out but the fact 99% of your problems will be caused by the wet wood you're burning.

You may want to check the value of buying a lot of biobricks vs. using your existing heat source. I see a lot of people on the forum deciding not to use their pellet stove this winter when they compare the numbers and I suspect that might be true with biobricks. I don't know myself, just suggesting you do the math. At least, you'll know whether you are saving a lot. That doesn't mean not to use the stove at all, just figure out to use it more or use it less this winter.

For sure, buy some wood ASAP for next winter and get it stacked and stored before the snow comes. If done right, wood will dry out in the winter just as well as in the summer and you'll need the extra time for it to dry.

From one Harmon HI300 owner to another, I'm sorry to hear your pain. I had mine installed this February and was struggling finding seasoned wood to burn. I had to deal with semi-dried wood to brunt through that nasty bitter cold winter.

But all that was ancient history, I have about 11 cords of wood stacked and even then, I am still holding off oak until 2016-2017 season.

For you, as others have suggested, go with BioBrick, but get at least several cords of wood if you have room.

If you have truck and long trailer, you could visit your local ssawmill and see if they have slab wood. They're relatively dry and should be ready to burn in 2 months.

Best of luck.

NewHarmanOwner said:

From one Harmon HI300 owner to another, I'm sorry to hear your pain. I had mine installed this February and was struggling finding seasoned wood to burn. I had to deal with semi-dried wood to brunt through that nasty bitter cold winter.

But all that was ancient history, I have about 11 cords of wood stacked and even then, I am still holding off oak until 2016-2017 season.

For you, as others have suggested, go with BioBrick, but get at least several cords of wood if you have room.

If you have truck and long trailer, you could visit your local ssawmill and see if they have slab wood. They're relatively dry and should be ready to burn in 2 months.

Best of luck.

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A very good suggestion. Instead of bio bricks try to get some slabs from a sawmill. Even pine will do. Just something to burn without spending a ton of dough.
If you toss them in the stove all heater shelter you can create an over fire condition. Place them in a burning stove neatly creating one big block and the burn should be more controlled.

I really enjoyed these, there made in PA and the info is on the package.

jscs.moore said:

Could use some advice...I'm getting ready for my wood burning insert (Hampton HI300) to be installed in the second week of October. I'm a newbie to all of this and am now (I guess) late in the game trying to purchase a cord or two of seasoned firewood in late September. When I call a local, and very large, provider of firewood recommended by several people...they said they sell only the best seasoned hardwoods (Oak, Maple, Walnut, Ash, etc.) and that it is seasoned for 4 to 6 months? Again, I am new to this but several people have told me it takes 1 year to season hard wood? Is this true? My problem is...getting started to this late in September doesn't give me a lot of choices I guess. So if I pull the trigger and order 1 or 2 cords of this 4 to 6 month "seasonsed" firewood, does that really mean it's still pretty green and won't be good for burning for another 6 months? P.S. I'm not planning on burning the insert 24/7 this winter...just mainly nights and weekends until I really feel comfortable with the whole process...my wife doesn't want me burning when were not at home yet either...I'll have to work on that Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

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I looked on Craigslist in your area, there are several people with seasoned firewood. Check there for this year.
Find one you like and buy plenty.

I just picked these slabs of wood for $25. Probably cost more in gas driving back home. 3000 lbs of oak slabs.

I would also consider buying some pine. Many not in the know will say its unsafe but Hearth members know better. I wont get into it here as theres lots of info on the merits of pine if you do a search on Hearth. My thoughts are that most hardwood wont be ready next year even if you buy it now and store it properly but softwoods will if split now. All the best and enjoy that stove!

illenema said:

I looked on Craigslist in your area, there are several people with seasoned firewood. Check there for this year.
Find one you like and buy plenty.

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this made me laugh pretty good.. I've tried a few "seasoned" Craigslist sellers.... their idea of seasoned is quite different than dry.

ElmBurner said:

I got by the first year cutting standing dead elm

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Yep, you can squeeze by this winter if you have a saw, some time, and some land where you can scrounge small trees that are standing dead, with the bark fallen off.

A lot of the wood sellers just keep their splits in a big pile. So, even though it has been split for 6 months, only the outer layer has been drying...

This is not the best time of year to buy firewood. Sadly, it's the time of year when many folks buy firewood.

Agreed, the term "seasoned" is subjective. What firewood sellers consider seasoned could mean that the tree was dropped last month. That ain't seasoned wood, not by a long shot.

Also agree with the suggestion of compressed wood bricks. You'll probably need a pallet of 'em to get you through the winter. And that's not burning around the clock. They burn hot and clean, certainly worth the cost in your sitrep.

Sawmill tailings, aka slab wood is a great suggestion for getting started. The local mill here sells pickup loads for $20.00, load it yourself. Pick through it for the good stuff. Don't leave the long and big pieces behind... a saw and ax will make short work of those.

That's our plan for next year's wood. As the stacks go down this winter I'll be visiting the mill for slab wood to replenish. I've called all over the area; best price we can get for a pickup load of unsplit hardwood rounds is $70.00. And that's if we drive out to get it.

Bear in mind that slab wood isn't dry either.. that wood is cut off the logs before they go to the kiln.