Seasoning wood in the basement?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

barrettdp

Member
Dec 20, 2008
61
NE Georgia
Read something in another post about the cement in a basement pulling moisture out of wood. Is this true?

If so, I was wondering would I be able to dry wood out in the basement over a year enough to burn well. The reason I ask is we live in a hilly subdivision and have limited space to store wood outside. Our basement is huge with two long solid concrete walls to stack wood against. I figure I could spray for bugs a few times as well.

How well would this work?
 
barrettdp said:
Read something in another post about the cement in a basement pulling moisture out of wood. Is this true?

If so, I was wondering would I be able to dry wood out in the basement over a year enough to burn well. The reason I ask is we live in a hilly subdivision and have limited space to store wood outside. Our basement is huge with two long solid concrete walls to stack wood against. I figure I could spray for bugs a few times as well.

How well would this work?

Cement can't pull anything out of the wood. All it can do it pull moisture out of the air. Do do that, it has to be pretty dry in the first place, and it won't get there with a year's worth of wet wood in it, that's for sure. If your basement isn't well heated, it's the last place you want to put unseasoned wood.
 
Battenkiller said:
Cement can't pull anything out of the wood. All it can do it pull moisture out of the air. Do do that, it has to be pretty dry in the first place, and it won't get there with a year's worth of wet wood in it, that's for sure. If your basement isn't well heated, it's the last place you want to put unseasoned wood.


Thanks BK. This makes perfect sense.
 
Granted, it is not the optimum at all, for wood drying..........BUT..........if it's all that you've got, well..........If it was "me" and I HAD to use my basement, I'd certainly stack the wood very loosely, and run a COUPLE of De-Humidifiers (all the time).



-Soupy1957
 
After the bugs that I had 1 year (and when I say hundreds of thousands, I am not exaggerating) I would not recommend this. Spraying will do no go as these bugs don't live on the surface but under the bark. If the wood has been seasoned a year outside, the living phloem under the bark dries out and is no longer a good food source for most bugs that could bother you, and as a result you won't see many.

I literally had to vacuum every window sill for nearly a month daily as they would have 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick layer of bark beetles in them.

It's a damn wonder my wife didn't kill me in my sleep and burn the house down.

pen
 
Need the wind and sun to dry the wood. I usually have two weeks of wood in my basement- one for the current week, and the other for the coming week. Rotate stack use so surface moisture (snow or rain) can evaporate off the on deck stack. Seems to be working just fine here.
 
Sounds like a bad idea for the reasons others have mentioned such as bugs that can invade and destroy your home.. Adding all that moisture that's in your wood into your home is also a bad thing and using dehumidifiers is a costly way to dry out wood..

Ray
 
Contact with cement causes wood to rot. Wood does not rot from dryness. This is why you have to use treated lumber against masonary. Cement is moist, it wicks moisture up from the soil beneath.
 
If the wintertime humidity levels in the basement were lower than desired or recommended, then drying wood down there would not be a bad thing from that perspective. The bugs, on the other hand, could be a serious issue.
 
mywaynow said:
Contact with cement causes wood to rot. Wood does not rot from dryness. This is why you have to use treated lumber against masonary. Cement is moist, it wicks moisture up from the soil beneath.

Right. It isn't the concrete that causes rot, it is the moisture in the concrete. Basement walls, particularly walls with earth on the other side, tend to be pretty moist all the time.

if you don't have much space for firewood, I suggest you build round 'holz hausen.' Build three and burn one per year, so you'll always be two years ahead. Mine are built on slopes and the slope causes no problems. They look nice. I get lots of compliments on mine.
 

Attachments

  • holz hausens nov 2010.jpg
    holz hausens nov 2010.jpg
    252.5 KB · Views: 515
Wood Duck said:
mywaynow said:
Contact with cement causes wood to rot. Wood does not rot from dryness. This is why you have to use treated lumber against masonary. Cement is moist, it wicks moisture up from the soil beneath.

Right. It isn't the concrete that causes rot, it is the moisture in the concrete. Basement walls, particularly walls with earth on the other side, tend to be pretty moist all the time.

if you don't have much space for firewood, I suggest you build round 'holz hausen.' Build three and burn one per year, so you'll always be two years ahead. Mine are built on slopes and the slope causes no problems. They look nice. I get lots of compliments on mine.

Nice location and stacks too!

Ray
 
You really would need to run dehumidifiers and fans blowing over the wood. Not really an ideal situation for the primary way to dry your wood though. I season all my wood outdoors and throw it into the basement in the late fall. Even doing that adds lots of moisture into the house.

Why not try an experiment with just a couple pieces in a loose stack tower in your basement to see how dry you can get it?
 
Wood Duck said:
Right. It isn't the concrete that causes rot, it is the moisture in the concrete. Basement walls, particularly walls with earth on the other side, tend to be pretty moist all the time.

if you don't have much space for firewood, I suggest you build round 'holz hausen.' Build three and burn one per year, so you'll always be two years ahead. Mine are built on slopes and the slope causes no problems. They look nice. I get lots of compliments on mine.


Awesome! Bout how many cords are in each?
 
pen said:
After the bugs that I had 1 year (and when I say hundreds of thousands, I am not exaggerating) I would not recommend this. Spraying will do no go as these bugs don't live on the surface but under the bark. If the wood has been seasoned a year outside, the living phloem under the bark dries out and is no longer a good food source for most bugs that could bother you, and as a result you won't see many.

I literally had to vacuum every window sill for nearly a month daily as they would have 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick layer of bark beetles in them.

It's a damn wonder my wife didn't kill me in my sleep and burn the house down.

pen

Thats why I dont stack more than a load in the house or garage. No matter where I get wood each year, I come across at least a few wood roaches and carpenter ants. Last things I want near my log home.
 
I've never liked storing wood in the house other than in the stove. Some folks claim to have no problem with insects and/or humidity and the mold which comes with it but I do wonder. However, for those who insist on trying to dry wood in the basement, I'd highly suggest 2 or 3 extremely good de-humidifiers and a couple good fans to blow on the wood. Good luck.
 
barrettdp said:
Wood Duck said:
Right. It isn't the concrete that causes rot, it is the moisture in the concrete. Basement walls, particularly walls with earth on the other side, tend to be pretty moist all the time.

if you don't have much space for firewood, I suggest you build round 'holz hausen.' Build three and burn one per year, so you'll always be two years ahead. Mine are built on slopes and the slope causes no problems. They look nice. I get lots of compliments on mine.


Awesome! Bout how many cords are in each?

Mine are exactly 8 ft diameter and cylindrical up to about 5.5 ft, with a cone-shaped part on top of that. I believe they are around 2.25 cords each. You could build them any size. I intended to make them 8 ft tall, but as I was building I realized that 8 ft is inconveniently tall for me to stack or to retrieve wood for use. I plan on using two per winter, but I am thinking it will actually be about 1.5 per winter.
 
Wood Duck said:
Mine are exactly 8 ft diameter and cylindrical up to about 5.5 ft, with a cone-shaped part on top of that. I believe they are around 2.25 cords each. You could build them any size. I intended to make them 8 ft tall, but as I was building I realized that 8 ft is inconveniently tall for me to stack or to retrieve wood for use. I plan on using two per winter, but I am thinking it will actually be about 1.5 per winter.

Don't they slow the drying of the inner splits, compared to a conventional stack?

They do look good though. And there's the cool factor when friends and neighbors drop in.
 
barrettdp said:
Read something in another post about the cement in a basement pulling moisture out of wood. Is this true?

If so, I was wondering would I be able to dry wood out in the basement over a year enough to burn well. The reason I ask is we live in a hilly subdivision and have limited space to store wood outside. Our basement is huge with two long solid concrete walls to stack wood against. I figure I could spray for bugs a few times as well.

How well would this work?

Despite all the replies explaining why this is not a good idea, unless the basement is heated, the basement is where I store all my wood. I have the wood stove down there too, and not far from the four or five cords of wood that I tossed down last summer.

For the first several months of the heating season, the wood was difficult to get going. But not now! The wood is now so dry from being constantly warmed by being near the stove that it's like it's been kiln dried. Fires start ridiculously easily now, with just a few sticks of kindling and a strip or two of birch bark to get that going. Or I lay wood on glowing coals and within 3 to 5 minutes they erupt in flames.

So while I agree that in general it is not a good idea to keep the wood in the basement, especially if you are cutting up downed wood from a nearby forest (bugs), it works out well if the basement is heated.

Corky Scott
 
.

[/quote]

I come across at least a few roaches . .[/quote] Nothing wrong with a few roaches once in a while. :cheese:
 
Wood Duck said:
if you don't have much space for firewood, I suggest you build round 'holz hausen.' Build three and burn one per year, so you'll always be two years ahead. Mine are built on slopes and the slope causes no problems. They look nice. I get lots of compliments on mine.

Thanks Wood Duck!

I'd seen those in the avatars, but didn't know what they are. Here's the thread on the topic:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/1726/

pen said:
I literally had to vacuum every window sill for nearly a month daily as they would have 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick layer of bark beetles in them.

It's a damn wonder my wife didn't kill me in my sleep and burn the house down.

pen

Lol, very vivid. :lol:

oldspark said:
I come across at least a few roaches . Nothing wrong with a few roaches once in a while. :cheese:

Completely agreed! :) Didn't recognize you in your new avatar.

And to the OP: Cutest. Stove. Pic. Ever.
 
Duplicate, sorry. Move along, nothing to see here.
 
If you're trying to burn less than ideal wood this winter then the basement is a great way to get it to dry faster.

Over the summer it will dry faster outside, and be a lot less of a hassle inside. Putting that much water in the basement over the summer would be crazy, but moving it inside in the fall works fine, especially when the stove is in the basement to warm it up and the house is drafty enough to need the extra humidity.
 
I couldn't agree more with the last post.

I stored 1/2 cord at a time in the basement last burning season. I too had semi-seasoned wood and had to try to get it better before I put it in the stove. I also had a fan blowing into it at one point. I would not recommend leaving it there during the summer months. Basements are extremely moist in the winter. Even dry basements. That will slow down the drying process. Outside in the wind and sun is the best place for your wood tro dry. Cover it at night and during rain with a tarp. Uncover it when it's sunny and windy or any time there's no rain except at night.

The wood will bring in bugs, mold spores and a mess , but it will dry in the basement especially if your stove is down there too. It may not be the ideal thing to do but it gets the wood dry quicker.
if you don’t have much space for firewood, I suggest you build round ‘holz hausen.’ Build three and burn one per year, so you’ll always be two years ahead. Mine are built on slopes and the slope causes no problems. They look nice. I get lots of compliments on mine.

Really great looking piles there Wood Duck! I brought the kids to Plymouth plantation this Summer, they had the same kind of piles there! I guess some things get forgotten in time.
 
WhitePine said:
Don't they slow the drying of the inner splits, compared to a conventional stack?

They do look good though. And there's the cool factor when friends and neighbors drop in.

The wood in my holz hausen seems to be fairly well seasoned the whole way through the stack, and top to bottom. The stack I am burning is two years old. There are old threads about these stacks and how legend tells that they will dry wood in a very short time. I don't buy that, but they do look cool and are free standing. My point was that there are ways to store ample wood in a relatively small space, and this is one of them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.