Drying Wood

[Marcus]

Any ideas on how to quickly dry seasoned wood whose bark has gotten wet from snow? I have a large supply, but it all got snow covered and is burning very poorly.

 

[got wood?]

stack as much as you can in your garage (if you're not too paranoid about termites)...the warmer temp from the house and cooling down car(s) helps out. I'd make sure to stack the rest up off the ground as soon as you can and cover it (top only). You'd be surprised how quickly that will dry out w/ a few days of sunshine

 

[Corey]

When the snow hits, I usually just shuffle the top layer on the pile to get to lower / dryer layers. That is assuming that it doesn't snow again right after I stock up on wood. If I have to deal with snowy wood, I just tap a couple pieces together outside to get as much snow off as possible, then stack them on the hearth by the stove. The hearth may get wet for an hour or so, but by the time that wood is ready to go in, the water will be gone.

Corey

 

[got wood?]

I was a bit unclear about what I meant I see...my thought was to get a few days worth of wood into the garage assuming it's drier inside (no more snow to worry about) and to stack the rest outside where it would be `on the road to recovery' off the ground and in the elements.

Hey Dylan, do you think a warmer garage wouldn't work? I've not tried this myself, it was merely a suggestion...my garage is too full of junk to get any wood inside!

 

[Sandor]

Dylan is correct.

Keeping a stash in the garage is ok if you want to keep dry wood dry. Trying to dry it in there would not work because there is no air movement, no sunshine, and the humidity level would saturate quickly- the humidity has nowhere to go.

The best way to dry it is to loosely stack it outside with a (sunny)southern exposure, off the ground, and only the top covered.

 

[babalu87]

Knock the bark off

 

[Marcus]

Even though some of the wood seems seasoned and dry, it will not burn and just charcoals. I asume that means it is still too wet? I can't believe I'm going to have to fire up the gas furnace as all my remaining wood is like this.

 

[CK-1]

Just restacked the wood rack I have in the garage a few weeks ago with snow covered splits. In two days the snow was gone and the wood was dry....