Got my first cord of CSD seasoned Hardwood yesterday...I'm wondering?

[JPapiPE]

I got my first cord of seasoned hardwood yesterday for which I paid $250. The wood is split very nicely into smallish pieces and I'm sure I got a full cord. However the wood seems a bit heavy and there hardly any cracking on the ends of the pieces. We did get 2 " of rain here in the last 2 weeks, but I suspect this seller had log length product that may have been cut a year or so ago and he just got around to cutting it and splitting it. Is this method considered seasoned? Should seasoned wood be that heavy and damp if it is considered seasoned? I guess the smallness of the pieces, some only 2"x 5"x 18" will dry rather fast and catch fire pretty easily. I am expectiong another 3 cords in the days to come from the same dealer...also at $250 a cord, and would like some opinions as to whether I am getting taken? Could the large amount of recent rain have soaked the wood and closed up the cracking on the ends of the pieces? Some of the larger pieces look like they have been cut from a fresh log.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

Here is some hickory/oak with some checked ends.
As for seasoning goes........Seasoned/dry wood ......is wood thats been split and stacked for at least 6-12 months.
It also depends on what kind of tree it is, because some take much longer than others like white/red oak.


WoodButcher

 

[Eric Johnson]

The best way is to get a cheap moisture meter ($25 or less on Ebay), split one of the bigger chunks and take a measurement. It should be less than 30% MC, I think. Short of that, there are a couple more things to check. Do the chunks have bark firmly attached to the wood? If so, it's probably not dry. If the wood seems heavy, then it's probably not dry.

Maine has pretty strict laws on firewood sales. A cord, for example, has to measure at least 128 cubic feet. There may be some rules and regs as to the definition of "dry" as well, though I'm not sure. You might want to contact Peter Lammert at the Maine Forest Service for a chat. PM me if you need his number.

"Seasoned" doesn't mean anything, BTW. A piece of wood that was part of a living tree two weeks ago could be considered "seasoned." Dryness claims should be specific. "Cut, split and stacked for one year" is one good description. "Dry to at least 30% moisture content" would be another.

 

[JPapiPE]

I think i got taken then. I have a chainsaw and have cut 50 or so cords of wood in the past and some of this stuff that i just got seems to be cut from a new log. I hate a confrontation and i have another 3 cord coming from this guy. I think I might only need 2 more cord after seeing the first cord dumped on my driveway though. He does cut the wood in very small pieces and had it stacked in his truck( in his favor)...I think he may be a beginner.
There is no seasoned firewood to be had around here in cornish maine. Green goes for $180 a cord but I have never seen anyone split a log into so many pieces, as this dealer does and he even offered to split it smaller or larger for the price, but I think it's wet.

 

[MrEd]

Well you may have overpaid a bit, being charged for seasoned when its not really dry, but if you can stack it right, give it full sun until fall, and keep the fall rains off of it, you maybe OK anyway.

Once I get my boiler/woodshed completed, I am going to put a hot-air heat exchanger/fan setup aimed at the wood storage to allow me to use any "extra" BTU's to dry the heat until cold of winter really sets in.

 

[EricV]

My wife isn't using her greenhouse this summer so i'm stacking firewood in it. It gets about 130 before I turn on the vent fan. That's going to cure my firewood real good this year.

Glad I bought her the greenhouse.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

So far I have not had to buy wood. Hopefully my back and the good relations with the land owner will continue.

But anyway . . . I am led to believe that you paid $250 for a cord???

Upstate NY seems to run $50-60 /face . . . at $250 a cord, a 10 cord season would be 2,500 for me . . . getting pretty close to just go back and burn oil I'd say.

Or does the guy send his g/f over to load the wood in the unit too?? ;-)

 

[Eric Johnson]

I think the g/f option is extra in Maine these days.

$250 sounds like a lot for a cord, but I'm a couple of years behind current pricing, which is going up for just about everything wood-related--except for sawlogs, of course, which are in the tank for the time being. You gotta understand that the demand for pulpwood and fuel chips is so high now in northern New England that prices have gone way up and anything that uses the same raw material, i.e., lowgrade wood, is going to rise accordingly. I've heard that the paper mills are paying $120 per cord, and that's in log form delivered in 10-cord loads. So twice the price for processed firewood (even green) doesn't seem out of line to me.

 

[JPapiPE]

After calling Maine wood weights and measures i talked to a hippie hating fellow who told me that Maine has only a weights and measures program and not any service that distinguishes between green and seasoned firewood. He did say he has lobbied to the Maine legislature for a uniform system of firewood consistancy...Meaning seasoned wood should be within the range of 20-35% moisture content and above 35% fire wood is considered green. His name is Peter Lammert and can be reached at 207 287-2791. I spoke to him at length and he gave me the above information,,,,Then he said I should call Hal prince who heads up the Agriculture Dept for the state of Maine . Peter Lambert is very nice intelligent man who's every attempt at regulation has been thwarted by the legislature. So now he has put out a bounty on hippies ...$2 each for every hippie scalp. And then he passed the buck and said I should call Hal prince who is in charge of the Maine agriculture service at 207 287-2791

Hippies Beware

 

[Eric Johnson]

Pete keeps his pony tail tucked up underneath his Forest Service hat when on duty. I think he parks his Birkenstocks in his locker after riding to work on his mountain bike every morning. That's after a satisfying bowl of granola with soy milk. Usually packs an arrugula salad for lunch.

And I see they doubled the bounty when I wasn't looking.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Good thing I don't live in Maine, wear a tie to work everyday, have a rice-burner for a bike, and get my hair cut at least once a month


Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs . . . .

 

[JPapiPE]

I have lived in maine for 50 plus years...except when I was in the military. So this getting and gathering society is somehow pale to life and death everyday.

 

[ebbci05]

I had 10 pulp cord of oak dropped off at my house this year. Paid $650. Sounds like I got a good deal from what you are paying. I still have to cut and split it but I don't mind a little work. Hoping to have a leanto put up to store it under and then have another 10 cord delivered this fall and get going on that. Also, I paid 100 for seasoned oak last year, cut split and delivered. That was for about 2-2 1/2 face cord. I have talked to a couple of other dealers who are selling pulp wood and it looks like the price is around 75-80 a pulp cord now. Still not too bad since I was paying about 600-700 a month with fuel oil last year.

 

[deerefanatic]

Up here in Northern WI, wood is cheap because there is so much logging... It's getting it delivered that costs big money........

I can get an 11 cord load of slabwood delivered to my house for $700 total...... That's mostly oak with some maple mixed in....... Not sure on dryness, but slabwood should dry easily enough.....

 

[brider]

It sucks to be delivered green wood when you were promised seasoned, but at least you have the wood, and it eventually will be seasoned.

As far as price, I just paid $210/cord delivered for split "seasoned" (which it isn't) hardwood here in southern CT. If you're in a typical 3-bdrm house like mine and do the math, even at $250/cord, thruought the heating season, you will be LAUGHING in the face of the oil delivery man with all the money you'll save at these heating oil prices.

But please, don't really laugh at the guy driving the oil truck, he's a working man like all of us, just trying to earn a living. You can bet he's burning wood at home, too.

 

[mpilihp]

In central maine a few people I ve spoken to have gotten a treelenght truckload (10 cord) for a grand. Cut and split gree wood is going for 180 a cord and seasoned for around 220 Ive been told. Personally it costs us about a gallon of gas and more than a gallon of sweat per cord, I sweat just looking out the window on a hot sunny day!

~ Phil

 

[JPapiPE]

Here is the price difference between fuel oil and wood per million BTU's. Say you pay $5 for a gallon of heating and you pay $200 for a cord of seasoned hardwood. It costs $43/ million Btu's of $5 per gallon of fuel oil, while it cost $13/ million BTU"s of seasoned hardwood at $200 per cord.

Of coarse this is all ballpark, depending on species of wood, mosture content, etc., but just as a ballpark figure the difference is amazing. I found this conversion engine on the Jotul web site. It works with all the different heating fuels. All you do is plug in the price you are paying and the type of fuel you are using and the converter does all the rest.

 

[kshultz]

I just had 6 cord log length delivered $600. Green & I have to cut & split. Oak, Maple, Beech in Southern NH.

 

[JPapiPE]

I used to buy 4 cord 8' lenghts every season, usually in July. It was green and sold for $80 a cord. After cutting and splitting it, it never seemed to measure out to full cordage. That was back 20-25 years ago. Now I have a super chain saw, but I'll never do up my own wood again. It's just too much work for an old guy like me. I had to store the wood on my dad's property in Portland, Maine and then haul loads up to the second floor of my apartment in downtown Portland. I was hooked into an old chimney with no liner , but was constructed of double wall brick. The inside of the chimney was 12"X12" and I used to clean the chimney once a year by crawling onto the 3rd story steeply pitched roof. There was never any creosote in the chimney and I attribute that to a ritual hot burn twice a day. I had an old Jotul small combi and I know my heating periods were too hot as I eventually cracked the plastic handle on the stove door. I did have a temperature gage on the stove and used to let it cook into the red zone for 15 minutes twice a day. I did the same thing some 10 years later,at a different place, but I then had a large Jotul combi. My ritual hot burn eventually cracked that plastic handle too, but then again no problem with creosote and I had a metal chimney at that place. I guess my hot burns were just too hot or plastic handles do not belong on stove doors.

I have my first new stove ever now, an Englander 13NC and I'd like to know what temperture is considered a hot enough burn to help reduce creosote buildup...I was obviously heating these old stoves too hot. I always have a thermometer on every stove I have ever had. I suspect burning into the red zone is a bad thing to do.

 

[guy01]

I just got what we call a load of poles or a triaxle load for$700 it should yield about 20 face cut to 16 inches I have pics that I'll post somewhere when my honney gets up from her nap
Guy

 

[jebatty]

It takes about 160 gal of fuel oil to equal btu content of 1 cord of air dried red oak. Fuel oil is about 150,000 btu/gal, and air dried red oak is about 24 million btu/cord.