How to season wood correctly.

[MourningWood]

Hello everyone,

This is my first year burning a wood stove... well wood burning insert. I thought that I planned ahead and bought wood in august. Bought from two different sources one of which was highly recommend to my by a family friend. I also, had just about 1/2 cord of wood left over from last year from burning in an open fireplace before making up my mind to get an insert. It has been really quite mild around me this year so I am just getting to the wood that I bought this year. I found the insert was burning differently and discovered that my wood was not seasoned well at all. 30-35% The one smart think I did was buy enough wood so that I would have enough for next year. I was reading you want to keep at least one year ahead and season it yourself that way you know that it is right. So this year I am scrambling to find dry wood in my stack which I think I can make it through. I am currently trying to plan for this coming spring and summer.

I was thinking in the beginning of spring I would take my 3 cords of wood that I will have left from this year out of 3 rows and line them up along my fence line in one row. Most of my property doesn't get sun all day but where I plan on stacking it should get sun all morning to mid afternoon.

I have been trying to find information on wood sheds and have been reading posts that are already up. My intension is to build one this year but don't know how big of one will be needed. I am not using wood to heat my house by its self. I have an HVAC system that is my primary source. That being said I will probably be using around 2 cords of wood a year. Should I make my shed big enough to handle 4 cords? I was reading people season wood in the open and put it in the shed in prep for winter. In this case I plan on having next years wood this year so that I am always a year ahead to make sure it is good and seasoned. Should I leave next years wood out in the open until next fall then load it up in shed? Or should I put in shed and bring out next year for seasoning? Also if I keep out and I am seasoning it in spring/summer should I cover it? Some say yes but others say no keep it open; that the rain doesn't have an effect on seasoning as it only gets the outer layer wet. I also have questions on directions n,s,e,w on how to orient the shed or if this matters at all.

I am sure I will have more questions but wanted to keep the novel somewhat short as I know no one wants to read a dissertation of a post. btw my wood is all hard wood oak, cherry, maple, birch, ash mostly. I know I may have issues with the oak taking longer to season.

 

[Wood Duck]

This is a controversial question, but here is what I think.

1. Stack your wood out in the open when spring arrives. It sounds like you have a good, sunny spot picked out. Leave it there all summer until November or so. It is a good idea to cover the top, but not critical.

2. Acquire wood for the year after next. Get it this spring or summer and stack it out in the sun and wind as you did with the wood you already have.

3. In late fall I'd move the wood to a wood shed if I had one. If not, cover the top of the stacks if you haven't already done so. You don't want snow and rain in the wood you are moving into the house to burn - that is a pain.

4. I'd plan to burn four cords per year. If you don't burn that much, then you are even farther ahead than you thought, but it suck s to run low on wood.

 

[tigeroak]

About the same as wood duck says , with the addition put all your ash, cherry ,walnut , pine, soft maple and a couple more in a area by themselves. These will be ready in 1 year to burn. The rest in another rack or area to season 2-3 years. I have racks that are 4 wide x 5 1/2 tall x 16 long [7of them] with metal roof and I am on a 4 year rotation with 5 cord a year, we burn less than 4 on average, but like duck said just in case. picture of racks

 

[TedyOH]

And with the woods mentioned by tigeroak, try and stack "log cabin / cris cross" style to allow maximum air flow and sunlight. It helps a lot with drying. I need this wood ready for Nov. 2016 and I'm sure (ash) it will be.

3/4 of my stacks face south, I choose this directing because of my prevailing winds are SSW most of the time and I have no trees south of the stacks so they get full sunlight all year round. Disregard the split with the date on it but the other splits are red oak I stacked in June, nice grey color, bark starting to peel and end grain checking already. I'm wondering if it will be ready in 16 months.... The piece with the date on it is ash from 3 months ago.

Kinda like WoodDuck said, I top cover around late October. I'd like to have a wood shed and have been kicking the idea around but I sorta lean on the side that they are overrated. My $5 brown tarps do just fine keeping the rain and snow off. These are the thing that work for me.

 

[tyler-king]

I keep a few cords in my main shed stacked up but most of it, I leave outdoors with the top covered with a tarp leaving the sides exposed. Even over the winter, I find the wind and casual sun drys the wood better than stuff left in the shed. I always keep the area shoveled out so its not buried in. Summer time, the stuff drys perfect with all the heat.

To each their own, theres many opinions on drying wood, but I find better results outside no matter what time of year.

 

[Applesister]

The best thing for drying wood is time. Time and heat and airflow.

 

[Oldman47]

Let me add a quick and dirty to this. Some things like ash or cherry will be ready with just a year of seasoning while other things like oak or hedge will take much longer. Unless you separate short seasoning from long seasoning wood you will fail unless you have plenty of room and plenty of wood to always be 3 years ahead. Yes, most people will do their seasoning exposed and then move wood under cover of a shed, but you need to know what you have to decide when to move it under cover.

 

[MourningWood]

Thanks for the responses. I will have to read in more depth when I get home but everyone's answers look like they will help me a lot.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Let me add a quick and dirty to this. Some things like ash or cherry will be ready with just a year of seasoning while other things like oak or hedge will take much longer. Unless you separate short seasoning from long seasoning wood you will fail unless you have plenty of room and plenty of wood to always be 3 years ahead. Yes, most people will do their seasoning exposed and then move wood under cover of a shed, but you need to know what you have to decide when to move it under cover.

I also think seperating wood by species us important. Keep in mind you may be able to slightly shorten seasoning time by splitting wood a bit smaller. For example oak split into a 3 inch in diameter piece will dry out a bit quicker than a 6 or 7 inch piece. Exactly how much, I'm not sure

 

[browneyesvictim]

When I go cut fire wood, I never cut it green to begin with. I like to find dead standing timber that has already seasoned in the woods and the bark is starting to come off. If it is dead but lying on the ground in the mud and rain can be a different story but is still better than cutting green. Then again, Ill admit, I'm a bit spoiled here in Oregon with being able to be that picky.

 

[Poindexter]

You are asking the right questions, and I have a few minutes.

1. I have been fairly active here for about two years now. The number of times someone has had a problem because their wood is too dry is zero. The number of people who have complained that they built too big a woodshed is zero.

2. For most (bold, italic, underlined) most users in the US and Canada, it is enough to get your wood split, stacked off the ground (pallets straight on the dirt count) and covered on top (with any old water tight thing- plastic sheets, roofing scraps, whatever). I'll go with 90-95% of everybody. I am one of the exceptions, I have a fair bit of groundwater at my house and use a layer of plastic between the dirt and my wood pile to groundwater out. Most folks don't have to do that. I get all my wood seasoned in one summer, but oak doesn't grow up here.

3. Woodsheds is a general term. Usually a woodshed is a thing you re stack seasoned wood into to keep it dry until you burn it. I am an ornery old cuss with arthritis and not anymore free time than absolutely required to re stack wood. I am building a wood shed this year, but it is dual purpose. I am stacking green wood in it, it is going to season in there _and_ stay dry in there until I need it.

4. Do what you have to do this year. Whatever wood you got left come spring thaw 2016, stack it off the ground in the sunniest place you got, cover it on top and get your wood for winter of 17-18 on the lot ASAP. Get that split and stacked ASAP. Then build a woodshed. Or lay some pallets ont eh gravel under your deck or whatever. One thing a lot of folks overlook is if you bring in wood say July 2016 you are only getting half a summer worth of seasoning on it summer of 2016 because the summer was half gone when your wood got delivered. If you have all your 17-18 wood split and stacked in April 2016, yup, you got a full summer seasoning on it on 2016, and you got another full summer's worth of seasoning coming in 2017 before you need it. Even whatever oak you get should be ready. If there is moss growing on the ground, that is not a good place to stack split wood. Maximum wind, maximum sun and maximum heat is the area you want to stack in.

5. If it ain't split, it ain't started seasoning. I don't know how many times I have heard about wood that is "dead standing" and "down two years" that shows up at my splitter reading 30%+ MC. I will not pay an extra dime for any of that foolishness. I don't care when the tree died, I don't care when the tree was cut. For me to pay extra, I need to know when the rounds were split.

5a. We had a pretty fair sized forest fire up here summer of 2013, right close to town. The state finally let the woodcutters in after we had plenty of snow down about November of 2015. Going rate for "fire killed, two year dead standing" wood is $300/ cord, delivered as splits. Ain't nobody cutting live trees right now because all the customers want wood dry enough to light with a match. I bought a couple cords of it. After 24 hours in the (heated) garage it meters 18% MC, after 48 hours in the garage it meters 24-28%. And my neighbors are burning it and talking about how great this crap is. Did you see the movie Idiocracy? I am going to see how much I can sell this stuff for after I season it over the summer of 2016. I got a white carpet in the stove room and no desire to subtract carpet shampooer rental from whatever money I save not burning oil.

6. Sounds like you got a moisture meter. Sooner or later you will be done with re stacking wood. Go ahead and give it a couple or three years, you sound like a young buck with some vinegar, but start thinking now about how you can handle your wood fewer times in the future and still have dry fuel for the stove. The less (fewer times) you handle it, the more you can process and the later you will have a bottle of vicodin waiting for you in the house.

7. When that SOB Aurthur, Aurthur Itis shows up on your front porch, rings the doorbell and introduces himself as your new best friend, well, just shoot the SOB and keep pulling the trigger until your sidearm goes "click" instead of "bang." I ain't up this late because i can do without beauty sleep.

 

[Roundgunner]

I buck to 24" anything I have to split, 28" if it is 5" round or less as I won't need to split that. I split as nessasary, then single stack and top cover. I don't get a lot of sun so I feel my drying times are 3 summers for oak & locust, 2 summers for sugar maple and 1 summer for pine, ash, maple, elm, etc...

 

[iron]

question for everyone: if wood is stacked directly on the dirt (or with only a 1/2" or so of air), is that whole wood stack shot, or is it just the bottom row of wood that's going to bite the dust?

as i was first stacking (or having my bro-in-law stack), wood is pretty close to the dirt. admittedly, i don't have the ideal set up for seasoning (placed along a cedar fence line dividing neighboring properties), so i don't think there's much air flow that's gonna happen there anyway.

should i bite the bullet and unstack/restack on top of 2x4s?

 

[gerry100]

The best thing for drying wood is time. Time and heat and airflow.

+1

Lot of overthinking on this subject. Keep it dry and wait

 

[Poindexter]

question for everyone: if wood is stacked directly on the dirt (or with only a 1/2" or so of air), is that whole wood stack shot, or is it just the bottom row of wood that's going to bite the dust?

as i was first stacking (or having my bro-in-law stack), wood is pretty close to the dirt. admittedly, i don't have the ideal set up for seasoning (placed along a cedar fence line dividing neighboring properties), so i don't think there's much air flow that's gonna happen there anyway.

should i bite the bullet and unstack/restack on top of 2x4s?

My guess will be bottom row is (or will be) shot, but the rest of the stack shouldbe OK -- however, Seattle is an area with a lot of elevation change in a small horizontal distance. And we have a fair number of Puget Sound area users here. I defer to the folks from Seattle, but I am opposed to re stacking myself.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

question for everyone: if wood is stacked directly on the dirt (or with only a 1/2" or so of air), is that whole wood stack shot, or is it just the bottom row of wood that's going to bite the dust?

as i was first stacking (or having my bro-in-law stack), wood is pretty close to the dirt. admittedly, i don't have the ideal set up for seasoning (placed along a cedar fence line dividing neighboring properties), so i don't think there's much air flow that's gonna happen there anyway.

should i bite the bullet and unstack/restack on top of 2x4s?

Pallets are great to stack on and usually free. If possible, re-stacking would give you a better result and would save the bottom row that will end up rotting. If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right

 

[iron]

My guess will be bottom row is (or will be) shot, but the rest of the stack shouldbe OK -- however, Seattle is an area with a lot of elevation change in a small horizontal distance. And we have a fair number of Puget Sound area users here. I defer to the folks from Seattle, but I am opposed to re stacking myself.

well, i restacked this weekend, adding some 2x4s on top of bricks to keep the wood off the ground. i found that maybe 10-15 pieces that were touching the ground were really wet. not punky, but definitely saturated. i was surprised that a lot of them were actually very dry - mostly cedar.

the biggest issue i found was that my brother-in-law (who i tasked with the initial stacking job) put the wood too close to the fence (touching) so that the fence and ends of the pieces of wood were wet. glad i took care of it. 5 hours of unstack/restack.

 

[Roundgunner]

I'm sure in the long run it is worth the extra effort.

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

Mourning Wood,

Check your messages.

 

[TheBigIron]

Could you possibly stack on 3 or 4" pvc and save the bottom row? I've stacked on pvc before works well and obviously is weather proof. Could be a good investment? I fell into 40 or so feet of pvc and use it to stack on works good.... IMO