How to survive a burning season with unseasoned firewood?

[FaithfulWoodsman]

I don't think any of those woods are ok to burn green, as in cut live. I burn mostly oak, but any wood dead standing may have some wood that's burnable immediately, usually the top half to third as well as smaller branches and limbs.

Absolutely, only dead standing will be dry at all. Wish I had more oak like you. Lots around but very few dying or dead, which is what I have permission to cut. Do have 27 dead ash and 3 dead cherry marked for this winter. I cut some for my older neighbor which they use that year, but most of it will be ready. All three cherry trees are almost telephone poles and prob dry to the stump. In return I get free use of their splitter.

 

[Lcback]

I would cut anything dead that is off the ground. A lot of that stuff looks nasty. But if it's off the ground and hard on the inside it's probably good to go.

Like the others said gas,oil,lp. Is all cheap this year.
I just ordered lp. 1.58 a gallon. I'll have to find a fuel calculator, but I bet it's close to the price of hard coal or a cord of wood. Even if it's a little more then wood at least it's ready to burn now. I bought a brand new wood furnace this summer. But I have only burned it twice so far. With lp. This cheap it doesn't take much to keep the house 68. Once the temp drops into the 30's and I hear the lp furnace running multiple times I will fire up the furnace. In the mean time I'm saving my wood for February.

Try not to panic. Most of us have burnt green wood when starting out. My self last year. So if it is nessicary light that fire. Give it lots of air or 2x4 scrap mixed in. Check the chimney often. If smoke rolls back in the house with the door shut put it out.
I was so dumb I used a ton of cardboard to start my fires and 2 90* elbows befor the chimney tee. It clogged in a month. Smoke was coming out the air intakes no matter what I did even with the door shut. My in law came over started smacking the black pipe. What looked like a squirrels nest of card board came falling out, and the fire took right off. Then I started reading this sight. I made it through that winter with wet wood. But I learned a lot too. My wife was none too impressed with this wood heat I talked so much about. Lol. I'm for seeing this year a huge improvement.

Last but not least. Don't forget to get some c0 detectors. That stuff kills a family around here it seems every year.


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[Woody Stover]

If you can scrounge a woodlot, that's your best option. Go after small, dead-standing stuff with no bark left. But I've also found Black Cherry on the ground, ten or twelve inches, with all the sapwood rotted off. It's rot-resistant wood, and the heartwood was in great shape and MC was <20%...ready to burn that day. The problem with splitting wood very small, or using construction scraps, is that you have a stove that can get too hot if you get too much wood gassing at once. You might load a bunch of small splits that are damp, but once they dry out and start gassing, it might be hard to control. Better to find dead, dry wood to use in a woodlot. Then you can split bigger and it will burn in a more controlled fashion.
The first winter after I got 'dry-wood religion' here, I split a dead White Ash that I found, medium-small. It was at 25%. I stacked half a cord in the house with a fan on it, and it was down around 20% within a couple weeks.

 

[firefighterjake]

I lucked out in my first year of burning . . . that summer I cut a bunch of standing dead elm (with the bark missing) and some tree tops from a wood harvesting operation. In addition I cut up pallets and used those to help get the fire going. Honestly, it wasn't that bad and I thought I was doing very well.

However, in Year 2, when I was burning wood seasoned for over a year I discovered just how enjoyable burning truly seasoned wood could be -- easier to ignite, longer burns and less gunk on the "glass" and in the chimney.

I guess my answer would be dependent on just how unseasoned the wood is . . . if the wood is quite far from being dry I would save it for next year and either burn oil/gas or perhaps buy some Bio-Bricks (or similar products.) If the wood is close to being dry enough to burn, I might suggest mixing in pallet wood (which you can often get free) or dimensional scrap lumber (which can often be found for free.)

 

[sportbikerider78]

My 1st year burning I had everything split and stacked by memorial day. That winter I found the oak was not burning. I had to leave it in the basement for the winter, which produced a crap load of moisture to the house. With the low cost of oil and gas it would be best to wait till next year to burn. Frankly, at these price's its silly for anyone to burn wood at this point. i would skip the year but I have no other option than wood.

Still saving money. A FC delivered is $55 here.

Plus..I drop a lot of my own and my wife loves the stove.

 

[Dobish]

a full cord of pine around here is 190$ delivered.... oak goes up to $300/cord

i guess if I do the math, I paid roughly $600/cord to take the trees down, and i have scrounged another 4-5 cord, so it comes out to around $150/cord for all of the wood that i have gathered....

i burn less than a cord a month, and save over $100/month on my gas bill, so in the end, even if i had to pay for full cords, it would be better than using my furnace!

 

[newburn]

Yeah, I'm stuck with baseboard electric if I don't use my stove and it was fairly pricey last year.

I am going to try and determine the moisture content of the wood I have currently and hope it is close to 20-30%. Maybe try to mix in some pallet wood and hope I can find some dead ash on my wood cutting trip. Thanks for all the help so far!

 

[peakbagger]

The concern is usually about burning paints, glues and other finishes. Common nails won't hurt anything. Galvanized with a CAT??

Sorry to be late to this post, Cats can be poisoned by metals, they wont stop working with a few pallet nails which frequently contain lead as well as zinc but its likely the Cat is going to degrade quicker.

 

[Allagash350]

I think it depends on how badly you want to burn. Like others have said there are ways to get dry wood, but this time of year you will pay a premium.
Call a tree service, see if they will sell you dead oak or maple limbs that were too big for the chipper, call asplundh and see where they've been cutting for a utility company.
Buy wood.
Or just wait until next year, which is what I would probably do.

 

[maple1]

Even if you wait until next year to burn, you should still be working at getting wood ready. Getting ahead is where it's at, and the further ahead, the better. You'll be extremely thankful you did, this time next year.

 

[Destructor]

Dead wood is out there and a lot of it will dry quickly after it is split. Keep an eye out for new construction. They throw away a lot of good framing scraps. I stumbled upon some dumped cherry last fall, cut to fireplace length. It had been sitting for a few years. I got all the good stuff. Sopping wet when I split it but so dead the bark was falling off, some punk around the perimeter on some of the pieces but mostly solid. It dried in about a week in the sun and burned beautifully during the winter. I’ve been hauling out dumped dead red cedar from the same location this fall, same thing, wet from rain but dry in a week after splitting. My tulip that I scrounged in March is ready to burn. I may throw in a couple pieces of locust this winter and see how that burns, cut live in March and left at the side of the road. I've scrounged all my wood, luckily mostly already long dead.

 

[Diabel]

It is very hard to get ahead three years with wood inventory. Especially in urban setting, with work and busy family. But it is possible believe me I did it.

I burn three full cords per season and guess what I have to process three cords per year to stay ahead three yrs. In the end it is rewarding for sure! Not only that you save tons on gas, gym memberships etc. but what I like most, is that wood heat in the dead of winter....