I will NOT be storing my wood in the basement next year!

Spiders THRIVE in moist basements.

One of the oil burner techs won't go into my cellar unless I take all the cobwebs down first.
What a wimp. Now my plumber friend thinks that's really funny, but he won't go into my well cavern because there was a ring neck snake hanging out by the door.

Sorry, my attenpt at sarcasm didn't come through well... I'm really not the one who needs to answer where their dryer is vented to...

We have a very damp basement at times, mostly in the spring and fall, and if it rains alot in the summer. We can always tell when there is water down there because we see more spiders in the house.

Hey, that's country living for you.

It's been a pretty humid few monthes. Not a lot or precipitation, just fairly humid. Now that the snow is starting though, it's going to start drying out. I haven't even had any nose bleeds yet!

The upstairs is starting to show signs of improvement, but I still have the dehumidifiers running and will keep both running until it starts getting too dry in the house. I'm still planning on keeping the wood outside the house next year. I need the room in the basement and it would be nice to build something big enough outside to store some of my other stuff underneath.

ROFL! I was on the floor when I saw this one!

Well yea, I guess it sounds pretty funny. But some people buy a house without knowing exactly where things are vented to and what is inside the walls until they are already living in it trying to do stuff. It's nothing to be ashamed of for the buyer. It's the kind of thing some people assume will be corrected later(sellers point of view). And some poeple RENT and can't be super nosy before signing the dotted line. You'd be amazed at the funky illegal or unethical stuff I've uncovered either working in demolition of buildings for renovation OR when asking the right questions when previewing a rental. It's amazing what some idiots rigg-up out of sight. It's frightening actually - safety wise.

I move my wood into the basement after a few frosts kill off the bugs. It beats going outside for wood; plus it dries quicker. I run the DE-humidifier for 24 hours every other day. Works great for me.

Hmmm... you don't get too much humidity from the wood? You have to add even more? Where does it all go?

Obviously he meant DE-humidifier. Boy, sometimes you guys are real a**holes to each other.

We're men. It's what we do. You should hear the nicknames we call each other at work.

This just in: Freezing temperatures don't kill bugs.

USDA has specifications for heat treatment to kill bugs. Some guys try to pass that off as kiln dried.

Yes, yes we are, @$$hole.

Yah, no firewood inside my house...ever. Not because of the fire risk, but I never trust that the bugs have died until after christmas. Also, I have a covered patio that I store 1/4-1/2 cord on for the stove. The wood pile is 100 yd away.

But there's a lot of BTU's in bugs.... :coolgrin:

(I bring about 3 days supply in at a time, main wood shed is about 8' from the garage, old wood shed and reserve stacks are further away...)

Gooserider

Well, Now I feel like one of the guys. Thank you so much Bigg_Redd

I will apoligize for what I'm about to say up front because I don't mean to offend you in particular but I will likely offend somebody, . . .
I can't imagine what kind of bugs in Lincoln, RI could be so offensive or detrimental to your household or health that you would be so worried ! Does your neighborhood have a history of termites, carpenter ants or some other wood destroying insects you can easily determine by a free yearly inspection by your local franchised pesticde company ?
I lived in the Boston area for 20yrs (your neighbor). The only bugs my last 10 yr long landlady (aged 82 & the owner of this 100yr old building her whole life) had to worry about was a brief encounter with termites & carpenter ants. Her typical challenge was mice traps in the basement and raccoons in her backyard vineyard & fruit trees. It ended up that her biggest struggle came a year before she died when she rented one flat to a family from a 3rd world country. Suddenly the building became infested with cock roaches....no problem...that can be fixed ! But then there was another plague...the mystery bug...turned out to be BED BUGS eminating from the new tenants apartment ! It took a full year to diagnose, carry out termination, and fully treat the problem. I had to get SUPER PRO ACTIVE to diagnose & start legal action to fix it (my landlady died meanwhile) I had my kids sent home from school due to the multitude of bites that were visable! I still have- to this day- visable scars from bed bug bites on my forearms. No matter what apartment building/house I could have moved to - that plague was on the upswing city-wide and I was not gonna even consider the possibility of dealing with the trauma of it for my children EVER again ! So I moved to the woods of PA. It was a pretty good reason to move from Boston.
I have to ask what kind of bugs are you worried about ? Do they hide in your walls and creep out at night to attach to the skin of your loved ones to suck & gorge on their blood then retreat into your walls just to come out and do it again the next nite like vampires ? If this isn't the case I don't know what the heck you're so complaining about. Go to Home Depot and buy a bottle of your average insect spray. And don't worry, be happy.

A lot of the Poplar I cull have huge infestations of carpenter ants. By seasoning my wood outside, they have pretty much vacated long before the wood comes in the house. They don't like dry places.

We don't have termites in this area. Termites don't run around in hot dry places anyway. Their bodies can't take it. They build closed raceways to travel in so unless you store large quantities of wet wood in a damp basement, they probably are not much of a threat.

I have never seen any insect come out of any firewood I brought in from the woodshed. Maybe I'm just lucky.

^That pretty much my experience too. We only bring seasoned wood in the house, maybe a few hibernating flys but no bugs.

I've never heard of a dehumidifier. Where do you get one and how much do they cost?

Oh, I don't want to buy an air conditioner. No one has one aroung here, not needed.

Dehumidifiers and air conditioners work off similar principles, but are not designed for the same purpose. An air conditioner has a much higher rating (do they rate these in BTU's also?) that allow them to super cool the air. Dehumidifiers have a much lower rating which simply allows for them to pull the air through a coil, which condenses the humidity and then catches that water in a container for disposal.

Wonderingwoman - don't be mislead dehumidifiers are NOT commonly called air conditioners in most areas. While AC units do dehumidify the air humidifiers do not air condition / go to one of your area appliance stores, sears or hardware store and ask if they carry them. We run 2 in our basement during the summer to dry out the air to prevent that moisture from causing damage to the house and to help take the load off the AC by reducing the moisture it has to remove.

Beware that dehumidifiers consume considerable energy so read the specs before you buy one and expect an increase in your electric bill. A HRV uses considerably less electricity and will remove as much or more humidity in the winter. Summertime is a different matter.

Thanks for the info, I think I'll look into these.