Is splitting splits on concrete bad for the slab?

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forby

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 14, 2008
67
Northeastern PA
OK... I'm not dumb enough to actually split directly on the concrete.....

I moved my dried wood up near the house and on the concrete slab that is my porch. It's right on the lower level just 20 feet from my stove. right outside the door. This is my first year burning and I've come to realize that some of my splits are too big to restart a morning after fire. Those few hot coals need the smaller pieces.

Now, I have a 20 inch round as a base on the concrete and I keep a spare maul there too. I was spitting some of the splits and was wondering if I'm risking damaging the concrete. I can't imagine that the load is that high, but I've driven my main log several inches into the earth splitting 5 cords during the summer. Of course, I'm only splitting a couple of splits a day for light feeds and to top off the little bit of spare space in the stove at night.

Any thoughts about long term concrete damage?


For the record: I LOVE WOOD BURNING AND ALL THINGS ASSOCIATED WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
My wood shed has a concrete slab and I keep a chopping block in it for splitting kin'lin. While I try to lay up my woodpile with a variety of sizes, I find myself sometimes resplitting some of the bigger pieces. The energy transferred through the mass of the chopping block is not enough to affect the slab. Of course it also depends how strong the slab is so YMMV. If it is a slab on grade, the ground underneath it also spreads the impact.
 
forby said:
OK... I'm not dumb enough to actually split directly on the concrete.....

I moved my dried wood up near the house and on the concrete slab that is my porch. It's right on the lower level just 20 feet from my stove. right outside the door. This is my first year burning and I've come to realize that some of my splits are too big to restart a morning after fire. Those few hot coals need the smaller pieces.

Now, I have a 20 inch round as a base on the concrete and I keep a spare maul there too. I was spitting some of the splits and was wondering if I'm risking damaging the concrete. I can't imagine that the load is that high, but I've driven my main log several inches into the earth splitting 5 cords during the summer. Of course, I'm only splitting a couple of splits a day for light feeds and to top off the little bit of spare space in the stove at night.

Any thoughts about long term concrete damage?


For the record: I LOVE WOOD BURNING AND ALL THINGS ASSOCIATED WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your concrete will be fine.
 
It would only be a problem if you swing wildly like me and miss , then you might chip the concrete.
 
Hope not because I have a small 4" split of white oak that I hit on in the garage for big or wet splits before I send them to the fire. Little girl likes to watch it, and then makes sure she knocks on them with her hand (good knock wood) what a great smile from that. She needs to hit all the wood in the pile and says "have to knock it" , teach them early, they will hate it in a few years. As of now she, 2 years old, knows that daddy cuts trees with a chainsaw and that we put wood in the fire. She will also crumble paper for me to start new fires and hands me the kindling.
Yes, I'm a girls daddy.
Chad
 
I sometimes go through the split and hit the block. I'm pretty sure the maul will fare better than the concrete when you hit it.

Matt
 
I destroyed a corner of our patio slab growing up splitting wood with an axe. The axe would get stuck in the wood and I would swinge the ax, with log attached) against the concrete (essentially a wood sledgehammer).

Just don't do what I did.
 
Chad: What a nice story about you and your little girl. Those are memories that she will never forget . :)
 
As long as you don't slip and fall or swing and miss and fall and whack your head on the concrete, the slab should be fine.
 
billb3 said:
As long as you don't . . . whack your head on the concrete, the slab should be fine.
Even if you did whack your head, the slab would still be fine.

Whenever I would whack my head on something, my father would ask me which was harder, my head or...
 
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