Punky wood

[gyrfalcon]

Dumb newbie question. Getting my firewood C/S/D, I've got a couple dozen splits out of a couple cords that are thoroughly punky, and more than that partially. I understand the completely punky stuff is useless for burning,, but I can get some burn out of the pieces that are just starting to go on one edge.

Do I assume right that it's OK to stack the semi-gone stuff in with the good wood for a summer's drying? In other words, does "punk" spread?

And on the same idea, can I use the totally punky stuff as the bottom layer of a stack of good wood? I'm talking just for a summer, no longer.

This will be my first full winter of full-time serious wood-burning, and the cost of the pressure-treated 2x4s to stack my wood on is starting to hurt a bit, so I'm wondering whether I can safely put that "bad" wood to some purpose, particularly as a sort of platform to throw my unstackable odd-shaped pieces on to dry.

I'm forunate to have lots of sunny, windy space to stack for the summer, and a roomy enclosed attached woodshed where I'll move my winter supply in the fall. So I'm only talking about a well-aired few summer months where the punky stuff would come into contact with the good stuff.

 

[savageactor7]

Punk doesn't spread gyrfalcon..if you get a lot of it I'd tell the supplier. A few here and there are the nature of the beast I suppose. I'd burn that punky wood during shoulder season ...if it's light to the heft it'll burn OK just not for long.

 

[Redox]

The rotten part will absorb more water if it gets rained on, though. I usually throw the punky wood on top of my covered pile to let it dry the fastest and I will try to burn it first if it seems dry enough. It's a little messy bringing it in the house, but it burns like everything else. If I threw out all the rotten wood I get, I might not have any left! The tree guys aren't very picky and neither am I. Try smacking the pieces together and anything that falls off, throw away or compost. You don't really want to burn that stuff anyway.

Chris

 

[cmonSTART]

I usually use the punky stuff for campfires outside.

 

[FatttFire]

Camp fire wood for me too! Keeps the girls feet warm, and a cold beer in my hand during the summer!

 

[fossil]

I've come across some Juniper that must have been on the ground a long time. Some of the wood hefted about like balsa, at best...most of that I just trashed. Some big rounds were that way just on one side, and I split/carved/shaved it off and kept the part that retained some heating value. Others that still had some wood but weren't big enough to mess with went straight into my workshop stove, which was burning during the time I processed that load of wood. Depending on just how punky it is, I'm not sure I'd use it under a stack...for the very reason Redox pointed out...it'll be a sponge. Rick

 

[gyrfalcon]

I've come across some Juniper that must have been on the ground a long time. Some of the wood hefted about like balsa, at best...most of that I just trashed. Some big rounds were that way just on one side, and I split/carved/shaved it off and kept the part that retained some heating value. Others that still had some wood but weren't big enough to mess with went straight into my workshop stove, which was burning during the time I processed that load of wood. Depending on just how punky it is, I'm not sure I'd use it under a stack...for the very reason Redox pointed out...it'll be a sponge. Rick

Ah, I knew there was a catch. So the problem with the punky stuff is more that it absorbds and holds a lot of water (from ground or rainfall), which in turn can start to rot the side of the good stuff that's touching it?

You really think that would be a problem just between now and October, even in widely spaced stacks in full sun and wind?

 

[fossil]

Dunno, raptor...prob'ly not a problem. Depends on what your climate's like. Don't think I'd have tried that in Virginia, but I'd likely get away with it out here on the high desert. I wouldn't leave it like that for a couple of years, though. Rick

 

[gyrfalcon]

Dunno, raptor...prob'ly not a problem. Depends on what your climate's like. Don't think I'd have tried that in Virginia, but I'd likely get away with it out here on the high desert. I wouldn't leave it like that for a couple of years, though. Rick

Heh. Well, high desert it ain't, but humidity's generally pretty low here, except for about a week in late July. Weather's been so dry this spring, some wells are drying up. My water's piped in from Lake Champlain, chlorinated like a swimming pool, but at least it's not going to run out.

Thanks for all the good advice, everybody. I'll give it a try for the summer and let you know how it works out.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

The guys are right on. Punk is punk. It won't spread but it will absorb moisture. We simply throw it on the brush piles to get rid of it. Perhaps if we were buying all our wood we'd try to burn some of it but see no need at present.

If I were putting it on the wood pile, I'd for sure keep it covered to keep the rain off. On the bottom of the wood pile it might be okay as the rain would probably not get to it.

"This will be my first full winter of full-time serious wood-burning, and the cost of the pressure-treated 2x4s to stack my wood on is starting to hurt a bit"

For a very low cost, and much lower than pressure treated lumber, just go cut some small saplings or you can even use some tree limbs. Lay these down and stack your wood on them. Hard to get a lower cost than that. After the winter, cut those up into firewood (unless they are punky) and get new ones for next year's wood pile. You'll find it works just as well as pressure treated lumber. Don't worry about how it will look either. It is below the wood so doesn't show until you remove the wood. Then as it starts showing, it looks rather natural.

 

[gyrfalcon]

The guys are right on. Punk is punk. It won't spread but it will absorb moisture. We simply throw it on the brush piles to get rid of it. Perhaps if we were buying all our wood we'd try to burn some of it but see no need at present.

If I were putting it on the wood pile, I'd for sure keep it covered to keep the rain off. On the bottom of the wood pile it might be okay as the rain would probably not get to it.

"This will be my first full winter of full-time serious wood-burning, and the cost of the pressure-treated 2x4s to stack my wood on is starting to hurt a bit"

For a very low cost, and much lower than pressure treated lumber, just go cut some small saplings or you can even use some tree limbs. Lay these down and stack your wood on them. Hard to get a lower cost than that. After the winter, cut those up into firewood (unless they are punky) and get new ones for next year's wood pile. You'll find it works just as well as pressure treated lumber. Don't worry about how it will look either. It is below the wood so doesn't show until you remove the wood. Then as it starts showing, it looks rather natural.

Great advice. Thank you. I will keep it in mind. Unfortunately, I have no woods on my property, so no easy source of saplings. Also, since my land is so lumpy, sloped (in two directions) and uneven, I have to do a lot of propping and fiddling even to get the 2x4s level enough to stack on without falling over. Icing on the cake is my splits have to be no longer than 14 inches to fit in my stove, and since a good half are beech, they're twisty and uneven as heck. There may be a more miserably difficult situation for stacking wood, but I can't think of what it would be! The good thing is it's drying really rapidly out there in the sun and wind, and I have a roomy enclosed attached woodshed on my house it can all go into this fall.