Ya I went for the advice of leaving my wood for this winter uncovered till September and now the wood is too unseasoned to burn.So I got a ton of biobricks to supplement the one and a quarter cord of two year seasoned wood I have left.No more uncovered wood for me.It doesn't work in this neighborhood.Though the biobricks work well.
Uncovered wood means burn biobricks now.
- Thread starter Rich L
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Danno77
Minister of Fire
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Rich L said:
Rich, I don't understand your statement that, "now the wood is too unseasoned to burn." How do you un-season wood? Is it just because the snow is covering the wood? Most of the time snow on the wood will not bother until Spring when it starts melting, but then, you must have it covered now....so where is the problem?
What kind of wood is this? When was it cut? When was it split? How was it stacked and where was it stacked?
Rich,
If I have wood outside uncovered that was seasoned and then been in the rain the last few months (NW Oregon), it only takes a day or two to dry with a fan in the garage.
You should do even better than that if you have such a space as your relative humidities are generally much lower than ours.
If I have wood outside uncovered that was seasoned and then been in the rain the last few months (NW Oregon), it only takes a day or two to dry with a fan in the garage.
You should do even better than that if you have such a space as your relative humidities are generally much lower than ours.
thewoodlands
Minister of Fire
Backwoods Savage said:
Welcome back Sav. Rich we top cover our wood plus we had 1.2 cord of wood that was not covered until Dec. and it is burning fine after being inside for one week.
Zap
Well gentlemen my wood was cut and stacked green a year ago last September.I then left it uncovered as I heard some do in hopes of a better seasoning process.I left it uncovered through the winter,spring and summer.I covered it last September and tried burning it the beginning of last month.It hadn't seasoned as I had hoped so I picked up a ton of biobricks to get me through the rest of the winter.I've always covered my wood after stacking and splitting and the wood seasoned fine except the oak.In this case the maple had not seasoned as usual and the oak was wetter than usual.With the biobrick and the one and a quarter cord of two year old maple,elm and oak I should be alright. Plus I have a giant dead Poplar laying in the back yard that can provide some shoulder season heat if need be.However I'm going back to the old way of covering my wood after splitting and stacking.
Danno77
Minister of Fire
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It would have been cool if you had two stacks: one covered as usual and one not. same mix of wood in both. this would account for weather issues, unique wood differences that might have occurred, etc. you can't say for sure that your same woodstack would have been better off if it had been covered...
Danno77 said:
Well Sir from my experience my wood always seasoned pretty well when covered.I'm in the same house since I was ten .When I turnd eleven my job was to tend the woodstove.We always covered the wood after splitting and stacking and the wood seasoned fine.Now at 63 I can safely say that for my situation covered wood seasoning is better than uncovered wood seasoning.I didn't plan on buying my wood and I don't like it.I'll try not to do it again.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
My firewood is stacked uncovered and seasoned. Now it is also cased in ice. It still burns just fine but I have to move it inside for a few hours to melt the ice or I get steamy smoke in the woodstove when I load. The winter hasn't unseasoned my wood at all, but if i had it covered in a shed it would be a little easier right now. I guess I have decided that dealing with icy and snowy wood is easier than building a shed.
Rich L said:
There's immense fuzziness with this whole "seasoned" thing. Lots of confusion. What actually happens? (Lots of info in publications relative to lumber processing.)
After a tree is cut, the plant nutrients dissipate/ferment/etc. as all the cells die.
Water is transported to surfaces to be evaporated. First, the "free" inter-cellular water until the MC is down to ~20%. Then the "bound" intra-cellular water; resulting in cracking/checking because of shrinkage.
So, I think what most are referring to as "seasoning" is simply "drying" whether "air-drying" or forced in some way, like in a kiln or next to a stove.
Once the nutrients are gone, for drying wood, we can focus on EMC (equilibrium moisture content- the drying limit) and rate of drying.
There are tables out there that let you determine the EMC; it's a function of TEMP and RH. (That's as far as you can go, outdoors.)
Rate depends on size of pieces, current MC, airflow, temp, RH, orientation. This is the fun part, that we all experiment with.
Much experimentation has already been done, by universities and federal agencies; this can reduce # of variables of our personal experiments, and speed things up.
And ... in cold weather, re-drying wood that's been left uncovered will take lots longer than the original drying (in summer) did.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
CTYank said:
And ... in cold weather, re-drying wood that's been left uncovered will take lots longer than the original drying (in summer) did.[/quote]
Yes, water evaporates faster in warmer weather than in cold, but the wood that you are re-drying won't have nearly as much moisture as freshly cut wood that you are seasoning for the first time, and the moisture will be mostly near the surface with seasoned, re-wetted wood. Solid wood doesn't absorb all that much moisture in typical conditions, so re-drying consists mostly of drying off the surface and perhaps a very thin outer layer of moistened wood. I know the wood in my uncovered stacks burns very well even though it is sitting under snow and ice, and previously it got rained on. It hasn't absorbed much water nor has it returned to anythin like an unseasoned, fresh condition.
I live in SE Ma. and last year despite a few dry short dry spells it was a rather lousy year for seasoning firewood.
The stacks that had plywood and even some crappy particle board on top are a little lighter. Luckily I don't need any of it this year.
The stacks that had plywood and even some crappy particle board on top are a little lighter. Luckily I don't need any of it this year.
gpcollen1
Minister of Fire
Rich
What you are saying does not make any sense. Uncovered wood seasons faster than covered wood. The only time it is a good idea to cover the wood is when you get an incredible amount of rain - like the summer before last. You/we did not have enough rain or bad weather this fall for seasoning to be a problem. Your issue is the WOOD, not the covering...
What kind of wood is it? When was it split? Those are the questions you need to ask...
I have wood in my shed as well as still out in a pile uncovered. The uncovered wood, under the snow, is still seasoned as of last weekend...
What you are saying does not make any sense. Uncovered wood seasons faster than covered wood. The only time it is a good idea to cover the wood is when you get an incredible amount of rain - like the summer before last. You/we did not have enough rain or bad weather this fall for seasoning to be a problem. Your issue is the WOOD, not the covering...
What kind of wood is it? When was it split? Those are the questions you need to ask...
I have wood in my shed as well as still out in a pile uncovered. The uncovered wood, under the snow, is still seasoned as of last weekend...
This thread is weird, some people have strange ideas about drying of wood, I have wood buried in the snow (no cover) that I will be digging out later today and it will be dry to burn.
homebrewz
Minister of Fire
I have a friend who buys log length and is always 18 months ahead with his wood. The current seasons wood has always been c/s/s for 18 months before use. This year for the first time he is having a problem with partially seasoned wood (nope, very little or no oak). He has some space issues recently, and now we both think he made the rows too close together which cut down on air flow. Just a thought.
That is a very important aspect of the drying process and yet it does not get discussed that often compared to "my wood wont burn".homebrewz said:
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
oldspark said:
And so will our friend qauds. Lots and lots of folks do.
In the case of the OP, I have to admit that it is difficult to understand. That wood should be good. Only 2 things come to mind that could cause the wood to not be okay. Well, 3 things. An extremely long wet period. Poor stacking (wood touching ground or perhaps rows too close together or stacked in the wrong place so as not to get air circulation). Or when the wood got covered, lots of rain fell.....and it leaked through the covering.
On that last point. Every once in a while I find that the covering on our stacks has gotten moved. Like last summer when we had a terrific wind for 24 hours. Some of our covering blew a long ways and this is the first time that has happened with us. So I naturally checked all the covering and it is a good thing I did! I found several spots where some of the galvanized roofing we use was moved just enough so there were some low spots and some areas completely uncovered (but small areas). If left alone, every time we would get a rain, all the rain would have been channeled to the low spots. Then it is like stacking under an eave. End result is too much water and even though it dries it does have an undesirable effect on the wood.
CTwoodburner said:
If you look at my previous thread I answered the kind of wood it is and when it was split.I will ad that the wood was green when stacked and split.It just didn't season well enough to use this season.
CTwoodburner said:
If you look at my previous thread I answered the kind of wood it is and when it was split.I will ad that the wood was green when stacked and split.It just didn't season well enough to use this season.Could it be that green split and stacked wood left uncovered needs two years to season not one ?
OK. You guys convinced me. From now on I will top cover my wood immediately after it is split and stacked. Oh, wait a minute...
bogydave
Minister of Fire
I like to cover mine, specially after mid August here, rainy season hits, then rain turns to wet snow, then forever snow, wood goes into the winter pretty wet, & freezes.
Good thing is, the stacks don't fall over till spring when they thaw.
That's just my method, & I've learned allot here, like pallets under the pile, just cover the top, etc.
I learned if you don't split birch, the rounds rot ** the hard way, a dead standing spruce cut & split will burn pretty good in a few weeks.
Different areas require different methods, & we all want the best seasoned wood we can get.
I was glad to hear Rich L tried to burn it, found it didn't burn well, went with what he could do to heat his house.
& Now will have wood that will burn well next winter. Seasoned by the method that works for him in his situation.
Good thing is, the stacks don't fall over till spring when they thaw.
That's just my method, & I've learned allot here, like pallets under the pile, just cover the top, etc.
I learned if you don't split birch, the rounds rot ** the hard way, a dead standing spruce cut & split will burn pretty good in a few weeks.
Different areas require different methods, & we all want the best seasoned wood we can get.
I was glad to hear Rich L tried to burn it, found it didn't burn well, went with what he could do to heat his house.
& Now will have wood that will burn well next winter. Seasoned by the method that works for him in his situation.
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