Was it stupid to take this?

[zknowlto]

After my relatively good fortune scrounging wood off CL the other week, I jumped at another opportunity today. The guy claimed that he had "about a cord" or "uncut" firewood free to anyone that would come pick it up. What he actually had were a few ancient logs (the rest were totally rotten) and around 13 cubic feet of dimensional lumber from an old deck or something. All the dimensional is pretty silver and has a lot of splits throughout. Is this stuff going to be OK to burn, or did I just hall away someone's trash?

 

[Ratman]

Looks like a good bunch of free wood to me.
Usually the CL stuff is green.
Count yourself lucky.

Must not have paint or be pressure treated!

 

[smokinj]

it'll burn

 

[Shari]

... and around 13 cubic feet of dimensional lumber from an old deck or something. All the dimensional is pretty silver and has a lot of splits throughout. Is this stuff going to be OK to burn, or did I just hall away someone's trash?

It's not good to burn treated lumber........

Shari

 

[Dix]

Then use the pallets to stack wood on, Shari, how long are they going to last????????

:coolsmile:

Free wod is free wood...and split, heck, go for it

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Dimensional lumber from an old deck is almost surely going to be pressure treated. Not good to burn in a wood stove. Personally, I'd find re-uses for it, building a wood shed or similar.

 

[CarbonNeutral]

CL is full of people wanting their old deck/fenceposts/etc. taken away for a stove, or even worse, a firepit. I won't go near them - old PT is difficult to assess as any chemical smell/color can be long gone. Even worse is that the old stuff is full of arsenic compared to the more recent PT being copper chromate. Of course they'll swear that it isn't PT, but funny how that pine that's been sat around for 20 years shows next to no rot....

Use it for something else.

 

[JeffRey30747]

I wouldn't burn PT wood but it does come in handy to support stacked firewood. About half my woodshed floor is old PT 4x4's or 2x4s laminated together and covered with scrap OSB or plywood.

 

[firefighterjake]

After my relatively good fortune scrounging wood off CL the other week, I jumped at another opportunity today. The guy claimed that he had "about a cord" or "uncut" firewood free to anyone that would come pick it up. What he actually had were a few ancient logs (the rest were totally rotten) and around 13 cubic feet of dimensional lumber from an old deck or something. All the dimensional is pretty silver and has a lot of splits throughout. Is this stuff going to be OK to burn, or did I just hall away someone's trash?

Me . . . I would burn the firewood, but pass on the lumber . . . if this was from an old deck there is a very, very good chance it is pressure treated and as mentioned the older stuff used arsenic. If possible re-use on other projects . . . or worse case, you've just done a guy a favor by hauling away some trash.

 

[Bubbavh]

After my relatively good fortune scrounging wood off CL the other week, I jumped at another opportunity today. The guy claimed that he had "about a cord" or "uncut" firewood free to anyone that would come pick it up. What he actually had were a few ancient logs (the rest were totally rotten) and around 13 cubic feet of dimensional lumber from an old deck or something. All the dimensional is pretty silver and has a lot of splits throughout. Is this stuff going to be OK to burn, or did I just hall away someone's trash?

Me . . . I would burn the firewood, but pass on the lumber . . . if this was from an old deck there is a very, very good chance it is pressure treated and as mentioned the older stuff used arsenic. If possible re-use on other projects . . . or worse case, you've just done a guy a favor by hauling away some trash.

+1 Even if it isn't PT it probably has been sealed with something. Use it for stacking wood on or use it under your pallets to save them from rotting.

 

[zknowlto]

It’s not good to burn treated lumber........

Not good to burn in a wood stove.

Use it for something else

Ok, ok. I guess I knew in my heart of hearts this was going to be the response, but I was really really hoping to get some wood out of this transaction. The pieces are kind of small and irregular for building something else, and my pallets are already sitting on brick, so I guess I'll just dump the lumber or pass it off to some other suck... I mean, wood burning enthusiast. Anyone in mid-Michigan interested in free "firewood" ?

Thanks for the advice everyone.