winter wood drying

[potter]

I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have about 4.5 cords of wood seasoned and under cover. Because of changes in my life (child), I'm keeping the house warmer and going through more wood. I had already ordered the wood for the following year and it's being delivered now. It looks like it was standing a week ago. I had planned on stacking it outside through the winter and next summer to season. So, if I think I may have to burn some next spring, would it be better to have it inside or outside?
To throw in another variable, I have a triaxle load of logs sitting on the property. Went in on a splitter with a couple of friends. Many of logs are greyer and have some cracks on the ends. I can't start until December but I could process some of that, and hope it is dryer.
Or I could try to get a cord of really seasoned wood and shift the rest to use in the future. But this would probably be expensive and hard to find.
Just don't want to have to use propane as I didn't pre buy this year.

 

[smokinj]

Outside in the sun and no cover

 

[billb3]

Outside.

If you put a rain hat on it, (or above it) try not to impede the flow of air through the stack.

 

[Wet1]

I agree with the others, leave it outside. Wood does a lot of drying in the winter since the air is so dry itself. My guess is if you stack it loose, you'll probably be okay to burn some of it in the spring. It might help to resplit the stuff you think you might need in the Spring as well, do this and you should be GTG.

 

[iceman]

since you have a splitter... leave it outside ... when it is gonna rain try to cover with tarp..... but if you can resplit some of those so they are smaller it will dry a lot better/faster... so i would spend 30 minutes resplitting what you just got and then stack it then 30 min and so on.....
if you resplit stack and cover the top you will get a better burn in the spring.... many dont realize tht in most places you will get peak drying time in winter due to the air being so dry for so long.... even when it snows the dewpoints and humidity only go up for so long .... then the air is usually bone dry with some wind

 

[gzecc]

Do you know the species of wood (you will need in the spring)your referring to?

 

[potter]

Thanks. I think a mix of Ash, Maple..... no oak. I have space in the basement where the stove is for about a face cord. I figure the stuff can go in there from uncovered outside so the surface moisture can dry off.

 

[gzecc]

If its white ash, it will season the fastest. I would separate it. Do you know the type of maple?

 

[iceman]

if you put wood in the basement try to do pieces without bark..1) they will dry faster 2) less likely to bring in bugs

 

[Wood Duck]

I think the best places to season your wood in the winter are, in order of fastest to slowest drying speed: a heated indoor space; outdoors in the sun and wind; indoor basement; outdoors all covered by tarps and snow. Since you didn't mention a heated indoor space (who has that?), I'd stack outdoors in the sun and wind. I would, if I had some materials available, rig up a rain hat to keep snow off, but if your only option is a tarp to cover, I'd go uncovered. A tarp all matted down by snow would be worse than nothing, I think.

If you know what types of wood you have, pick the fast drying ones, maybe give them another split, and stack separately. Also, maybe you can cut the exposed ends off of your logs, split and stack those. The ends may be getting dry even though the whole log isn't seasoning much. If you won't need the wood until late in the winter or early spring, I think you have a chance for additional drying by then.

 

[SolarAndWood]

With the amount of snow you can potentially get early in the season where you are, stack it on the leeward side of a building. I also find that the higher you heap it the better. On my 12' heaps, even after lake effect storms, there is little or no snow above snow pack level after a day or two.

 

[Bootlegger]

Last Friday and Saturday I hung out some sheets and blankets to dry. Temps in the 40's, a little breeze, some sun, i.e. typical winter conditions around here. They dried just as fast as they did in the hotter, and more humid, summer. My point is that stuff dries just fine in the winter with, as noted above, sun and wind.

 

[potter]

Don't know types of maple, etc.
I'll stack it outside, I have corrugated roofing I use to cover stacks. Cutting and splitting the ends of my logs is an excellent idea. And in terms of inside I have a facecord rack in the stove room. Thinking just a week ahead of burning to dry damp, snow...
Thanks.

 

[gzecc]

If your moving the wood anyway, separate the ash from the maple. The ash has the best chance at drying the fastest.
I would also cross stack it for best airflow.

 

[CO2Neutral]

I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have about 4.5 cords of wood seasoned and under cover. Because of changes in my life (child), I'm keeping the house warmer and going through more wood. I had already ordered the wood for the following year and it's being delivered now. It looks like it was standing a week ago. I had planned on stacking it outside through the winter and next summer to season. So, if I think I may have to burn some next spring, would it be better to have it inside or outside?
To throw in another variable, I have a triaxle load of logs sitting on the property. Went in on a splitter with a couple of friends. Many of logs are greyer and have some cracks on the ends. I can't start until December but I could process some of that, and hope it is dryer.
Or I could try to get a cord of really seasoned wood and shift the rest to use in the future. But this would probably be expensive and hard to find.
Just don't want to have to use propane as I didn't pre buy this year.

I would strongly advise against drying and storing the wood inside (sorry for the rant) but you mentioned a new child in your life (congrats!). Problem is that a cord of seasoned wood gives off about 150 Liters of water -- so a fresh batch must be considerably more. Mold spores, asthma, and other health concerns is what can arise with wood in the home. In my line of work I deal with this scenario daily and I feel it gives us wood users a bad rap.

Good luck with the drying -- but I would use more propane vs. moving more than a week's worth of wood in the home. Just my 2 cents.

- Mark

 

[potter]

Thanks for those comments. BTW my wife's father was Mountie!

 

[smokingolf]

I asked the same question 4 years ago when I just got my new insert about wood drying in the winter and someone wrote: "Did you ever here of freeze dried coffee?", and that summed it up for me. %-P

By the way how do you guys in PEI enjoy the bridge? I've got relatives in Saint John NB and have got to get back up there and take a trip over the bridge. Never been to PEI and here it is beautiful.
Brian

 

[CO2Neutral]

"The Bridge" is a real treat -- now we can leave and not have to plan our leaving the Island around some Ferry schedule. Cape Breton Island and PEI are both worth vacationing at some point. Us for the beaches and CB for the music.

Contrary to my signature we do burn a decent amount of hardwood out here -- I'm just too cheap to pay for it when I have a softwood woodlot...

Cheers.

 

[savageactor7]

potter imo fire wood doesn't start 'seasoning' until it's split. So split everything up as soon as possible and stack outside with only the top covered. Air has to have an opportunity to flow around the splits for maximum drying.

Rain on drying splits isn't a show stopper because the wind can quickly dry it off. But you living so close to Lake Erie a good lake effect storm could leave your unseasoned wood covered in snow for many weeks...that's another reason why you want to cover the tops.

The only wood you ever want to bring inside for long term storage is totally seasoned dry wood.

As far as you burning some of this wood by spring...I dunno. If the splits are small enough, it's ash, exposed to the wind...well maybe. But it won't be prime firewood. Maybe you can scrounge up a bunch of pallets to cut up and mix that in? Pallets are good.

 

[potter]

thanks for all the input. Just to be clear, I thought I could "suface dry" some inside before burning (just the ice, snow etc.) . This is not a super tight house- and the basement room with the stove stays at around 80 or higher during winter.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Was wondering the same thoughts, but had a question on winter drying.

If your outside temps average 32 degress or below for 2-3 months during the winter, is the moisture content going to drop? or is the moisture going to stay trapped inside the wood?

 

[quads]

Was wondering the same thoughts, but had a question on winter drying.

If your outside temps average 32 degress or below for 2-3 months during the winter, is the moisture content going to drop? or is the moisture going to stay trapped inside the wood?

It will still dry some. Sublimation? I think that's what it's called.

 

[firefighterjake]

I'm in a bit of a quandry. I have about 4.5 cords of wood seasoned and under cover. Because of changes in my life (child), I'm keeping the house warmer and going through more wood. I had already ordered the wood for the following year and it's being delivered now. It looks like it was standing a week ago. I had planned on stacking it outside through the winter and next summer to season. So, if I think I may have to burn some next spring, would it be better to have it inside or outside?
To throw in another variable, I have a triaxle load of logs sitting on the property. Went in on a splitter with a couple of friends. Many of logs are greyer and have some cracks on the ends. I can't start until December but I could process some of that, and hope it is dryer.
Or I could try to get a cord of really seasoned wood and shift the rest to use in the future. But this would probably be expensive and hard to find.
Just don't want to have to use propane as I didn't pre buy this year.

I was in a similar situation last year . . . well I don't mean to say I had 4 1/2 cords of seasoned wood under cover . . . or a child . . . or I had ordered more wood.

OK, maybe it wasn't a similar situation . . . but it was a case of not having quite enough of the better-seasoned wood to last me through what turned out to be an exceptionally long winter. Fortunately, some of the ash I had cut in mid-Summer had seasoned enough by the end of winter to be good enough to burn . . . albeit the ash didn't burn as well as the dead-dead elm that I had been burning . . . it definitely helped to have some pallets on hand to help "speed season" the wood . . . and I kept a careful eye on the chimney and creosote build up.

So my opinion . . . as soon as possible cut, split and stack your wood. I would leave it outside, but top cover it if you might use it by Spring. If at all possible, pick out any white ash, black cherry or similar woods that tend to season faster. I would either work on the pile you have ordered or the pile that was delivered . . . I wouldn't bother trying to buy seasoned wood at this point as I highly doubt many wood sellers at this point have truly seasoned wood just waiting to be delivered.

 

[Wood Duck]

Was wondering the same thoughts, but had a question on winter drying.

If your outside temps average 32 degress or below for 2-3 months during the winter, is the moisture content going to drop? or is the moisture going to stay trapped inside the wood?

It will still dry some. Sublimation? I think that's what it's called.

Yep Quads, the process is called sublimation - water going from solid (ice) directly to gas. This is the same process that shrinks the ice in your ice trays in the freezer, and also changes the texture of snowpacks in places where the show stays on the ground a while. A lot of places have really dry air in the winter, and sublimation can really have a strong impact on the amount of snow on the ground, although it can be hard to notice unless the last bit of snow sublimates and you have a change from snow to bare ground. Even in the east, where we generally have a lot of humidity, sublimation happens, especially in very cold weather, because very cold air here usually comes from the north, where it was even colder and the humidity in the air got really low. As the air warms up, relative humidity drops and sublimation rate increases. Anytime it isn't snowing (which usually means high relative humidity) and the daytime temperature gets much warmer than the nighttime temperature (which is almost all the time), your wood can dry through sublimation. It doesn't matter if the temperature never gets above freezing.

 

[Skier76]

Was wondering the same thoughts, but had a question on winter drying.

If your outside temps average 32 degress or below for 2-3 months during the winter, is the moisture content going to drop? or is the moisture going to stay trapped inside the wood?

It will still dry some. Sublimation? I think that's what it's called.

Yep Quads, the process is called sublimation - water going from solid (ice) directly to gas. This is the same process that shrinks the ice in your ice trays in the freezer, and also changes the texture of snowpacks in places where the show stays on the ground a while. A lot of places have really dry air in the winter, and sublimation can really have a strong impact on the amount of snow on the ground, although it can be hard to notice unless the last bit of snow sublimates and you have a change from snow to bare ground. Even in the east, where we generally have a lot of humidity, sublimation happens, especially in very cold weather, because very cold air here usually comes from the north, where it was even colder and the humidity in the air got really low. As the air warms up, relative humidity drops and sublimation rate increases. Anytime it isn't snowing (which usually means high relative humidity) and the daytime temperature gets much warmer than the nighttime temperature (which is almost all the time), your wood can dry through sublimation. It doesn't matter if the temperature never gets above freezing.

Great explantion. Thanks for taking the time to type that out.