Would you burn this?

I am slowly ripping my house apart. I have a large pile of tongue and groove fir. Dryer than a bone as it has been in the house for 12 years. Problem is that at one point it had a coat of finish (no idea what but some kind of clear coat) put on when it was installed.
Would you burn it in a wood stove?

If the finish is more or less gone, yes.

I'd shy away from burning it.

You wouldn't know it had a finish. The only reason I know it has been finished is the wood doesn't have that faded look (if you know what I mean). It is 1" t+g so it is nice stuff.
Where it has had full sun it is faded.
I guess this begs another question, would you burn pallets with some spray paint on them?

Are you sure that's why it's not faded? If you throw wood in a pile, the bottoms don't fade like the tops.

A pallet with spray paint- if it was just a marking- I'd burn it. If it was entirely painted- I wouldn't. Lots of trees are paint marked as well- on purpose. Vic and I are about to cut some marked trees. Will I burn them... ummm- ya

I will ponder this.
The window sashes had something on them (you can see areas on the wood where there is still some finish). Maybe I am assuming he finished the t+g. The trim has a high sheen to it (clear coat), but the t+g doesn't have that.
As for the pallets, thanks. I have some cut ends (from the sawmill) with spray paint on them and was wondering the same.

I guess the downside to burning it would be releasing a chemical into the environment? I doubt the small amount of finish would have any ill effect on the burner.

So, it comes down to what is worse for the environment, burning the small amount of finish off, or throwing it in a landfill to rot, breakdown, and eventually release the remaining chemicals of the finish into the ground. I can't even begin to pretend to know which is worse. Since you have an efficient woodburner, using the wood for heat seems like a better option than pitching it.

Good point. I was thinking more along the lines of toxic smoke and a resonated chimney but if those are minimal than what the heck.... go for it.

Just 12 years is more likely to have a less hamfull finish than something say, 75 years old that could have more harmful finish(es).

Hey, they incinerate PCBs to break them down to a more inert form. [/levity]

Rather than mix, I'd just put smaller amounts in.

I would go ahead and burn it. As long as it's not covered in an obvious coat of varnish or something why not. I've burned small amounts of trim and painted wood as kindling with no problem. Especially with a good hot fire and secondary burn going, most (if not all) of the "toxins" from the finish are going to be burned off anyway. Not to mention that in the grand scheme of things, your huge pile of scrap is really just a toothpick in the forest.

I would be careful not to overfire with that bone dry stuff though.

[quote author="the_dude" date="1224184665"]I guess the downside to burning it would be releasing a chemical into the environment?

Send it back to mother earth.

Without hesitation.

If there's still finish on it just burn it after dark.

Yeah, because carcinogens are dormant when its dark :roll:

I'm no doctor, so I cannot proffer an educated opinion regarding the nocturnal dormancy of carcinogens. But I do know that black smoke is much harder to spot at night.

The carcinogens are there or they're not. At least burned they have only a short time to do any damage as opposed to leaching into ground water overs the eons in a landfill. But, this is just one man's opinion.

So if you can't see the black smoke its OK? Sorry, but that is seriously flawed logic. As for being burned, the finishes do immediate damage to air quality and water supplies. Landfill is also not the desired disposal. I am only calling you out on this as this forum is here to provide information to users seeking it, and your advise(opinion) is not in the spirit of doing the right thing.

He asked if we'd burn it. I would. You wouldn't. Hopefully we can still be friends.

Well there are two options for disposal. Either I burn it for warmth (or burn it in my fire pit), or I drive to the dump to pay to dump it so they can bury it or haul it away to be buried.
Every one of those choices are poor.
Think of the home reno business. The amount of crap they are dumping (it kills me to see tons and tons of kiln dried lumber at the dump from renos that is going to be buried) is astounding. What a waste and they won't let you scrounge do to liability reasons.
Sorry off topic there... it should probably be burned in one of those modern garbage burner places where the temp is 2000 degrees.

I would burn it.
Of course I hate to see BTU's wasted.
Plus fir is such a good BTU source.
Try a small stick and see what happens. If to much black smoke then find a new home for it.

An efficient stove probably won't give you black smoke off finished wood anyways. That doesn't mean that all the nasties are burnt off. I burn a bit more of this sort of stuff in my kiln- but not a lot of it, not heavily painted stuff, no pressure treated lumber, and only over 2000F.