I had a giant pine tree uproot and fall across my yard during a major windstorm this Fall. I've cut up what I can with my chainsaw and plan on hiring a tree service to buck the rest of it this spring so I can split and stack the wood. I hear back and forth arguments about burning the stuff, though. One friend of mine said "Please don't tell me you're planning on burning that inside," while a coworker said that he likes to have pine on hand because it can be really good to start a burn quickly. I live pretty close to some campgrounds so I'm thinking of selling some of it in bundles by the side of the road this summer, but I'll still have a significant amount for myself. What are your attitudes towards pine wood? How long should I dry the wood to be sure that the creosote that it produces is no more than the other wood I use?
White Pine Tree
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Easy Livin’ 3000
Minister of Fire
Toxic stuff, even just having it around is bad news. I've heard stories of creosote forming in the chimney just from having it stacked near the house.
iLoveWood
Member
Nothing wrong with burning pine as long as you burn properly seasoned wood. Pine dries quick, 9 months to 1 yr for me. I've been lurkkng here for awhile, I believe the consensus is the myth of "pine is evil" was started by people burning unseasoned wood, dirtying up their chimney and then burning some pine... Which Burns hot thus starting a chimney fire.
It can be a handfull in an old leaky stove. You really want one where you have control of the air.
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Hasufel
Feeling the Heat
Not even that. I've heard of people who had creosote buildup and never even touched pine--they just had it growing in their yard.
But seriously, wet hardwoods are worse for creosote than dry pine. I recall seeing another thread on this topic just recently and I know there are plenty of older ones, and they pretty much all say the same thing. Just be careful of the different burn characteristics, especially if you're used to using wood that's hard to light.
Split it fairly small and stack in a windy spot and it will be ready by late fall.
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
The seasoning of the wood seems more important than hard or softwood. I burn almost entirely hardwood. But when I had white pine it seasoned very quickly, is super easy to split by hand, and made good kindling.
Ctwoodtick
Minister of Fire
Man, I hope there is nothing wrong with burning pine, just picked up a truckload today. All kidding aside, I have burnt whole trees worth of the stuff and no problem with chimney. Great kindling as well. As Flavor Flav says, “don’t believe the hype”.
blacktail
Minister of Fire
pernox
Burning Hunk
I think most the evils reported are from the practice of putting up the winter's wood in fall and burning it straight away. The hardwood takes longer to dry, fouls up the chimney being burned wet, then the pine - which dried faster - burns real hot and lights up the creosote build-up..
Let the myth continue, it pays dividends in all the pine a guy could ask for being freely available.
Let the myth continue, it pays dividends in all the pine a guy could ask for being freely available.
Montanalocal
Minister of Fire
First load in the morning is almost always pine.
Gets the stove and room up to temp fast.
When it's Winter cold I'll switch to maple or oak so I don't have to load the stove as often or, this time of year, that one pine fire in the morning might be just enough on a sunny day until 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
I'll burn it all day if I'm home to keep loading the stove every 2-3 hours. That gets old quick sometimes though.
I usually let logs and rounds sit for 6 months cuz splitting it green can be a bit sticky, then it's pretty dry after another 6 months of being split.
I'm not in the driest climate in the world here though. I'll split the few nice straight grained knot-free pieces down into small little kindling for fire starting sometimes.
Gets the stove and room up to temp fast.
When it's Winter cold I'll switch to maple or oak so I don't have to load the stove as often or, this time of year, that one pine fire in the morning might be just enough on a sunny day until 3 or 4 in the afternoon.
I'll burn it all day if I'm home to keep loading the stove every 2-3 hours. That gets old quick sometimes though.
I usually let logs and rounds sit for 6 months cuz splitting it green can be a bit sticky, then it's pretty dry after another 6 months of being split.
I'm not in the driest climate in the world here though. I'll split the few nice straight grained knot-free pieces down into small little kindling for fire starting sometimes.
Thanks for all of the input. I bought a cord of seasoned hardwood this Fall and found a lot of it to sizzle and hiss when I get the fires going, whereas the pine I had split and stacked in December of '16 didn't do any of that at the beginning of the burn season. I'll be buying a creosote cleaning log today to try and clear up some of the build-up I'm sure I got since my chimney was cleaned in October.
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Bad LP
Minister of Fire
I had two hemlocks blow over out by the road that will get cut up split and stacked this spring. Wood boiler won't know the difference
i would be more worried about one of those logs, the only way that could work is to burn hot, there is really no reason for it if you clean your chimney.
i was given a pine tree last year, i have a bunch but they never fall. i use the fallen stuff which is normally ash, cherry or maple. the only thing i have to do with pine is only use one log it seems to get too hot if i put more, but i put some heavier stuff in with it and close it all the way down. i think it would only be a problem in the older stoves you cant control like mentioned
i was given a pine tree last year, i have a bunch but they never fall. i use the fallen stuff which is normally ash, cherry or maple. the only thing i have to do with pine is only use one log it seems to get too hot if i put more, but i put some heavier stuff in with it and close it all the way down. i think it would only be a problem in the older stoves you cant control like mentioned
hickoryhoarder
Minister of Fire
the only thing to remember is if you normally 3 cord a year and you burn a lot of pine you'll need more wood for the season of pine burning. i usually burn between 2 and 3 cord of hardwood. the season that i had 6 cord of pine ready to go i burnt 5 to 6 total cord because of most of it was pine and as said earlier the stove needs to be loaded more often.
Quad4012
Member
We have mostly white and red pine on the property along with poplar and some hardwood. 5 cords in this year on nothing but the above burning 24/7. Hearthstone Equinox straight out the back and up 27 ft with triple lined pipe. Just light fly ash as of last week. Total myth in my opinion burning pine..
thewoodlands
Minister of Fire
quad4012 said flyash when i burnt pine in my old defiant i didn't have the clean out the ash for almost a month. nice bonus
Thanks for all the input. I imagine that the big ol' pine that is down on my property should yield several cords, none of which will I burn within the next ten months. I have plenty of wood left over (first time ever!) from this season to get me started in October and probably into January. Let the loads of pine begin at that point.
Most of the wood we burn in the PNW is pine, fir and cedar, and our houses are still standing. I believe the idea that pine will cause chimney fires is a midwest and east coast urban legend with no basis in fact.
yup def east coast. even people i talk to that don't use a wood stove say pine camp only. it's because they used to try burning it low and slow.
