Bring wood in, or keep outside?

[MagdalenaP]

Our wood isn't as seasoned as I'd like it to be. In October, we bring it into our basement, which makes it easier to bring up the stairs and in the stove (much closer than from where the wood stack is outside). However, I'm wondering if we should still keep it outside. Would it season much more in the sun in a couple of months?

Thank you in advance

 

[Simonkenton]

Yes. Most basements are humid. Sunshine and wind are beneficial.

 

[ABMax24]

Is the wood top covered outside?

If not I find beginning of September to be the point where the wood is dryest, because rain and humidity allow it to regain moisture.

 

[E.Merckx]

I would leave it outside and exposed to the wind and sun, and lower humidity levels as Autumn rolls around. Well seasoned wood is critical.

 

[Ashful]

Firewood contains a lot of bugs I would not want to bring into my home. I keep it outside until it’s headed for the stove.

 

[Riverbanks]

Nothing like having a week's worth in the basement, but,. I do get alot of spiders if I overdo it, damned if you do, damned if you don't,. The old double edged sword

 

[BrownT10]

I bring almost a winters worth in the basement. Never had an issue with bugs, they don't tend to stay in dry wood. I do get occasional spiders, no big deal.

 

[johneh]

I have been putting 5 full cords in my basement for 43 years.
I have never had any problems with bugs. My wood is dry less than 20mc
just makes it nicer when it,'s -20 outside to just have to walk to the
basement to feed my furnace. Only 1 year we tried it with the wood
outside covered fought with ice and snow all year never again

 

[Butfumbl3]

Storing wood indoors generally isn’t a good idea, especially if it’s not dry. The moisture in the wood can lead to mold in the house, and you could also be bringing bugs in with the wood. I will generally store a weeks worth in the attached garage during the burning season if we are expected to get snow or rain but never anymore than that.

 

[stoveliker]

Wood ready to burn contains not enough moisture to humidify the air inside (and if it does, it's too dry inside anyway).

Some spiders here, and I've heard a larva inside chewing once, but they don't come out so are not a problem.

I have 4 days next to my stove and a week in the garage.

 

[Ashful]

Wood ready to burn contains not enough moisture to humidify the air inside (and if it does, it's too dry inside anyway).

Wood at equilibrium moisture content from outside will definitely have enough moisture to add humidity to a dry heated indoor environment. We could both do the math on it, but I'm sure you will agree.

Whether that moisture is a problem or a benefit, is a matter of air flow, and where in the home it is stored. Since many of us run humidifiers all winter long, it's likely the amount of moisture given off by firewood stored in an unconfined space within the home would only aid the humidifier in running a bit less.

But I still go back to the bugs. Aside from powder post beetles, and other things that can do damage to your home, I have some absolutely enormous spiders in my wood piles in autumn and early winter that would be cause for divorce, if my wife found they'd been imported to our living room on my account.

 

[stoveliker]

That is what I say, if the mc is 20 pct, and the RH is 35 pct (common for me), it'll humidify. But that's okay. If the RH is 65 pct, I don't think it will humidify in meaningful quantity? and that's good too

So the idea that the wood would cause mold (the premise) is not correct.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I get bugs from wood crawling around from the small 1/5 face cord rack I have inside. But it beats having to trudge through snow and ice for a load of wood. I have my racks away from the house about forty feet and then a face cord rack on my back deck, then two small racks inside. I don't know what the heck in doing. That's a lot of transferring of wood right? Makes me feel like I'm efficient though

 

[shortys7777]

I keep 4 days next to the stove because its a pain to go in and out every single day. I always make sure its loaded if the weather looks bad the next few days. I have a covered rack that holds close to half cord about 15 feet from my back door.

 

[Simonkenton]

I have a deck, 10 x 14 foot, I call it my "sun deck." The massive roof overhang of the log cabin extends six feet over the deck. Of course it is made of pressure treated pine. Long flight of stairs going down to the ground.

This deck is perfect for firewood storage. Those steps are a real hazard in 6 inches of snow, so when I see that a storm is coming, I stack up a four day supply on the sun deck under the roof. I only keep an arm load of wood near the stove.


And this is the #1 reason I quit messing with hickory. That stuff had been in my woodpile TWO YEARS and under roof, and dry and ready to burn, and the bark was infested with bugs. The hickory just covered in fine powdered sawdust. I had 2 tons of that $&!!@**#! hickory and I never stored one stick of it beside the woodstove, hickory went straight from the sun deck and in to the fire, one stick at a time. A real PITA, that hickory.

 

[Ashful]

That is what I say, if the mc is 20 pct, and the RH is 35 pct (common for me), it'll humidify. But that's okay. If the RH is 65 pct, I don't think it will humidify in meaningful quantity? and that's good too

So the idea that the wood would cause mold (the premise) is not correct.

Well, it's not just an idea, when it's been reported as actual experience by a few past posters. So, we need to look at the "why", not the "if".

I would guess that each of the people experiencing this issue had put their wood in some confined space with little air exchange, perhaps even a space already prone to mold (eg. basement), and that the small amount of moisture given off by the wood was just enough to push a pending problem past the threshold. It happens.

Proposal: If you need to bring wood indoors, don't put it in a basement, vestibule, closet, or other confined space with limited airflow and high potential for mold growth.

I get bugs from wood crawling around from the small 1/5 face cord rack I have inside. But it beats having to trudge through snow and ice for a load of wood.

There are many options between the two extremes of "wood in your living room" and "trudging thru snow and ice." I keep my wood on a covered patio, just outside my walk-out basement door. I can (and often do) retrieve it in a bathrobe and bedroom slippers, in the middle of a blizzard.

And this is the #1 reason I quit messing with hickory... the bark was infested with bugs. The hickory just covered in fine powdered sawdust. A real PITA, that hickory.

Yes, hickory is the worst wood I've ever seen for bugs, and their associated mess. Always completely infested with powder post beetles, before it's ready to burn, and usually completely rotten if you don't get it split shortly after felling. I avoid it, when I can.

 

[stoveliker]

Well, it's not just an idea, when it's been reported as actual experience by a few past posters. So, we need to look at the "why", not the "if".

I would guess that each of the people experiencing this issue had put their wood in some confined space with little air exchange, perhaps even a space already prone to mold (eg. basement), and that the small amount of moisture given off by the wood was just enough to push a pending problem past the threshold. It happens.

But something "prone to mold" at 35% RH is not going to get mold when the humidity does not increase (or does not beyond 55%).
It needs to be a LOT of wood, and a starting RH that is close to being a problem already.

My contention (without having done the calc, but having looked at my own RH humidity when I store a week's worth of wood in my finished basement - a thing I've since decreased to 4 days for other reasons) is that you only see the dry wood humidifying the air if the air is really dry already. But then there is no mold risk.
If the air is near mold (55%+ RH) levels already, the little bit that dry wood adds is not going to make a big difference in the mold probability. And the latter was the premise of the remark.

My basement, which indeed has a stairs to the upstairs (but when the stove is off, not much air goes up given that upstairs is (minisplit) warmer than downstairs (no stove and no heat)), sees about a 1% increase in RH going from 38 to 39% or so when I store a week's worth of (2 loads per day) dry (that was <22%) wood.

 

[Ashful]

Good point, stoveliker. You've convinced me.

There's always another possibility, that it never happened. Maybe the stories of mold are only based on supposition, and passed from one generation of posters to the next, and it never really happened. Conversely, maybe it did happen, but firewood had nothing at all to do with it, just being named guilty by its presence in a scenario which it played no part.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I have a deck, 10 x 14 foot, I call it my "sun deck." The massive roof overhang of the log cabin extends six feet over the deck. Of course it is made of pressure treated pine. Long flight of stairs going down to the ground.

This deck is perfect for firewood storage. Those steps are a real hazard in 6 inches of snow, so when I see that a storm is coming, I stack up a four day supply on the sun deck under the roof. I only keep an arm load of wood near the stove.


And this is the #1 reason I quit messing with hickory. That stuff had been in my woodpile TWO YEARS and under roof, and dry and ready to burn, and the bark was infested with bugs. The hickory just covered in fine powdered sawdust. I had 2 tons of that $&!!@**#! hickory and I never stored one stick of it beside the woodstove, hickory went straight from the sun deck and in to the fire, one stick at a time. A real PITA, that hickory.

I dont notice which wood causes this the most. I know I get the most jabs from sharp pieces of oak, aside from that cherry/oak are the only two I can readily identify without caring much. I burn poplar, oak, cherry, hickory, walnut, plum, ash, apple, locust, pine (white,red), sassafras. It would be difficult for me to sort which I should bring in and which I shouldnt. I just need to be more careful about how much I bring in and might be leaving for a week or two before it gets burned as this is a weekend/summer get away cottage I burn at.

Im considering getting a stove for my main home, but it's pretty small and I already have a gas fireplace that just works with the flip of a switch. It REALLY heats up the downstairs. So much so that during sunny winter days, I will need to open the windows if we run it too long. Super expensive to run though.

 

[stoveliker]

I may have happened, but (as with most disasters), there were multiple contributing factors.

My "data" suggests it can't be dry wood alone. But not seeing black swans doesn't mean they don't exist.

On the other hand, maybe the absence in my case is due to multiple contributing factors (though harder to imagine than the opposite).

In any case, what I learned on this thread is to be caseful with hickory. (I have not had hickory yet.)

 

[Ashful]

I dont notice which wood causes this the most. I know I get the most jabs from sharp pieces of oak, aside from that cherry/oak are the only two I can readily identify without caring much. I burn poplar, oak, cherry, hickory, walnut, plum, ash, apple, locust, pine (white,red), sassafras. It would be difficult for me to sort which I should bring in and which I shouldnt.

Oh, that's easy:

Hickory is the one that dumps handfuls of sawdust onto your shoes when you pick it up. Even a 4 year old can pick that one out of the crowd.

Oak, as you already noted, is the one that gives you splinters, when you don't grab it just right.

Sassafras is the one always filled with carpenter ants, but still somehow always looks as fresh as the day it was first split, after 3 years in your stacks.

Walnut is coffee brown, nothing else in your list can be confused with that. Ash is the one that looks remarkably like walnut on the outside, but white with tan striping inside.

Pine... well, it's pine. Looks like pine.

Our Cherry looks like hickory, but with less bugs and resulting sawdust, although there are many different varieties of cherry.

Poplar shouldn't be in your stacks, it should be in a waste pile, or burnt for summer campfires. You're wasting your time even splitting that stuff.

I'm no help with apple or plum, never seen one big enough to use for firewood.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I may have happened, but (as with most disasters), there were multiple contributing factors.

My "data" suggests it can't be dry wood alone. But not seeing black swans doesn't mean they don't exist.

I have 2 black swans a mile from my house. Ill have to grab some pics next time I ride by on my motorcycle.

 

[stoveliker]

Pine sticks. To your gloves (also needed to avoid the oak splinters).

 

[GrumpyDad]

Oh, that's easy:

Hickory is the one that dumps handfuls of sawdust onto your shoes when you pick it up. Even a 4 year old can pick that one out of the crowd.

Oak, as you already noted, is the one that gives you splinters, when you don't grab it just right.

Sassafras is the one always filled with carpenter ants, but still somehow always looks as fresh as the day it was first split, after 3 years in your stacks.

Walnut is coffee brown, nothing else in your list can be confused with that. Ash is the one that looks remarkably like walnut on the outside, but white with tan striping inside.

Pine... well, it's pine. Looks like pine.

Our Cherry looks like hickory, but with less bugs and resulting sawdust, although there are many different varieties of cherry.

Poplar shouldn't be in your stacks, it should be in a waste pile, or burnt for summer campfires. You're wasting your time even splitting that stuff.

I'm no help with apple or plum, never seen one big enough to use for firewood.

Lol I love your assessments and ident methods. I used to work at a cabinet shop and could spot any species and would focus on different trees/plants at that time because it was just interesting to me.

Im going to have to pay more attention now especially with the sassafras. The place I get my wood from, is a lumber yard reject repository. In other words, whatever they dont use at the lumber yard because it's too small or two whatever, those pieces get discarded to be split for firewood. Sassafras is becoming super popular from this yard for whatever reason, maybe furniture - not sure.

As for poplar, yea it doesnt burn great. Gives off a soapy perfuming smell. Im planking the entire inside of my cabin with poplar and have ALOT of scrap pieces that I was mostly using as fireplace starters, but for the most part they go to the 'outside camp fire' pile.

 

[blades]

honey locust is another the bugs like- the thornless type anyway- only have seen one true non hybred honey locust- talk about nasty thorns- yikes.