Bring Wood Into The House

[wenger7446]

I keep about a fifth of a cord of wood by the stove. I am getting anxious to bring some wood into the house to feel prepared. Do you guys see any problems with getting ready for winter this early?

Wood us sub 20%moisture.

Thanks!

 

[volunbeer]

If you like dust. Just my .02. We were going to make a wood storage area built in next to our build this summer, but I am honestly rethinking it because we are going to stack about 1.5 cords at a time in the middle bay of our garage only 50' from the stove. Will keep it dry and we are planning to use the big Ikea bags to grab it out of the garage to load so it will be straight into the stove.

May change this at some point, but for now I don't see any point in storing wood next to the stove. Then again we are planning on two loads a day max.

 

[tarzan]

Bugs? I know my wood gets bugs in it. Not a big deal in the winter as I don't bring more than a 24 hour supply in at a time and they don't thaw out and get moving until there two seconds from cremation. If I were to bring wood in during the summer I'm sure there would be some un-welcomed hitch hikers.

 

[Ashful]

Ditto on the bugs. My wood goes directly from the covered patio to the firebox. Never saw any good reason to store it indoors, even for an hour. We like a clean, bug-free house.


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[prezes13]

I keep a wheel barrow full to maybe a 1/4 of a face cord in my garage but I bring that in just about the time to start the fire.

 

[kennyp2339]

When the burning season starts I put a 12ft x 5ft rack in my garage, I load it up, it ususally lasts about 10 - 14 days depending on the outdoor temps.
I have a metal cattle water tub I keep by the stove and put my daily wood in that, the tub helps keep the dirt and wood crumbs confined.
My biggest problem is the cat goes down there and grabs small sticks, brings them upstairs to chew or play swat. Those sticks hurt more than stepping on a lego.

 

[SteveKG]

I have a wood bin indoors, built to utilize the area below some stairs. I have wood in it year-round.

But the coolest set-up I've seen was a closet-shed-like thing built onto the outside of a cabin which had a large door outside so one could fill it with the wood and a smaller door in the inside wall so one could open it and grab the wood from indoors. No mess, easy to refill the bin. Unfortunately, the way my house is, no way to do that.

 

[Ashful]

Hey @SteveKG an old friend of mine has a wood elevator next to his stove. Forklift pallets of wood into basement garage, load elevator bin, go upstairs to stove and retrieve. No mess, no fuss.

Think industrial old-school dumb waiter.

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[volunbeer]

My biggest problem is the cat goes down there and grabs small sticks, brings them upstairs to chew or play swat. Those sticks hurt more than stepping on a lego.

I can't think of anything beyond a tire spike that hurts more than a lego does! You always step on one with the softest part of the foot too. I am convinced that my kids playroom would have stopped a medieval calvary charge in it's tracks with great casualties.

 

[Simonkenton]

Bring it in! I have never had a problem with bugs coming in on firewood.
Dry wood will get even much drier inside for several months.

 

[Rearscreen]

Has anyone thought of burning Legos instead of firewood?

 

[tarzan]

Legos are tough but has everyone forgotten the feeling of stepping on those little green army men?

 

[JA600L]

I usually bring wood in the night before. Otherwise, your basically filling your stove with ice cubes. Everything gets up to temperature quicker when the wood is at room temperature to start.

 

[firefighterjake]

I've never had issues with bugs in the wood . . . but I still tend to wait until a good, cold frost has come in before I start stacking wood on my covered porch out back . . . and it's a few weeks after that when I'll start bringing in wood every day for the woodbox next to the stove.

 

[blades]

Porch -converted to garage at one point, now is wood storage from Sept on. Keep about 1-2 cord in there all winter , from there a couple days worth in shelving same room as stove. When there is nice weather it gets refilled thru April. This allows me to somewhat sort between high, med, and low density fuel types. Also allows for snow/ice melt off depending on weather. Big band saw in there as well- convenient resizing if needed or kindling.

 

[Ashful]

I usually bring wood in the night before. Otherwise, your basically filling your stove with ice cubes. Everything gets up to temperature quicker when the wood is at room temperature to start.

Emotional thoughts, not logical. Internal firebox temp in the range 1100F (minimum to support reburn) to 2000F (more typical early/mid stage fire. So, let's just call it an average 1100 Kelvin.

Moving wood from 20F (266K) outdoors to 73F (296K) raises the wood temperature by 30K. You want to argue this 30K pre-heating makes some significant difference in how quickly or efficiently your stove raises it the remaining several hundred Kelvin, or are you saying that a few hours in your living room will dry wood in a way that three summers baking in back yard sun can't?



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[kennyp2339]

or are you saying that a few hours in your living room will dry wood in a way that three summers baking in back yard sun can't?

Ouch are you grumpy? or did you step on a lego?

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Ouch are you grumpy? or did you step on a lego?

LOL

 

[Dmitry]

big Ikea bags to grab it out of the garage

I thought I'm the only one using blue ikea bag. perfect size for me containing one load for my 3 sq ft firebox

 

[tarzan]

From North Carolina to Bangor Main, no bugs. What gives? I usually find ants and other bugs when I'm splitting fresh wood. Once stacked, away from the house, the infection only gets worse. I thought insects and wood were like peas and carrots?

 

[Simonkenton]

It certainly seems like bugs would come into the house with firewood.
But, here in the NC mountains it is not so.
I can't remember a single bug that came in with the wood, and I burn lots of wood.

 

[firefighterjake]

From North Carolina to Bangor Main, no bugs. What gives? I usually find ants and other bugs when I'm splitting fresh wood. Once stacked, away from the house, the infection only gets worse. I thought insects and wood were like peas and carrots?

In my case I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I stack it for a year or so to dry and then it goes into the woodshed for another year (or two in some cases) where it dries out even more. It seems as though most insects do not like to live in a very dry, airy environment and move on.

Don't get me wrong . . . sometimes in the Summer I can hear some sort of boring insect munching away on my pine in my stacks outside . . . but I never hear anything in the wood in the shed . . . and as mentioned before, I have yet to see a bug due to the firewood being stacked inside the woodbox.

 

[Poindexter]

I don't like going out in the cold for a lousy one stove load of wood, and I don't like having bugs in the house either.

I wait until the outdoor temp has been down below freezing for a good couple weeks, then keep about a face cord in the garage into spring shoulder season.

Works for me. Opening the outside doors more often causes the furnace to kick on more often for sure. I don't know how many BTUs I lose every time someone comes and goes, but keeping the house sealed up makes a smaller bite. Of course my wife still parks in the garage overnight.... stewing on that one.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

We keep a rick on the covered, east facing, front porch. That's for use when the weather is bad. Otherwise, I have a tote, holds a load for the stove. Out to the woodpile, load tote, back to the house load stove. We used to keep some in the house. We had bugs, moths mostly. Don't have that issue now.

 

[begreen]

We keep about 1.5 stove loads of wood inside in a cradle. On the porch is a big box that holds a large cartful of wood. The only bugs we've brought into the house are an occasional hornet that sought shelter in the wood pile. They are usually slow as they wake up and easy to remove, though sometimes we miss one and get a winter buzz in the house until I can catch it.