help out a new guy

[gotboostido]

hey everyone, like the title says. im a little green in relation to indoor fire wood. pun intended. but anyways. i moved into a new house over the summer. and it has 2 fire places. its a 1 acre lot with plenty o trees around. ive had about 20 trees cut down of which 6 were pines. so i didnt retain any of that wood. should i saw the logs in to rounds and wait to split them in the spring. i was using a pellet stove for the last 7 years. thanks just for fun estimate my wood pile

 

[sportbikerider78]

No. Split now and get them drying.

 

[armanidog]

For me, oak and elm are easier to split when green. They seem to be stringier when dried.
Also, do it when the weather is cool. If you wait for spring it could be fairly warm by the time you get to it.
If you have 14 trees to split, it may be a long term endeavor.

 

[saewoody]

Are you splitting by hand, or with a splitter? I prefer to split right away and get the splits drying, as stated above.


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[gotboostido]

For me, oak and elm are easier to split when green. They seem to be stringier when dried.
Also, do it when the weather is cool. If you wait for spring it could be fairly warm by the time you get to it.
If you have 14 trees to split, it may be a long term endeavor.

 

[gotboostido]

well i was able to crop a pic. i put my mountian bike in for a size comp

 

[gotboostido]

heres a few pics. for your viewing pleasure

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I would say first is prep your storage area. By the looks from the pic your going to have multiple cords. I my self have 3 wood sheds. You might consider one yourself as you dont need to worry about covering the wood and keeping it dry.. second after the wood storage is set up i would start splitting. Dont waite as the longer you wait the longer it takes to dry.. when you split give yourself plenty of variety in split size.. small medium and large. I fined it best to split over the winter months. . November through april.. may at the latest.. your going to need to estimate how much wood you're using. The wood that i am burning this season was split a couple of years ago

 

[gotboostido]

Are you splitting by hand, or with a splitter? I prefer to split right away and get the splits drying, as stated above.


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as much as i enjoy splitting by hand. i will be using a rented splitter. the wood pile will most likley double in size by the end of oct. the tree company is going to come back for another round of cuts.

 

[gotboostido]

I would say first is prep your storage area. By the looks from the pic your going to have multiple cords. I my self have 3 wood sheds. You might consider one yourself as you dont need to worry about covering the wood and keeping it dry.. second after the wood storage is set up i would start splitting. Dont waite as the longer you wait the longer it takes to dry.. when you split give yourself plenty of variety in split size.. small medium and large. I fined it best to split over the winter months. . November through april.. may at the latest.. your going to need to estimate how much wood you're using. The wood that i am burning this season was split a couple of years ago

thanks so much for the info. like i said im kinda new to fireplaces. although ive split many a log for campfire wood. im just new to the indoor stuff. well i guess my next couple of weekend just got booked. although its 85 here in boston today. i will have to wait for the cool weather. im sure it wont be long now.

 

[Prof]

6 were pines. so i didnt retain any of that wood.

Pine is fine to burn by the way. Anything below 20% MC is good to go. The creosote thing is a myth.

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

Pine is fine . . . I often start and end the burning season with seasoned pine when I need a quick, hot fire to stay warm.

Splitting sooner is better than later . . . to season the wood. There rarely is a reason to leave the wood in the round.

Finally . . . if you're looking for ambiance burn away in the fireplaces. If you're looking for meaningful heat consider a woodstove or insert if at all possible.

 

[jetsam]

Split the pine first. It dries fast and is fantastic firewood. All that "you can't burn pine" stuff is an old wives' tale that lives exclusively in the Northeast.

If you're splitting by hand, save the elm for the very coldest days of the winter. Ideally, split it when it's well below zero. Trust me.

 

[gotboostido]

great info thanks everyone. i had been told a few years ago. if its possible leave the wood at log length. for a year off the ground. and then slice it into rounds and split. i have a rather large living room over the two car garage. the room is 24x28 and has the back side of the fireplace in the room. it is raised higher than the rest of the house. i was thinking of installing a wood burning stove in the room.

 

[jetsam]

great info thanks everyone. i had been told a few years ago. if its possible leave the wood at log length. for a year off the ground. and then slice it into rounds and split. i have a rather large living room over the two car garage. the room is 24x28 and has the back side of the fireplace in the room. it is raised higher than the rest of the house. i was thinking of installing a wood burning stove in the room.

If you're using it for firewood, it'll dry faster split and covered than it will in logs. You don't care if it dries straight or not.

 

[gotboostido]

Random thoughts . . .

Pine is fine . . . I often start and end the burning season with seasoned pine when I need a quick, hot fire to stay warm.

Splitting sooner is better than later . . . to season the wood. There rarely is a reason to leave the wood in the round.

Finally . . . if you're looking for ambiance burn away in the fireplaces. If you're looking for meaningful heat consider a woodstove or insert if at all possible.

i have been told that about pine. but you always hear that you cant burn it inside also. well iv still got quite a few pines to come down. in fact im going to have the whole front yard cleared. which there is still 2 large trees and about 10 smaller ones.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Yes, pine is fine for indoor woodstove. If using in indoor open fireplace, make sure you have screen covering entire opening because pine pops quite a bit when burning. It also burns really rapidly so full loads of pine in an open fireplace are probably not a good idea. Small loads would be fine. In a woodstove, don't load to the gills with pine, due to risk of overfiring.

 

[Fuut Master]

I would split it now. It will season much quicker that way.

 

[sportbikerider78]

Hardwood is better than pine, in most ways! However, hardwoods take much longer to dry.

Get it all split and stacked in a sunny place. My opinion is that it is more important to have it in the sun than it is to have it dry.

 

[jetsam]

Hardwood is better than pine, in most ways! However, hardwoods take much longer to dry.

Pine can dry and burn in one year. Less BTUs than hardwoods, but it burns fast and hot. It's great for shorter hotter fires, or for getting a load of less-than-dry wood going.

If I had to have only oak or only pine in my stacks, I'd be sad either way- they both have their uses and they're both good to have. (But yeah, I'd take the oak.)

 

[redktmrider]

If I had to have only oak or only pine in my stacks, I'd be sad either way- they both have their uses and they're both good to have. (But yeah, I'd take the oak.)

I use pine and other softwoods to help reduce the coal bed in the Alderlea while still trying to get near max heat, the coals really build up on a steady diet of oak.

 

[kennyp2339]

Nice pile there !! I would estimate prob in the 3 cord range which is a excellent start.. Before you cut into logs look into stoves, you'd hate to cut everything at 20" only to find out the stove you bought only takes up to 18" splits. Like others have already mentioned, splitting now is way better, most hard woods take a minimum of a full year to properly dry out, stack splits off the ground and top cover for the winter.

 

[Dobish]

if you are going to have that much wood, buy a splitter, then sell it when you are done, that way you can take your time! Also, that is a pretty nice score for your own yard!

ps. pine is fine to burn. it is what most people out in the western US burn, and we are all still typing away on our keyboards out here

 

[fishki]

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[Soundchasm]

You need a place for those splits to land!! Just went through a marathon splitting session with my BIL in July. I was so desperate for the help splitting that we just kept at it. When I finally got around to moving the splits on my own, we had made a 3.5 cord pile. I really wish we had broken it up a little into splitting/stacking.

Take a real serious moment to figure out where you're going to split, where the splits will land, and how quickly can you get them off the ground into a rack or something. You'll bury yourself and the splitter if you split it all in one go. I'm not kidding; you may have to throw a split 20' over your pile.

And if you split in your yard, the debris will kill the grass. That may not matter, but maybe there's a better solution a few feet right or left.

The seasoning clock doesn't start in earnest until rounds are split. I just got done with honey locust rounds that were two years old and stored off the ground. They were wringing WET!! How does that even happen?

For instance, if you've got a truck and a rack in place, it'd be great to throw the splits from the splitter into the truck and then stack each truckload. That way you save the step of picking the split off the ground and throwing it into the truck later.

With the quantity you're looking at, removing one "handling" of the split will add up fast. Same with putting the splitter right next to your work. Four steps per round opposed to ten makes a difference.

And the splits need to be somewhere you can get them inside the house with a foot of snow on the ground.

There's as much to think about as one could want. Make some good guesses and tweak the system every year as you get ideas.
I don't want to see you almost literally paint yourself into a corner with a mountain of splits. The pile below is seven feet high and maybe 25' long... 3.5 cords.