how long does it take to season?

[adamant]

i used to buy my wood seasoned and split. this august i got a few truck loads of green wood in the round. i am in the process of splitting it and storing it in my garage and .
1. how long will it take tohope to use it this season be burnable?(all oak)
2. after splitting it should i store it outside for a weeks or store it in the garage?

 

[northwinds]

Welcome.

Your firewood is unlikely to be ready for the coming heating season. I have oak that
I split over a year ago that isn't dry enough yet.

Here's a nice article about getting wood ready to burn and how long it might take:

(broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/fuelproc.htm)

 

[nshif]

If its not split yet dont think you have much of a chance of burning it this winter, especially oak. Even here in the west where our wood dries rather quickly it would still be at least 6 months.

 

[budman]

OAK 2 years for sure.

 

[nshif]

2 Years? do you live in a swamp? I can dry oak cut from a 3' Dia tree in one summer (6 months ) here in the west to at least 25% moisture content. If I fall a tree in Apr and cut it and split its ready to burn by Nov at the least. ( stored in a wood shed the last 2 months or so.) must be the humidity, we have none.

 

[11 Bravo]

Agreed nshif. The standing and lying oak and maple I cut / split / stacked in mid-April, is now <20% on my meter and ready to go. The 3 summer months (June/July/August) in the sun and wind is the difference from what I noticed. Last year I didn't split and stack until the end of June and it showed when my wood had a hard time burning 5 months later. The summer is the difference.....IMO :coolsmile:

 

[northwinds]

There's plenty of humidity in WI. I have also made the mistake of stacking in the shade. Wood dries much
faster in open sun and wind. Lesson learned. Now I use the tree break where the electric lines run for oak
wood piles.

 

[MrGriz]

I'm afraid the oak you got in August will be a good start for the 2008-2009 season. The good news is that it's a good start for the 2008-2009 season.

Depending on where you're located, and what the average humidity is, oak takes a good season to dry. Storing split wood in your garage will also slow the drying process. Sun, wind and dry warm weather are the best for seasoning firewood.

 

[budman]

I'm afraid the oak you got in August will be a good start for the 2008-2009 season. The good news is that it's a good start for the 2008-2009 season.

Depending on where you're located, and what the average humidity is, oak takes a good season to dry. Storing split wood in your garage will also slow the drying process. Sun, wind and dry warm weather are the best for seasoning firewood.

Thanks pal. :coolsmirk:

 

[Gooserider]

Agreed, this time of year you are looking at 08/09 wood, not this years.

However I will say that I'm a wood shed advocate, although I like one with open sides for ease of loading and to encourage air circulation. I also used the clear corrugated plastic (PAL?) roofing on my bigger shed and find it seems to give me a fair bit of solar gain. I noticed this particularly a few weeks ago when stacking some wood into the shed (much later than I should have for this seasons wood, but it won't hit the stove until Feb-March of next year at the earliest, and hopefully will turn out to be extra...) I noticed there was a good 5-10* difference in how warm it felt under the shed roof than it felt in the air next to the shed as I was literally pulling splits off my wood cart, reaching into the shed and stacking them. It was like there was almost a line where the temp went up each time I reached into the shed.

Gooserider

 

[nshif]

Goose
How does that plastic roofing hold up under the snow. I was thinking of putting it on my shed but was afraid the snow would cave it in.

 

[wg_bent]

3 months isn't enough for oak. You'll need it to be split for a good 1.5 years. I've done a lot of oak, and my drying situation isn't ideal, but not awful either. I stack on pallets, so the interior wood takes longer, but maybe if you stack in rows only in the sun, with a lot of wind.. less than 18 months, but never 3.

 

[Gooserider]

Goose
How does that plastic roofing hold up under the snow. I was thinking of putting it on my shed but was afraid the snow would cave it in.

So far no problems, but last winter was pretty mild in terms of snow accumulation.

The tech pages on the stuff do go into a fair amount of detail about required pitch and rafter spacing. They want the supports running across the valleys in the material, with the valley's (obviously) going up and down.

I did cheat a bit - I'm a bit shy on the pitch, a bit more than 1:12 (actually about 1:8) and I'm wide on the rafter spacing, but I dumpster-dove for a bunch of usde PT deck boards that I ran across the roof under the plastic at about a 45* angle. This gives the plastic a lot of extra support. I also used the manufacturer's reccomended foam supports where I screwed it down, and used the reccomended screws. When putting it down, I avoided putting my full weight on the roof, but it wasn't flexing when I'd lean on it pretty heavy. I liked the fact that it gave me a finished roof for a price that was less than what the plywood decking for a regular roof would have cost me.

If I were doing the shed over, I would probably go for about a foot more pitch and more roof joists, but skipped the decking. This would have been in line w/ the MFGR specs, which say the stuff is rated for high snow loads when installed per instructions.

Gooserider

 

[BurningIsLove]

Hey gooserider
Where did you pick up the corrguated plastic for your roof? Was looking for some to create a dry space under my deck (about 3' off the ground), but have had a tough time finding anyone who stocks it locally.

 

[Gooserider]

I got mine @ Home Despot, but you need to call around because not all the stores carry it. For instance the Manchester, NH and So. Nashua, NH stores don't, but the Salem, NH store does. (Yes, we contribute to that "Giant Sucking Sound" of shoppers that go north for the 5% discount...

Gooserider

 

[nshif]

Burn
Out here Ive seen it at Ace and Lowes, At Lowes I think it was in the garden Dept.
Goose
Well I should be fine then, Ive got a 3:12 pitch with 2x6 rafters 16" oc spaning 8'. Maybe put some 2x6 blocking 2'oc between the rafters. Its corregated tin now which I get alot of heat through but looks kinda crappy so maybe Ill rip that off and try the plastic. Maybe just put a few sheets up now and see how it does through the winter then do the balance next spring if it holds up

 

[Gooserider]

Burn
Out here Ive seen it at Ace and Lowes, At Lowes I think it was in the garden Dept.
Goose
Well I should be fine then, Ive got a 3:12 pitch with 2x6 rafters 16" oc spaning 8'. Maybe put some 2x6 blocking 2'oc between the rafters. Its corregated tin now which I get alot of heat through but looks kinda crappy so maybe Ill rip that off and try the plastic. Maybe just put a few sheets up now and see how it does through the winter then do the balance next spring if it holds up

Yes, it was outside in the "outdoor building materials" section, which is next to the garden stuff. One thing they do caution you about in the tech material is that you shouldn't stack it in the sun. If you stack it, they want you to keep it covered w/ an opaque material, because otherwise they say the bottom layers will get overheated.

The roof setup you describe should be pretty good NS, I don't know if you'd actually need 2x6 blocking between the rafters IIRC the tech pages, they only required something like 1x4 strapping across the tops of the rafters, but I could be wrong, and I can't find the bookmark I thought I had for the stuff with specs on installation.

Gooserider

 

[nshif]

Thanks Goose I think Ill give it a try. Maybe I can even dry my wood faster!

 

[njtomatoguy]

At the lowes I worked at, it was in Bldg Materials, the other end of the store from the garden dept.