How to survive a burning season with unseasoned firewood?

[newburn]

As suggested in a post I made over at https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/vc-encore-2040-how-to-burn.156965/, I need some help.

I have been having trouble getting my new stove to heat up and burn properly. This is my first season burning and have just started to acquire wood this fall. I have some oak slab wood that is supposed to be dried. I also have been cutting dead locust. Some of the members think that it may be a wood issue.

I don't know what would be the best route to take to get wood that is ready to burn this season. I am looking for suggestions and/or tips to get me through this winter.

Thanks!

 

[jatoxico]

Compressed bricks or kiln dried wood mixed in with your wet wood works but will cost some bucks. Pallets and lumber scraps work too and can usually be had for nuthin' except you gotta work for it.

For your existing wood splitting it down smaller so you can build airy fires will help.

Can be done and most have done it.

 

[BenTN]

I would start with a cheap moisture meter, I got one from harbor freight. This way you can get an idea if it is your wood being the issue. If it is your wood you can also use the meter to test any wood you purchase prior to taking delivery. Resplit and test a piece before he dumps it.

They do sell pressed wood blocks which would be an option for you. I think I saw tractor supply selling for $300+/ton. Someone else correct me if I'm wrong but I thought a ton was equal to a cord. Pricey but an option if you need heat.

 

[gzecc]

Collect for next year and the following year. Burn oil or gas this year. They are cheap. Having seasoned wood is kind of a necessity. for a stove or insert.

 

[Jay106n]

Collect now for next year. Do fire bricks this winter or like gzecc said just do oil. Its not worth burning wet wood. You will do more harm than good.

 

[red oak]

Most of us have burned unseasoned wood our first burning seasons - I know I did. If you decide you will burn wood as opposed to using oil or gas, split as small as you can. Try to get some more slabs or pallet wood. Get a good bed of coals and keep the fire hot, and check your chimney often. Softwood may be an option depending on where you are - it dries much faster. If you know anyone who is years ahead maybe you could work out a wood trade. That's pretty much all I got - except that the first year with unseasoned wood can be a struggle. Took awhile for me to learn how to do it right. Maybe this mild winter will stay with us for awhile.

 

[Dobish]

Craigslist, pallets, construction scraps, small fires that burn hot. Leave the air open and don't expect overnight burns. Get a good bed of coals, and keep it hot. Don't worry about being efficient, just worry about getting ready for next season

 

[newburn]

When you burn construction material or pallet wood are you concerned with nails, etc being in it? I know my manual advises against burning this type of material.

I think I will grab one of the moisture detectors and post my results. Thanks for the tips so far.

 

[jatoxico]

The concern is usually about burning paints, glues and other finishes. Common nails won't hurt anything. Galvanized with a CAT??

 

[Dobish]

My biggest issue with burning wood with nails was having them get caught in the grate, and scratching up the ash pan.

 

[Dobish]

Take the cat out if you are really concerned.

 

[JabaduGarfunkle]

I had about 3/4 of what I expect to need this winter so this weekend me and my wife went out and cut down 2 truck loads of standing (or mostly hung up as it fell) dead from a neighbor's wooded area. After bucking it up I found a little was punky but most seems solid and dry. Those 2 loads gave me an extra cord I can use this winter. If I do this a few more times I'll be set for a rough winter.

I found I have to be really choosy what I cut down and even after cutting some down I realized it was rotten and left it. I tested a couple pieces in the stove on Saturday and it lit up really well with no sizzle so I'm optimistic. If you have access to any kind of wooded area consider giving it a try.

If we hustled we could get a truckload (in 8-10' pieces -each length was 5 to 12" diameter) loaded up and dropped off at home in about an hour and a half... Probably 4 truckloads in a day before we're pooped out which would end up being 2 cords. Considering I don't have to split it since it's already so dry (although I do when I test a piece) its a quick way to bolster the supply.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

My 1st year burning I had everything split and stacked by memorial day. That winter I found the oak was not burning. I had to leave it in the basement for the winter, which produced a crap load of moisture to the house. With the low cost of oil and gas it would be best to wait till next year to burn. Frankly, at these price's its silly for anyone to burn wood at this point. i would skip the year but I have no other option than wood.

 

[Jay106n]

My 1st year burning I had everything split and stacked by memorial day. That winter I found the oak was not burning. I had to leave it in the basement for the winter, which produced a crap load of moisture to the house. With the low cost of oil and gas it would be best to wait till next year to burn. Frankly, at these price's its silly for anyone to burn wood at this point. i would skip the year but I have no other option than wood.

Agreed, but if the wood is free, it is still cheaper than cheap oil

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

All said above is excellent advice. Deff get a meter, split some pieces in half and check the fresh split. If your wood moisture is 25% or over I would buy bricks or wait till next year........ unless......you have or can get access to some woods. There are three trees in Ohio and prob your part of PA that can be burned immediately if cut dead standing.
Ash, especially dry tops and if the bark is falling off portions.
Black cherry, but only if the sapwood has started to get punky. Cherry rots from the outside in so if the outside is going the inside can be bone dry.
Elm, but only with the bark falling off or gone.
Other trees dead or dying don't seem to be that dry, but I regularly find all three of these trees with wood at 15-20% moisture content and ready to burn good.

 

[Jay106n]

All said above is excellent advice. Deff get a meter, split some pieces in half and check the fresh split. If your wood moisture is 25% or over I would buy bricks or wait till next year........ unless......you have or can get access to some woods. There are three trees in Ohio and prob your part of PA that can be burned immediately if cut dead standing.
Ash, especially dry tops and if the bark is falling off portions.
Black cherry, but only if the sapwood has started to get punky. Cherry rots from the outside in so if the outside is going the inside can be bone dry.
Elm, but only with the bark falling off or gone.
Other trees dead or dying don't seem to be that dry, but I regularly find all three of these trees with wood at 15-20% moisture content and ready to burn good.

+1 on the Ash and Black Cherry. Both dry fast and burn great. Black Cherry coals up better than Ash. Both have good BTUs with little seasoning time. If you can find them standing dead, even better.

 

[CheapBassTurd]

Our first winter was this last season and we started in winter with no stock other than a few weeks of
scrounging the forest at home and roadside dead limbs.

I was able to stay weeks to only a few days ahead on wood, wet or dry. We were drying the stuff
on the hearth and tossing it in. Laid off, no cash available to buy wood as we were paying off the stove
install. Rocky start indeed but we stayed warm.

Kept collecting/ splitting almost daily and am now 2 years ahead as this season kicks off. I learned really
fast how to follow the Asplundh guys around, grab and split their drops concentrating on the dead trees they
felled. Pallets work great but they cook fast and leave plenty of ashes to clean out but they are available
next to dumpsters at many businesses. Dead and dry stuff can be collected up while building a real split
wood pile. City and county garbage dumps have wood sections which some major jackpots have been posted
here on the site. These guys take pics of everything. Now I do too. LOL If you get busy and stay busy you'll
be way ahead way fast. After getting a year or two ahead there's little stress and the stove lifestyle becomes
quite rewarding.

Welcome, and enjoy your stove and this site,

CheapMark

 

[ctswf]

Last year i had some wood i thought was a little wet, i bought it and it had been split earlier that year

I split it even smaller and bought a 4x4x4 pallet of "hot bricks" for around $300. Mixed them in, i did fine. I had about a softball sized amount of creosote cleaned out this year.

Some stoves say not to burn bricks, especially cat stoves i think

 

[maple1]

Lots of good suggestions above. If you can't get drier stuff, you might be stuck with oil/gas/whatever your other heat source is.

You can get what you have to dry faster, by re-splitting small, stacking loosely in a warm dry place, and setting up a box fan on low speed blowing across the pile. A warm stove or furnace room in winter is great for that - inside air is usually quite dry then anyway. Starting to do that right now won't help much right now, but it might come into play in January-February when it's really cold. I would still be scrounging whatever you can find that is dry though - between that & the resplitting thing, you will be having a busy winter & it won't be easy. Which brings us back to the oil/gas/whatever possibility.

You should also be working at getting next winters wood ready now too, BTW. Another factor to consider when weighing the oil/gas/whatever option....

 

[newburn]

When you burn construction material or pallet wood are you concerned with nails, etc being in it? I know my manual advises against burning this type of material.

I think I will grab one of the moisture detectors and post my results. Thanks for the tips so far.

Is treated wood ok to burn?

 

[jatoxico]

Is treated wood ok to burn?

No.

 

[newburn]

I have a permit to cut dead wood at a local military depot. How can I easily identify ash and black cherry? This is a large property (1000+ acres) which I am not very familiar with.

 

[Jay106n]

I have a permit to cut dead wood at a local military depot. How can I easily identify ash and black cherry? This is a large property (1000+ acres) which I am not very familiar with.

Ash is relatively simple to ID. Mature trees have a diamond like bark pattern and the leaves and branches grow symmetrical opposites.


Black cherry has a black scaly bark that peals off if you pick at it. They grow generally straight, but kinda wonky with small bends and turns in the trunk.



Good luck!

 

[FaithfulWoodsman]

Great education Jay! Do a youtube search for both and you will find some good info. Cherry can sometimes be easy to find as they typically look black or the darkest tree from a distance. The bark looks like dark gray or black corn flakes are glued onto the tree. The heartwood smells sweet and is a redish orange color. Ash is easy, but can look like a lot of other bark too if your eye is not trained. One way to identify ash 100% is to remove some of the bark off dead or dying tree and look for emerald ash borer larvae lines underneath, it's unmistakable.

EAB lines and hole in bark.

BLack Cherry and red heartwood


Remember Dead cherry will have many limbs broken off and punky bark, sometimes with fungi starting.
Have at it man. It can be done and learning is fun too. Here is a pic of a full ready to burn load of cherry I got last Feb, when we were running low.

 

[red oak]

I don't think any of those woods are ok to burn green, as in cut live. I burn mostly oak, but any wood dead standing may have some wood that's burnable immediately, usually the top half to third as well as smaller branches and limbs.