I’ve been warned...

[mcstatz5829]

... about not using wood seasoned enough.

I’m entering my first season burning wood. Just had 4 cords delivered. I split a couple and it measured 21% moisture.

From what I read <20% is just fine. Since I got a few months before burning, am I good, or do I need a plan B?

 

[Ctwoodtick]

If the pile as a whole is that moisture content when split, you’re golden. It’s burnable currently. It will drop a couple of percent by Fall. I’d also keep the wood sellers number....and not count on getting dry wood again. It’s actually really rare. Nice stacks ! I’d top cover to keep dry.

 

[HisTreeNut]

Primarily depends on the wood (hard wood or soft woods). Then other factors like the size of your splits, location of your stacks (In the sun, good wind) play a role.
You may be ok but a back up plan is not a bad idea. Lots of threads on bio bricks you can read. Probably the simplest thing to do might be to split a bunch of your wood into smaller splits & make its in direct sun as much as possible before burning season gets here.
Covering the tops of your stacks is a good idea and nice job on the stacking.

Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk

 

[Rickb]

I have never seen wood that wasnt at least a little grayed on the ends measure that low.....

Seems very low for what that wood looks like, tho I could believe it if it was ash.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I have never seen wood that wasnt at least a little grayed on the ends measure that low.....

Seems very low for what that wood looks like, tho I could believe it if it was ash.

I’ve found that the greying out of wood has more to do with moisture getting to it. Although you do some idea of how long iimts been in the stack by how grey it is I suppose.

 

[begreen]

I have never seen wood that wasnt at least a little grayed on the ends measure that low.....

Seems very low for what that wood looks like, tho I could believe it if it was ash.

I was wondering what species wood. There's no checking on the end grain either.

 

[mcstatz5829]

I was wondering what species wood. There's no checking on the end grain either.

Any way I can check with reasonable amount of certainty>\?

 

[Simonkenton]

That is a beautiful sight. Whoever brought you that wood, don't lose his phone number.
Cuanto questa? How much did it cost?

What kind of wood is it? Some of those sticks look like oak.

You need to put a roof on it, buy some metal roofing and lay it on top, set some bricks, or pieces of oak on the metal so it won't blow away.
What kind of wood stove do you have?

Say, histreenut, I see you are in Burnsville, I just bought a used pickup over there at Tar Heel Auto.
That guy is a great used car dealer I got a 2010 4WD Nissan Frontier with 40K miles, always garaged what a beautiful vehicle. Pleasure doing business with your local company.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

That is very nice looking wood and great stacks! I do see some Ash I believe in the third picture, Ash dries very fast and it has a lower moisture count to start with. I would cover the top with some black plastic, you can buy it in rolls at Home Depot or Lowe's or any place like that, cut it and put it on just the tops and put something on it to hold it down, the black will attract more sun/heat to it and also keep the rain off of it so it doesn't tickle down into the pile.

I would whack some of the fresher looking splits open, the ones that don't like very dark or grey just to see what the moisture content is on that, but 21% now with months to go sounds to me like you are in good shape, and like others said you might have gotten lucky with getting wood like that delivered!

Good luck!

 

[mcstatz5829]

That is a beautiful sight. Whoever brought you that wood, don't lose his phone number.
Cuanto questa? How much did it cost?

a little over 4 cords. It was pretty expensive, almost $1,200. I wasn’t expecting dry wood either - I went with the cheapest guys I could find.

 

[maple1]

You are already way ahead of most first year burners. Good stuff.

 

[blades]

Looks to be kiln heat treated perhaps.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Good price for what you got.

 

[redmanlcs]

You seem to be better off than me. Very little wood in my stacks reach anywhere close to 20% moisture content. I would guess most of the wood I use is at least 40%. I can clearly see sap running out, and hear the steam hiss. This is not the ideal way to burn wood, but Its all I have. It takes me all year to cut and split enough to heat my home. I heat exclusively with wood as I don't have any electric stoves for heat. If I ran out of wood, my family would freeze. I use an older stove (non epa) It don't like wet wood, but it burns it. I also check and clean out my flu every couple months as there is a lot of creosote built up at times. I use pretty much whatever I can get. I have about 1/2 cord of Tulip Popular for the shoulder months when you don't need a fire all day, but enough to run the cold out of the house. The rest is Oak, Hickory, and Beech. Beech seems to dry out better than Oak, and I got lucky this year to find a couple dead hickory trees blown over last year. I hate to burn wet wood, but most of the time I have to. Sounds to me you will be just fine.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

a little over 4 cords. It was pretty expensive, almost $1,200. I wasn’t expecting dry wood either - I went with the cheapest guys I could find.

At that price I would expect well seasoned wood. Where I live, 4 cords not very seasoned would go for maybe $700.

 

[mcstatz5829]

At that price I would expect well seasoned wood. Where I live, 4 cords not very seasoned would go for maybe $700.

I’m in Indianapolis, Broad Ripple area. Where do you live?

I just went around hefting the wood and split a couple of the heavier ones. Found one at 40% moisture. Best guess is the average is 30%.

The wetter ones sure are harder to split!

 

[mcstatz5829]

You seem to be better off than me. Very little wood in my stacks reach anywhere close to 20% moisture content. I would guess most of the wood I use is at least 40%. I can clearly see sap running out, and hear the steam hiss. This is not the ideal way to burn wood, but Its all I have. It takes me all year to cut and split enough to heat my home. I heat exclusively with wood as I don't have any electric stoves for heat. If I ran out of wood, my family would freeze. I use an older stove (non epa) It don't like wet wood, but it burns it. I also check and clean out my flu every couple months as there is a lot of creosote built up at times. I use pretty much whatever I can get. I have about 1/2 cord of Tulip Popular for the shoulder months when you don't need a fire all day, but enough to run the cold out of the house. The rest is Oak, Hickory, and Beech. Beech seems to dry out better than Oak, and I got lucky this year to find a couple dead hickory trees blown over last year. I hate to burn wet wood, but most of the time I have to. Sounds to me you will be just fine.

Yikes! That sounds tough. No way to get a year ahead? I’m hoping this stack lasts me at least two years and next winter I have really dry wood.

 

[Simonkenton]

three hundred bucks a cord delivered for hardwood, that is a good deal.
Tell you what, go out in the forest with your maul and chain saw, and pickup truck, and cut four cords and split it, and figure out what you would charge.

You don't know what it is? I would like to know as there is a big difference among the various species of wood. Some hold coals a lot longer than others

Here is a firewood chart.

http://worldforestindustries.com/forest-biofuel/firewood/firewood-btu-ratings/

As you can see you want to start with hickory or perhaps oak. If you live around here, you can get locust.

Just buy that metal roofing, you can get it at lowes, 26 inches wide and 8 or 10 or 12 foot long whatever you need. Will last longer than you will live.
Put it on top of the stacks and put rocks or wood pieces up there so it won't blow away.

 

[mcstatz5829]

Tell you what, go out in the forest with your maul and chain saw, and pickup truck, and cut four cords and split it, and figure out what you would charge.

Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the hearth this morning!

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I’m in Indianapolis, Broad Ripple area. Where do you live?

I just went around hefting the wood and split a couple of the heavier ones. Found one at 40% moisture. Best guess is the average is 30%.

The wetter ones sure are harder to split!

If the average is 30 percent now, it will likely be mid 20’s or maybe a bit below when you use it. If that is the case, the wood will burn, but you may see some signs of sluggish burning-Slightly less heat output, more smoke, more creosote in chimney. Plan on having chimney checked a bit more frequently. If wood is mid 20s moisture content when burning season rolls around, I’d avoid the very lowest air setting on you stove to avoid making excessive creosote.
If feasible, get another 4 cords, but of green wood to cut down on cost, and you’ll be set up for 2 winters from now. If you then keep that schedule in the future, you’ll always have dry wood.

 

[mcstatz5829]

I would cover the top with some black plastic, you can buy it in rolls at Home Depot or Lowe's or any place like that, cut it and put it on just the tops and put something on it to hold it down, the black will attract more sun/heat to it and also keep the rain off of it so it doesn't tickle down into the pile.

Like so?

 

[mcstatz5829]

If feasible, get another 4 cords, but of green wood to cut down on cost, and you’ll be set up for 2 winters from now. If you then keep that schedule in the future, you’ll always have dry wood.

I like the idea, but I want to hold off until the spring to see how much wood I go through. The cheap racks I got aren’t holding up well so far. I’m going to build better ones out of 4x4s but I don’t want to overinvest in that.

Also, if I go through too much I may decide just to use wood for emergencies and Saturday ambience, and gas for primary heat. I haven’t lived in this house for a winter yet so not sure how much my gas bill would be.

 

[weatherguy]

Plan B, get a couple pallets of bio bricks, envi blocks or something similar and burn 50-50.

 

[Tar12]

Lots of ash in those stacks...if not ready this year it will be next for sure...what kind of stove are you running? How big is your home? Just trying to get a idea of what you are trying to heat...BTW....I am 1hour and 15 minutes north west of you...

 

[Sprinter]

My 2c. If the MC is really 21 then it's fine right now. A few percent here and there is okay. Call me a skeptic (because I am) but make sure you are reading the MC correctly by splitting a few new pieces and apply the meter probes in the middle of the fresh splits. You probably already know all that, but it's just so rare for new delivery to be already properly seasoned that it's worth another look. Unless it's kiln dried or something like mentioned on another post.

In my area, your cost would be considered quite expensive, so that may account for the unusual dry state if they took some extra steps to do it. If the cost is average, take another look and even check the meter.

In any case, carefully watch the burning when you do it. If you see blackened window, sizzling from the ends, poor starting, etc. stop and figure out why.

Hope it works out well for you. It's just so unusual to get truly seasoned wood delivered, but some dealers do.