Need Firewood ASAP

[Campcook]

I'm in a tough spot. I'm in the process of buying my first house and am trying to find firewood to heat it. It's a 3000 sf farmhouse with two wood stoves so I'm thinking about 6 cords for the winder (they're old air tight stoves so I'll be putting in at least one new EPA model (Blaze King King 40??)).

The problem is that my current place doesn't have a stove so I only have about 1/2 a cord put up from a rental I was in a couple of years ago. Being so late in the season, most of the firewood dealers I've reached out to are either out of seasoned wood or are trying to gouge me (one quoted $400 per cord plus delivery fee).

I'm REALLY trying to avoid heating with oil given the current price of crude. Any ideas on finding seasoned firewood so late in the year?

 

[begreen]

Getting started and ahead is hard at first. $400-450/cord of truly seasoned wood is what they are charging locally. This year you will probably have to bite the bullet for wood or oil and write it off as startup expenses. In the meantime, also consider getting several cords of already split wood to stack and dry for next season. Several species of hardwoods take at least 2 yrs of seasoning after being CS&S.

 

[peakbagger]

Where in NH?. Ossipee Mountain Lumber in Ossipee sells kiln dried "seconds" from their firewood line. They sell shorts for $50 a cord or longer odd length odd chunks for $70 (last time I saw their ad. This wood is "match light dry". It comes in a poly big bag pallet loaded into a pickup at the yard. Go to Home Depot and rent one of their trucks to hail them. Unfortunately you are hauling one load at time.

 

[stoveliker]

Or buy a pallet (or 6...?) of envirologs (sawdust logs, not duraflame as they contain stuff other than sawdust).

Congrats on the home. And the BK. Post pics of the stoves and set ups.

The BK (and most modern stoves) need (!!) DRY wood. Less than 20 pct. Firewood sellers often don't sell that.

Has your chimney been inspected for safety?

 

[peakbagger]

BTW I have no dog in this game but here is link https://www.ossipeemountainlandcompany.com/ I bought two pallets a couple of years ago. Nice dense mixed hardwood.

 

[Rob_Red]

Before you buy any “seasoned” wood buy a moisture meter and test the wood properly (freshly split face) - aside from the kiln dried stuff that was mentioned that sounds legit

Around here 99% of seasoned wood has sat for a year at log length and was split within the same month. This is not an effective way to lower the moisture content.

I am not familiar with your old school stoves so the experts need to chime in but I would think they won’t be so picky with slightly under seasoned wood.

Lastly make sure to educate your self how how a proper chimney is put together and FULLY understand what your house came with and if it’s safe.

I had a “chimney professional” inspect and sign off on my masonry chimney only to have major problems with it. It wasn’t until I educated my self (on this site) that I was able to get a safe setup

 

[Campcook]

Or buy a pallet (or 6...?) of envirologs (sawdust logs, not duraflame as they contain stuff other than sawdust).

Congrats on the home. And the BK. Post pics of the stoves and set ups.

The BK (and most modern stoves) need (!!) DRY wood. Less than 20 pct. Firewood sellers often don't sell that.

Has your chimney been inspected for safety?

Thank you! I've never used a cat stove before, so I'm still waffling between that and a soap stone. The home inspection is on saturday so we'll see about the stoves. It's an old house with three original fireplaces, one of which has a beehive oven. Two are lined with stoves and one is stuffed with insulation and might be capped at the top, seller didn't know for sure.

Are sawdust logs safe to burn all winter? I've always heard not to burn compressed logs in a woodstove, but never really knew why

 

[all night moe]

Your older stoves will fare ok with "semi" seasoned wood. You do have to tend them more often though.
A year ago, I was in your shoes. I had no wood and a wood furnace in the basement rated for 200k BTUs.

My house is 4500 sq ft. The kitchen, resides on the end of the house with no heat source. House has partial basement in origional part of house cira 1850. The two addittions are on crawlspaces, including the kitchen. Windows are origional with storms. About 70% of the house has been sheet rocked and insulated, strategically, by previous owner. Your farmhouse will benefit from "winterizing." Plastic off interior side of any old drafty windows. Keep any rooms not being used closed off.

If your house has new windows, doors, and so forth you'll be much further ahead than I was.

 

[Campcook]

BTW I have no dog in this game but here is link https://www.ossipeemountainlandcompany.com/ I bought two pallets a couple of years ago. Nice dense mixed hardwood.

This is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you so much for the info. Are they true cords? How did you find burning shorts/odd chunks in your stove?

At this point, I'll burn anything as long as it's dry.

 

[Campcook]

Before you buy any “seasoned” wood buy a moisture meter and test the wood properly (freshly split face) - aside from the kiln dried stuff that was mentioned that sounds legit

Around here 99% of seasoned wood has sat for a year at log length and was split within the same month. This is not an effective way to lower the moisture content.

I am not familiar with your old school stoves so the experts need to chime in but I would think they won’t be so picky with slightly under seasoned wood.

Lastly make sure to educate your self how how a proper chimney is put together and FULLY understand what your house came with and if it’s safe.

I had a “chimney professional” inspect and sign off on my masonry chimney only to have major problems with it. It wasn’t until I educated my self (on this site) that I was able to get a safe setup

This is great advice about the chimney. The previous owner heats mainly with wood so I'm assuming the lined chimneys are good to go, but you know what they say about assuming...I have a lot of experience with old smoke dragons and I'm sure you're right, they wouldn't be as picky about moisture content, but you also go through twice as much wood. Mainly, I'm trying to not go broke finding last minute heating fuel

 

[peakbagger]

This is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you so much for the info. Are they true cords? How did you find burning shorts/odd chunks in your stove?

At this point, I'll burn anything as long as it's dry.

As mentioned they are in "big bags"that are 4x4x4 on a pallet (note I think I saw an ad a few weeks ago that they may do delivery and I expect it will be bulk dump versus bags). The bags are great if you can get them unloaded, they seem to shed rain and snow pretty well. Stacking the shorts would be a PITA. I think to store them you will need to either have it in sacks on pallets of come up with wooden cribs. I have seen folks use the steel cages used for bulk liquid totes to store wood. BTW 6 cords of wood no matter what takes up a lot of room and keeping it dry will be project. I burn wood exclusively and only use about 3.5 cords up in Gorham but thats with a wood boiler and storage. If you truly burn 6 cords a year its time for a cheap energy audit from your power company and subsidized energy improvements (I think the utility pays 50% up to $3000 but its been awhile since I looked at the programs. Then buy a wood boiler with storage and cut your wood usage by at least 1/3.

Its not tight stacked as they are non uniform but the two I bought were generous 1/2 cords. I have a wood boiler and they burnt great. I stretched them out over a winter to light off my boiler. My friend with a 602 was quite happy with them burning them full time. I think the limitation is if you are going for the infamous "all night burn" and want to pack the stove tight, you are playing a game of Tetris. I dont do all night burns, I meter the wood as I need the heat and relight in the AM. I have wood lot and wood supply and he just bought 2 dumpster loads from wood operation in Gorham that still had some wood when I drove by but it was log length less than 6 months ago.

Once a stove and stack are up to temp partially seasoned wood will burn (albeit lower BTU content.

BTW Conwaydailysun.com classifieds still have sellers of wood but my guess is its all green.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

There is alot that goes with wood heat. You might want to take a moment and plan this out. You will need to purchase next years wood now and start seasoning it. You need to get your wood storage together as well, as an area for processing in the future. This process is a long one and will take a while. The best thing for you to do is to try to get a few years ahead. Looking for log lenth and processing it your self is the least expensive way to go.. just a thought

 

[armanidog]

I have chunks of privet that are less than 12 inches long drying. I made circles with 4 foot high field fence, put some broken blocks and bricks on the ground, filled them with the chunks, and covered them with some old tin roofing I had.

 

[Ben Stark]

I would second the kiln dried wood. Most people who sell “seasoned” wood - it’s not. I automatically assume everything being sold is green. You have to get it in the spring (cut and split) and stack it under a roof for the summer and fall. Most wood will be seasoned enough to burn after that. Die hards say it takes two years, but I’ve not encountered that. Moisture meters are handy until you can recognize seasoned wood look for less then 20% - but you need to split a piece and then quickly test the fresh split face. Just checking the ends won’t give you the true reading. Inside is always a little higher.

For this year - if you can find someone who sells kiln dried (if the price makes sense) - get it. Kiln dried is too expensive for me this year - but I got some a year ago when he was selling it for $300 a full cord -it was the best, cleanest wood I ever used. When I swept the chimney at the end of the season there wasn’t even a cup full of soot.

This year I have mostly hard maple - seasoned outside from Jan - October. Been in my garage for a month now, where it really dried out. Moisture meter shows average of 18-19.5% and it burns wonderful.

Best of luck, lots of good info on the forum.

 

[nola mike]

This seems like a no brainer for compressed logs. My local place has them for $180/ton. I don't like them to burn on their own, but it's doable and can mix with semi seasoned. Not sure what they're going for at places like tsc, though you're not in the driver's seat at this time of year.

 

[Stinkpickle]

We have sawmills that sell scrap around here for firewood that aren’t priced too bad, but they usually bundled in long planks that have to be trailered and cut down to fit into stoves.

 

[Mt Bob]

These are very popular out here, especially if you have doubts about the dryness of your paid for wood.Even the lady/store I buy pellets from switched to them,a few years back, because of the price of buying firewood, and the convenience.

Energy Logs - The best choice for radiant wood heat for your home.

One Of the Cleanest, Greenest and most Cost Efficient fuels on the Market. Amazingly, one 8 lb Energy Logs has approx. 68,000 BTU’s.

northidahoenergylogs.com

But you still need wood for kindling and starting fires.

 

[dh1989]

If you don't mind the labor you can look for pallets and mill scraps to cut up. There was a debate about nails and cat stoves a while back but I burn the equivalent of 1 cord of pallet boards plus 1 cord of seasoned oak per year and made it several years on the same cat. HT (heat treated) stamped pallets only and avoid anything with paint or stains. They are usually pretty dry and can be mixed with semi-seasoned (not wet) wood if you keep on top of chimney cleaning. The ashes do build up a lot faster with all the nails.

 

[peakbagger]

If you don't mind the labor you can look for pallets and mill scraps to cut up. There was a debate about nails and cat stoves a while back but I burn the equivalent of 1 cord of pallet boards plus 1 cord of seasoned oak per year and made it several years on the same cat. HT (heat treated) stamped pallets only and avoid anything with paint or stains. They are usually pretty dry and can be mixed with semi-seasoned (not wet) wood if you keep on top of chimney cleaning. The ashes do build up a lot faster with all the nails.

More than a few pallets are nailed with zinc coated nails which is a poison for most catalysts.

 

[stoveliker]

I would not burn with nails. There is a reason the mfg (of stove and cat) say not too (and that it voids warranty).Metals (in particular zinc) evaporate and end up poisoning the cat. Having a few cases where it works fine doesn't make it a good idea to do it too imo.

Pallets etc are fine (non pressure treated), but be careful in removing nails.

Not to (no need to, no interest in) revive the debate, but after the above opinion, it's appropriate to voice this one as well.

 

[Highbeam]

Just go buy the compressed firewood logs. They are suitable for full time use alternative to firewood. Especially in the BK cat stoves.

 

[fire_man]

I had a “chimney professional” inspect and sign off on my masonry chimney only to have major problems with it. It wasn’t until I educated my self (on this site) that I was able to get a safe setup

Can you tell what problems you discovered that the chimney inspection failed to reveal? I'll be looking for a house soon and the more I know what to look for the better.

 

[weatherguy]

These are very popular out here, especially if you have doubts about the dryness of your paid for wood.Even the lady/store I buy pellets from switched to them,a few years back, because of the price of buying firewood, and the convenience.

Energy Logs - The best choice for radiant wood heat for your home.

One Of the Cleanest, Greenest and most Cost Efficient fuels on the Market. Amazingly, one 8 lb Energy Logs has approx. 68,000 BTU’s.

northidahoenergylogs.com

But you still need wood for kindling and starting fires.

I get a pallet or two every year and use them for the overnight burns, I mix wood with them 50/50 and I'll get a 10-12 hour burn. They're great.
BKVP burned them exclusively in his BK King one year and had great results.

 

[fire_man]

I get a pallet or two every year and use them for the overnight burns, I mix wood with them 50/50 and I'll get a 10-12 hour burn. They're great.
BKVP burned them exclusively in his BK King one year and had great results.

That is the post I needed! A fellow Progress owner who already tested a compressed log brand in a WS stove!
Where do you get the pallet size quantities?

 

[MMH]

I’ll second the eco log idea, should get you through the winter; and start buying or cutting now. Semi loads are the cheapest way to go if you don’t have access to a good cutting area.