Too much Wood?

[NordicSplitter]

Is there such a thing as to much wood? This coming winter will be my first year burning and I have roughly 12 face cords of wood. Come late Aug I will be picking up 8 more. I probably will be burning about 5-7 face cords per year. My concern is the wood getting "punky" from either un-seen bugs or just plain age. Are my concerns warranted or should I just keep stocking up? Thanks

 

[Thistle]

Nope. As long as you have the time, storage space,energy,money to find,process or buy it - it never hurts to be 2-3 (or more) years ahead.In case of future sickness,injury,too much rain or snow or you might be working out of town or doing lots of overtime.Nice to have that extra 'cushion' there,its like money in the bank or extra food in the kitchen cupboard/freezer.

Even just working 3-4 hrs week in your spare time when schedule and/or weather allows can build up your stash quite rapidly.You'd be amazed how quickly every little bit adds up.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

I'm to the point of too much wood as I've run out of storage space. Where I am you can't have wood piled on the ground, it needs to be 12" off the ground. I have plenty of property area, not enough racks though, Randy

 

[mywaynow]

My father is burning wood that is over a decade stored in a barn. It is fine.

 

[fireview2788]

My neighbor was trying to tell me that I have more than I need and that it will start rotting before I sue it all. She is basing this on the fact that THEY don't use that much wood. Of course I let it fall on deaf ears and kept looking for more wood. It's stacked neat and really out of sight for her so I think she was just blowing smoke and trying to be a know-it-all. BTW, I'm at six full cords and looking for more!

fv

 

[DexterDay]

5-7 face cords is not that much wood to be burning in a year. How big is your home? Do you burn wood as your "Primary" heat? House cant be to big, to burn so little. Happy for your efficiency. But seems like you should/would need more wood. Most burn the 12 face cord you have now per year.

 

[snowleopard]

Is there such a thing as to much wood? This coming winter will be my first year burning and I have roughly 12 face cords of wood. Come late Aug I will be picking up 8 more. I probably will be burning about 5-7 face cords per year. My concern is the wood getting "punky" from either un-seen bugs or just plain age. Are my concerns warranted or should I just keep stocking up? Thanks

Yes.

You're not there yet. You're not even close.

The four cords you have on hand are going to cover you for this winter, with a cushion.

The almost -three you're going to get in August will be good for 2012-13. If you can also put up that much this summer for 13-14, you're in good shape. Then try to keep that lead by putting up at least a winter's worth each winter.

I'm aiming for a five-year supply of birch, and at least a few years ahead in poplar/spruce (those are what we have around here for wood).
This means that this coming winter I'll be burning birch that was cut in March; some was split then, some since. I'm splitting small and exposing to sun and wind to try to season it asap. It's not going to be ideal, but it will work.

The rest that I'm putting up will be seasoning for the next winter, and the one after that. The other two-winter's supply will be my cushion. The three-years' supply guarentees that I'll have seasoned wood, and the two years' stash is my safety net, which is why I want to be working five years ahead. So I'm anticipating putting up about 15 cords of birch this summer and 2-5 cords of poplar or spruce. My hope is to have, to use that back-east term, about 60 face cords of wood on hand.

This will not be too much, either.

Your local Cooperative Extension Service can advise about regional wood-crunching insects, and much more. The general rule of thumb is that critters like damp wood. Get your wood split and up on pallets or racks, stacked so the wind and the sun can hit it, and it will dry out so that it becomes unattractive to bugs.

Be prepared for surprises. I went overnight from supplementing my oil burner with wood heat to heating with wood full time in January, in Fairbanks, when my boiler blew. It was a tough winter, and I learned a lot. One of the things I learned is that I want to have a lot of firewood on hand. And that it takes a lot of wood before you get to the point where you have too much wood.

 

[snowleopard]

I'm to the point of too much wood as I've run out of storage space. Where I am you can't have wood piled on the ground, it needs to be 12" off the ground. I have plenty of property area, not enough racks though, Randy

Randy, I have a thought about your stack situation.

Take sets of concrete blocks, and stack them two high. Put upright 2x4's or 2x6's in them, and pour some slurry in the blocks so they set up and hold the 2x's upright. Then run 2x4's across horizontally between these sets of uprights--you'd probably need a few more concrete blocks underneat the runs to give additional support--could probably just turn single blocks on end. Fasten with bolts, nails, or braces, and that would hold single lengths of wood, at least. If you ran them 12 feet long and 8 feet high, and cut your lengths 18", you could get a cord to a rack. Then just nail a couple of 2x's from one rack to the next and the next, and the would be stabilized and stilll allow for wind and sun to get at the wood. AWW is usually not too terribly expensive, and you could buy seconds at a lumber yard. That would get your racks 12" high.

Does that description come clear? What do you think of this approach?

 

[Woody Stover]

I have a thought about your stack situation.

I just had a worrisome thought. What if I have about 8 cords single-row stacked and we have a 'quake. I'm going to be extremely annoyed if I have to re-stack all of that. Of course, I guess I'll be happy if the house is still standing...

 

[Cascade Failure]

I have a thought about your stack situation.

I just had a worrisome thought. What if I have about 8 cords single-row stacked and we have a 'quake. I'm going to be extremely annoyed if I have to re-stack all of that. Of course, I guess I'll be happy if the house is still standing...

And you would still have 8 cords. Much better than a standing, cold house.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

I'm to the point of too much wood as I've run out of storage space. Where I am you can't have wood piled on the ground, it needs to be 12" off the ground. I have plenty of property area, not enough racks though, Randy

Randy, I have a thought about your stack situation.

Take sets of concrete blocks, and stack them two high. Put upright 2x4's or 2x6's in them, and pour some slurry in the blocks so they set up and hold the 2x's upright. Then run 2x4's across horizontally between these sets of uprights--you'd probably need a few more concrete blocks underneat the runs to give additional support--could probably just turn single blocks on end. Fasten with bolts, nails, or braces, and that would hold single lengths of wood, at least. If you ran them 12 feet long and 8 feet high, and cut your lengths 18", you could get a cord to a rack. Then just nail a couple of 2x's from one rack to the next and the next, and the would be stabilized and stilll allow for wind and sun to get at the wood. AWW is usually not too terribly expensive, and you could buy seconds at a lumber yard. That would get your racks 12" high.

Does that description come clear? What do you think of this approach?

Snowleopard, That sounds like it will work with minimal cost. The problem has been holding the uprights & this solves that. I already have the 2x4's. Thanks for the idea, Randy

 

[snowleopard]

I just had a worrisome thought. What if I have about 8 cords single-row stacked and we have a 'quake. I'm going to be extremely annoyed if I have to re-stack all of that. Of course, I guess I'll be happy if the house is still standing...

And if not, you can build a cordwood house out of those 8 cords.

I understand your thought processes. I was looking at the Valley rimmed with smoke from wildfires last week, and thought, "What if we had a tornado?" Like snakes, woodticks, poison oak and ivy, Lyme disease, rats, termites, and a bunch of like stuff, we also don't have tornados. But we have wildfires.

Snowleopard, That sounds like it will work with minimal cost. The problem has been holding the uprights & this solves that. I already have the 2x4's. Thanks for the idea, Randy

You're welcome. Let us know if you pursue this, and how it works out. That extra air passing underneath might help with seasoning, too.

 

[Kenster]

Is there such a thing as to much wood? This coming winter will be my first year burning and I have roughly 12 face cords of wood.

We're all grownups here. Most all of us prefer to talk in terms of "real" cords. aka..."Dictionary" cords. ;-)

So you have four cords on hand. Great start. Keep working. I only burn about a cord and a half a year. I like to do my firewood work in the cool and cold months but I broke my ankle mid October and that set me back somewhat. So now I working wood in 100 degree heat. I barely scrounged up enough old, dry scraps to supplement my on hand stack to make it through last winter. I now have two cords stacked and close to four more in rounds that need to be split. Out of that six cords I think I have enough dry wood to get me through the coming winter. I'll be in good shape the following year and even better the next. I still have quite a bit of wood still in 'tree' form that is down and will get processed when I have time and the temps get below 100 again. So, this winter I can process another cord or two for the future and continue to stay ahead.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Is there such a thing as to much wood? This coming winter will be my first year burning and I have roughly 12 face cords of wood. Come late Aug I will be picking up 8 more. I probably will be burning about 5-7 face cords per year. My concern is the wood getting "punky" from either un-seen bugs or just plain age. Are my concerns warranted or should I just keep stocking up? Thanks

Too much wood? I've never seen it and we've been 7-8 years worth on hand for many years. That can disappear fast though at time. Some may get sold, some might be to help out someone in need and some may be just to be sure we always have lots of wood on hand just in case we can't put up wood some winter. In our case, we are down a bit but that is okay. Hopefully next winter will find us putting up more wood than normal.

I always recommend having 2-3 years wood supply as the least amount.

What about the wood rotting? That is not a worry at all, even if left uncovered. All that is needed is to stack the wood off the ground and it does not have to be a lot off the ground either. We use 4" poles or whatever we have. I've even used splits or rounds to stack on and those turn out to be the sacrificial lambs.

So yes, your concerns should not be concerns at all. Just keep on putting up wood and you will be a very happy man because your wood will be much better. You will also find that when you have better wood, that is, some that has been stacked a few year, you will actually burn less because you'll get more heat from the dry wood.

And yes, around this forum we prefer to talk about cords of wood rather than face cords.

 

[muncybob]

I'm 2 years ahead and will be working on more soon. All is stacked and on pallets. A friend came by this weekend(in his wood burning days he burned mostly unseasoned wood) and said that wood will probably start to rot before I get to use it..I did not agree and had to remind him that he also said I would be burning at least twice a much as I do and I will have creosote problems...which I don't

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

4 cords . . . is not all that much wood. For me that's about what I burn in a year burning 24/7. The way I look at it . . . if you don't burn all 4 cords you'll be that much further ahead in terms of seasoning for the following winter . . . plus it's nice to have a bit of a cushion since come March of 2012 we'll be reading a heckuva lot more posts that start out "I underestimated my wood supply and only have enough wood for another three days. What do I do now?" than posts complaining about having too much wood left over.

I suppose you could have too much wood if a) you don't have the storage space, b) you're devoting so much of your time to scrounging or processing wood that you neglect your other household jobs, work, spouse, etc. or c) your yard begins to bear more than a passing resemblance to the wood seller's processing yard two towns over. Otherwise . . . this is usually not an issue.

The key to keeping wood is to keep it dry . . . and that means off the ground . . . allow ventilation. I mean it's not quite the same, but there are plenty of 200 year old homes in the U.S. where the wood is not all punky and riddled with bugs -- the key is folks have kept the wood from getting wet and allowed it to breathe. The same principles apply to firewood. If I was looking at more than a year or two outdoor storage I would top cover it . . . and definitely stack it off the ground (I use pallets.)

Now if you really, truly are so flush with wood that you cannot burn it all in one year or two years . . . you can save it for future years, help a fellow hearth.com member who joins in October and hasn't started gathering his firewood or simply go camping or have lots of fire pit burns.