Seasoned....is there too much?

[MarineScott]

Is there such thing as wood being too seasoned? I would think being outside there would be some percentage of moisture.

 

[mainewoods]

The short answer is, no. Wood stored outside will always have some moisture in it, thanks to mother nature. In "most" area's, there are a few exceptions, wood exposed to the outdoors would be hard pressed to ever reach kiln dried condition. Rot, in my opinion, is a bigger problem.

 

[Whitespider]

If'n the wood crumbles when you pick it up, I'm guessin' you've allowed it to "season" a bit too long... but other than that...
Like mainewoods said, it will reach a point of moisture equilibrium relative to atmospheric moisture/temperature (anywhere from 5 months to 3 years depending on species, climate, storage conditions and whatnot)... after that, rot becomes the issue (although, if stored improperly, it can rot before it seasons).
*

 

[slowp]

If wood crumbles, moisture and decay have been at/in it before it dried out. That's why it has to be under shelter here or it just rots. Fungi love it here.

 

[3fordasho]

Due to the cold winter I got further back into my wood shed than ever before. That wood has been back there since the original fill over 5 years ago. No signs of rot and it's the best burning wood I've ever had. I have not checked it with the moisture meter but I bet it's around 12-14%. It does not burn too fast as others have reported with wood that is "over seasoned". I have no doubt that left another 10-20 years in those conditions (undercover - good air flow - off ground) it will still burn just fine. Now the red squirrels packing a bunch of grass clippings/walnuts inbetween the splits... not good.

 

[zogger]

Is there such thing as wood being too seasoned? I would think being outside there would be some percentage of moisture.

It helps a lot if the wood doesn't have any bark on it. Bark just holds in moisture. I started last year separating bark/no bark wood, what a difference. No bark dries faster and the faster it dries the less chance of rot for long term storage.

If you can real thin slab off the outside with the bark, it'll dry enough you don't have any concerns usually, but thick pieces bark on are not near as good as heartwood or cleaned off from bark splits.

Nothing I say applies to rainforest storage.

 

[CTYank]

Two things:
During outdoors storage, top-covered/uncovered, on/off ground and split/unsplit will make determine how dry the wood gets and how quickly.
The actual MC on going into the stove can really drop during a few days/weeks sitting near the stove. Moisture good for sinuses, too.

 

[NSMaple1]

Wood being 'too seasoned'?

Not as simple as it sounds, on the face of it.

We dry wood by stacking with exposure to air. 'Seasoning'. Wood can't be made 'too dry' in doing this - so that's your basic answer.

But if it's left 'seasoning' like this for 'too long' and under unfavourable long-term conditions, it can rot - so in that sense, it can be 'too seasoned'.

 

[sunfish]

Dryer the better for me. Mine is stacked in the shed and is Very dry!

 

[Poston5]

Just cut it and then burn it before it rots. Owb's don't care about moisture content.

 

[cantoo]

And if it's wet you get to cut more wood. The wetter the wood the more exercise you get and exercise is good so it must be good to burn wet wood.

 

[bert the turtle]

The laws of physics don't get repealed when the stove moves outside. It takes energy to boil the water off no matter where the stove is.

It does seem that people who use outside wood burners don't care what the moisture content is. Out of sight, out of mind I suppose.

 

[Poston5]

The laws of physics don't get repealed when the stove moves outside. It takes energy to boil the water off no matter where the stove is.

It does seem that people who use outside wood burners don't care what the moisture content is. Out of sight, out of mind I suppose.

Not out of sight because I can see it. But your right on out of mind. As for more work.....I would rather cut more wood than move a wet pile 10 times before it is burnt.

 

[zogger]

Not out of sight because I can see it. But your right on out of mind. As for more work.....I would rather cut more wood than move a wet pile 10 times before it is burnt.

False economy. You still are having to touch and move more pieces and weight, because you could get by with less wood if it is dried properly. You'll burn two or three times as much burning the wet stuff over the dry, to get the same heat into your house. Something like that, a big number.

If you are stacking semi close to the outside wood boiler, just get ahead a couple years and let the wood dry, makes a heckuva difference. No real extra handling involved, just letting it sit an extra year or two or three.

 

[cantoo]

I've learned that outdoor burners are a different animal. I've only had mine a year so not really enough to gauge but I've burnt a variety of woods in it from stuff that was soaking wet just cut to kiln dried construction lumber. The kiln dried lumber just heated up the stove really quick then smoked when it shut down. Would have been good if I had a huge heat demand so I usually threw a bit in at night when we were using lots of shower water and getting house up to temp or heating the shop. I used some 16" real dry splits(2 yrs) and it seemed to really burn up quick and them smoke just like the construction lumber. It seemed that the semi wet stuff worked the best, I would throw it to the back of the firebox which slowly dried it before a heat demand. Stove seemed to fire fairly regular and would run for a decent amount of time and then shut down, didn't appear to be as much smoke though. Seemed that you still have to load it with wood type depending on weather conditions and expected heat draw, just like an indoor stove. Still wish I had of bought it years ago though.

 

[Poindexter]

FWIW the wooden chairs in King Tut's tomb were still solid enough to sit on in the 1920s, so if you can keep it dry 3000 years is not out of the question. Not that anyone in Egypt is burning 10 cords a year...

 

[CRThomas]

Is there such thing as wood being too seasoned? I would think being outside there would be some percentage of moisture.

You wood seasoned and stored out side will go back the your natural moister which in our area is 15 persent. when itrains or have heavy dew point only a quarter inch will rise in percentage. wheb stacking wood for customers top role turn the bark up if they don't have a cover for it then you have done your best for the customer

 

[haveawoody]

The year we had the 8 month summer I think is about as close as you can get to over seasoned, even dense hardwood burnt at a serious speed to start but the wood all evened out within 1 month of normal weather.
Most hardwoods can be stacked outside with decent conditions around 10 years with no loss of btu, each year after that 5% of the btu is lost then each year 5% of the remaining is lost.
Main cause is bugs and dry rot.
Takes a very long time before hardwood has lost a decent % of it's original btu.
Softwood can be stored outside for 5 years before it starts to loose btu value.

Both types have exceptions to the rule, locust can stay outdoors for 50 years and be pretty much the same it was when first seasoned and a few softwoods won't make it to 5 years well.

 

[CTYank]

The year we had the 8 month summer I think is about as close as you can get to over seasoned, even dense hardwood burnt at a serious speed to start but the wood all evened out within 1 month of normal weather.
Most hardwoods can be stacked outside with decent conditions around 10 years with no loss of btu, each year after that 5% of the btu is lost then each year 5% of the remaining is lost.
Main cause is bugs and dry rot.
Takes a very long time before hardwood has lost a decent % of it's original btu.
Softwood can be stored outside for 5 years before it starts to loose btu value.

Both types have exceptions to the rule, locust can stay outdoors for 50 years and be pretty much the same it was when first seasoned and a few softwoods won't make it to 5 years well.

Dunno where you pulled those numbers from. IME, so long as I keep rain from wetting them, all the hardwoods I have here can be stored indefinitely. Not so much experience with conifers, but no real degradation encountered yet.

Seems the only folks who kvetch about "too dry firewood" are the ones who throw it away into open fireplaces.

 

[svk]

Around here splits that are off the ground, top covered will go 10-15 years before starting to rot starting at the ends making them "crumbly" as WS mentioned.

5yr seasoned wood dries down to about 12-14 percent on the mm. That's all you can get around here.