What is recommended for drying large amounts of firewood?
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Vibes
Addicted to ArboristSite
I cut and split my wood as soon as I come across wood. Its not easy around my parts. I throw it in a pile that looks like a beavers hut, I let it get weathered till about .July. tHEN i STACK IT ON PALLETS AND COVER IT WITH rubber roofing, to bake in the summer heat. Ready by October.
Seasoning:
1. Cut/split/stack your wood (c/s/s)
2. Keep wood off ground (on rails, pallets, racks, wood shed, etc.).
3. Allow wind to blow through pile (if covering, only cover top and not sides)
4. Allow sun to hit it.
Sometimes #3 and #4 aren't always easily achieved everywhere, but #1 and #2 are necessary.
Most wood has seasoned enough after a year. Some species like oak take two years to season. A different stacking pattern that allows more air flow can accelerate things a bit.
If you really want to speed up things, a kiln will work, but it is added expense, energy usage, and effort. The only people I know who use a kiln are serious firewood sellers whose clients require kiln dried wood or who need to comply with government regulations for transporting wood in/out of certain areas.
1. Cut/split/stack your wood (c/s/s)
2. Keep wood off ground (on rails, pallets, racks, wood shed, etc.).
3. Allow wind to blow through pile (if covering, only cover top and not sides)
4. Allow sun to hit it.
Sometimes #3 and #4 aren't always easily achieved everywhere, but #1 and #2 are necessary.
Most wood has seasoned enough after a year. Some species like oak take two years to season. A different stacking pattern that allows more air flow can accelerate things a bit.
If you really want to speed up things, a kiln will work, but it is added expense, energy usage, and effort. The only people I know who use a kiln are serious firewood sellers whose clients require kiln dried wood or who need to comply with government regulations for transporting wood in/out of certain areas.
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Really, "seasoning" serves mainly to confuse. More to the point, we're talking air-drying (or kiln-) which is a process that can be tracked objectively. Most simply with a moisture-meter (MM.) Some folks are amazed that some red oaks, on the stump, have about 50% of their total weight in water. That would show up on a MM as 80+%, since they read dry-basis (water weight/oven-dry weight of a sample.) Some oak takes 2-3 years to air-dry to the point where it'll burn properly.
Shmudda
ArboristSite Operative
Time & patience.....you need both to dry wood!
Craig
Craig
D&B Mack
Sawin Wit It!
+1 on the sun-wind-time
Only use a kiln if necessary, either for gov't regs (transporting); or if you are limited on available stocking space and need to move product. Otherwise, it is an unnecessary cost.
Only use a kiln if necessary, either for gov't regs (transporting); or if you are limited on available stocking space and need to move product. Otherwise, it is an unnecessary cost.
logbutcher
Addicted to ArboristSite
"Sun, wind, time"
Plan. Cut in winter, split & stack in Spring. Burn the following winter. Forget the M² toys, they're as useful as %$#@&. When we have it, Red Oak cut, split, stacked in winter or Spring IS ready for burning the following winter. Just do it, stacked in a wood shed is best, but in outside racks will do. Done this way for generations.
JMNSHEO
Plan. Cut in winter, split & stack in Spring. Burn the following winter. Forget the M² toys, they're as useful as %$#@&. When we have it, Red Oak cut, split, stacked in winter or Spring IS ready for burning the following winter. Just do it, stacked in a wood shed is best, but in outside racks will do. Done this way for generations.
JMNSHEO
Big L
ArboristSite Operative
Woodpile in the SUN is key imo.
greendohn
firewood hack
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Like the others have said, cut/split/stacked with the top covered. Stay ahead of the game by at least a year or two.
otstir:
I HAVE BEEN DRYING A LOT OF MY FIREWOOD INSIDE THE OWB THIS YEAR.
(yeah, yeah, i know,,I lose a lot of the heat energy cooking off the water in unseasoned wood)
otstir:I HAVE BEEN DRYING A LOT OF MY FIREWOOD INSIDE THE OWB THIS YEAR.
(yeah, yeah, i know,,I lose a lot of the heat energy cooking off the water in unseasoned wood)
Vibes
Addicted to ArboristSite
It would be nice to always have a supply of firewood thats 2 years old.
Yes, "seasoning" can be a confusing term for those who are new to firewood, but OP needs to learn about it because that's what essentially everyone uses.
Maybe I misinterpreted something, but I thought OP wanted to know what we guys do to dry our firewood and asked if we use a kiln or do something else.
PLAYINWOOD
ArboristSite Guru
I thought that for years, but the last three years I have stacked half of my wood in the garage in May/June and left the other half out until September and I can't see a difference.
The old boys always threw woo in the woodshed in May, early June.
A couple of weeks ago I also saw a post from A fellow Canadian along the lines of wood dosen't cure in the winter.
I have 3 skids 1 4x4 piled 7 feet high and 2- 4x8 piled 5 feet with sugar maple cut in the woods in September and worked up on Thanksgiving weekend (October 12?) and it is completely cracked and checked.
I'm going to burn some in another few weeks to try.
Winter is dry and windy, kinda like my garage when the doors are open all the time in the summer.
Outside edges get weather checked, guts still wet. Most of this depends somewhat on what you are using for an appliance. Got fireplace? in that case it don't matter more heat will go up the flue then you generate. Got an outside burner same don't matter much except for the voracious appetite. ( least wise from the way i see most of chimney's looking). Got an old stove or furnace inside here it matters as 20% or less internal your splits will keep you from having a lovely roaring train sound from your flue and hopefully if that does happen you still have a livable dwelling afterwards. Got one of the new generation EPA approved appliances? Yep now you really need to get to 20% or less internal moisture content of your splits. Otherwise you are not going to get much heat, window is going to be black flue is going to collect lot of creosote built up in it and the stove just ain't going to preform right. ( that means ifin your married the missus ain't going to be warm, which of course makes them not happy which leads to complete misery on your part, especially when you get the note from your fuel suppler that they would like you to remit to them your last 2 paychecks)
Always heard those people in Maine were a bit stubborn to accept new fangled notions.
Always heard those people in Maine were a bit stubborn to accept new fangled notions.
Thanks a bunch guys for the advice! I've been reading a lot about firewood and drying, and measurements, grade, etc... lot to learn, but it's not rocket science . I guess I should have made my intentions a little clearer. I pull in at minumum 300 cords of good wood a year, and trying to increase that. Have a pretty much unlimited supply of pine and oak, and if I ran out of the stuff I pull in from work, I'd have no problem going and getting more if needed. I'm planning on starting out with semi high production equipment. Thinking of getting a special built tempest splitter, conveyor, bundler, and already have trucks trailers, tractors etc. Would like to sell cords and bundles, and do it really good. I know it'll take a couple years to really get it going, but I'd like to start off right, instead of small. I've used small splitters, and don't have the time to mess around with that. The goal is to go big at the begining, with a good investment into it, and have a county wide firewood business.
I've been researching the kilns and the more I research the more confused I get, so many options, and so far it seems like if I was going to do a kiln, it might be the best way to build one instead of buying one. There are a lot of 40' shipping containers around for $2k, it doesn't sound like the hardest thing to build.
Anyway, I heard a lot about the kilns being a waist of money, but wouldn't it improve business if the wood was super dry, and you never had to wait 2 years??? Anybody out there have something good to say about kilns? Just want to here both sides, also have no idea what the best way to heat the thing up would be, but a wood burning idea sounds good, since I have that already, and a lot that would be junk that you wouldn't want to sell anyway.
So, a little long winded, but that's sort of what I'm thinking and where I'm at. Thanks again for the advice!
. I guess I should have made my intentions a little clearer. I pull in at minumum 300 cords of good wood a year, and trying to increase that. Have a pretty much unlimited supply of pine and oak, and if I ran out of the stuff I pull in from work, I'd have no problem going and getting more if needed. I'm planning on starting out with semi high production equipment. Thinking of getting a special built tempest splitter, conveyor, bundler, and already have trucks trailers, tractors etc. Would like to sell cords and bundles, and do it really good. I know it'll take a couple years to really get it going, but I'd like to start off right, instead of small. I've used small splitters, and don't have the time to mess around with that. The goal is to go big at the begining, with a good investment into it, and have a county wide firewood business.I've been researching the kilns and the more I research the more confused I get, so many options, and so far it seems like if I was going to do a kiln, it might be the best way to build one instead of buying one. There are a lot of 40' shipping containers around for $2k, it doesn't sound like the hardest thing to build.
Anyway, I heard a lot about the kilns being a waist of money, but wouldn't it improve business if the wood was super dry, and you never had to wait 2 years??? Anybody out there have something good to say about kilns? Just want to here both sides, also have no idea what the best way to heat the thing up would be, but a wood burning idea sounds good, since I have that already, and a lot that would be junk that you wouldn't want to sell anyway.
So, a little long winded, but that's sort of what I'm thinking and where I'm at. Thanks again for the advice!
I have one customer that kiln dries his wood for sale, sells out every year. Nothing fancy as he explained to me just a big tin shed and a one of those big jet construction heaters blasting in to one side with some vents in the roof. When he stops seeing steam from the vents he switches out the load. Firewood for him is a side line to keep his guys busy in the winter as Landscaping is the main.
CRThomas
ArboristSite Guru
Drying wood
I have a 20 ft container with a stove built in the back end of it. I can dry a couple cord of wood a week but I only do Ash. So your super wood as the locals call it Oak would be another story. I cut the trees when the sap is down. That helps the drying.
brian660
ArboristSite Operative
I use wind to dry my wood, occasionally I throw in a warm sunny day as well.
whatever I cut throughout the year gets put up, I make sure I have enough dry wood for me and the rest gets sold, when i`m out of wood to sell my firewood sales for the year is over, sometimes its 10 cords sometimes its 80 cords.
whatever I cut throughout the year gets put up, I make sure I have enough dry wood for me and the rest gets sold, when i`m out of wood to sell my firewood sales for the year is over, sometimes its 10 cords sometimes its 80 cords.
CRThomas
ArboristSite Guru
Kiln
Tree pointer I kiln dry wood to sell I have found after you cost for your kiln. The cost is very small the handing gets to be a little more. But I have learn to cut that down. I dry my wood by burning the trash wood and bark that comes off my splitters. My wood is split and put in big baskets that hold a rank. The baskets are placed in my kiln then then put in the storeage.
I have 4 cords in storage and 12 ranks in the kiln. The kiln is shut down do to slow sales on a very warm winter this year. I give a $800.00 for the container and $420.00 for all the baskets. I will now go get the logs I have cut down this winter and drag them to the yard or if I get pressed for wood I buy it. Now in my area firewood is down to $20.00 to $30.00 a rank P/U. I kiln dry it resplit it wrap it I get from $2.50 to $7.00 a bundle I get 70 bundles per rank. But I only do Ash wood. My kiln and baskets are 12 years old and still good as new. I have a lot of waste do to I take all the bark off my wood I have about 6 dump truck loads piled up now. Later TreePointer
Tree pointer I kiln dry wood to sell I have found after you cost for your kiln. The cost is very small the handing gets to be a little more. But I have learn to cut that down. I dry my wood by burning the trash wood and bark that comes off my splitters. My wood is split and put in big baskets that hold a rank. The baskets are placed in my kiln then then put in the storeage.
I have 4 cords in storage and 12 ranks in the kiln. The kiln is shut down do to slow sales on a very warm winter this year. I give a $800.00 for the container and $420.00 for all the baskets. I will now go get the logs I have cut down this winter and drag them to the yard or if I get pressed for wood I buy it. Now in my area firewood is down to $20.00 to $30.00 a rank P/U. I kiln dry it resplit it wrap it I get from $2.50 to $7.00 a bundle I get 70 bundles per rank. But I only do Ash wood. My kiln and baskets are 12 years old and still good as new. I have a lot of waste do to I take all the bark off my wood I have about 6 dump truck loads piled up now. Later TreePointer
Thanks for the info, CRThomas. 
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