Alternate Fuel Choices - Construction Wood, Pallets, Driftwood, etc.

[s37d]

I used to work in construction and routinely burned things like this:

I burned pretty much every piece of wood I ripped off of old houses during the demolition process - tongue and groove fir flooring, solid pine wall sheathing, partially rotted/worn cedar shingles, old growth Douglas Fir true 2x4's, framing members from old decks, etc. Basically anything that didn't have glue or chemicals, I burned. The vast majority of it was from old homes, which there are many of over here on the north shore of Massachusetts, so there wasn't much plywood or PT, just a lot of good old solid heartwood. I also live a couple hundred feet from the ocean, so any pieces of driftwood I saw lying around I'd bring back and throw in the fire. Every bit counts, I say.

What about you guys, what do you burn that isn't typical straight-from-the-tree split and stacked firewood? No PT I hope

 

[Nosmo]

Pallets and Wood Scraps

When I used to spend some time out in my shop during cold weather I burned pallets for a quick hot fire. I used to burn all my wood working scraps too.

One time several years ago one of the steel plants gave away a huge pile of 4" x 4" oak timbers . I was one of the people who loaded up my pickup with them. They burned really well in my stoved out in the shop.

In my stove in the house I still use pallets as kindling to get a fire started. Oh by the way if anyone wants to start burning pallets you need to remember there will be a lot of nails in the ashes.

Nosmo

 

[shelbythedog]

Cut up pallets and leftover lumber from home improvement projects are used as kindling in my 2 stoves. Never any pressure treated lumber, though. I dump ashes way out of the way once cooled so nothing with a tire will pick up any stray nails.

 

[Streblerm]

I broadcast my ashes out in the yard or put them in the garden, so I try to stay away from nails. I have cut up some pallets and just thrown away the bits with nails in them. One of my favorites is scrap from a local "portable" barn builder. You know, the 8X10 wooden barns you see for sale. I can pick up a truckload of clean, new, kiln dried lumber cut-offs for free almost any time I want. Occasionally there will be a piece of t-111, but most of it is 2X4 or 2X6 pieces between 6-12". I don't burn it for heat but more for kindling started with a propane torch. Easy lighting for sure. A handful thrown on some marginal coals is always sure to get a fire going.

Of course there's always slabwood. I was cleaning up some tops last year and we found a house sized pile of slabs and second cuts out in the woods. I really liked burning it. My dad and I actually went in on two tandem axle loads of green slabs early this spring. We payed $300 for 12 bundles delivered. I don't usually pay for wood, but a minimum of six cords for $300 and no splitting? that's a deal. I can get a 16hr burn out of a stoveload of slabs. They turn into coals quickly and don't quite put off as much heat as cordwood, but they put off enough and the coals last a good long time. I figure each bundle is a solid pickup load in my truck. Even though I don't like paying for wood, I have to admit that If I could pay somebody $25 to go fill my truck up with firewood, bring it to my house, and dump it next to my wood pile, well I would definitely go for that.

I have heard that there is a rustic furniture maker somewhere south of me that sells 12" block cut offs of kiln dried hardwood. I don't like buying wood so I haven't researched it too much. There is a huge basket maker that sells 8' long hardwood cants. I guess they only use the outside of the log and have no use for the heartwood. Again, I don't like to pay. Then there's the compressed sawdust "eco bricks". I burned a few of them and they are nice. I just can't bring myself to pay for them. If you buy in quantity you can get them for as little as $150 a ton which is about like pellets. Too rich for my blood.

When I was in boyscouts we used to camp on an old farm. We found an old quonset hut full of mahogany blanks for levels. There were no vials or straight edges on them but they were machined for it. We were accustomed to scrounging for wood with a hatchet and axe to keep warm and we didn't think anything of burning up a bunch of the blanks. Well, when the old farmer found out, he was none to happy. We almost lost our camping privileges on his property but the scoutmaster offered some slave labor (us) as an apology. I wish I could find some of those, man did they make a nice fire. Who knows how long that mahogany was drying under that quonset hut. I bet whatever we didn't burn is still sitting out in that building. We were probably doing that old farmer a favor by helping him with his hoarding problem. Back then we didn't know it was a disease.

 

[s37d]

Oh by the way if anyone wants to start burning pallets you need to remember there will be a lot of nails in the ashes.

Yea, same with old construction wood, lots of nails. I'm actually so cheap I filter the old nails out of the ash and save them for reuse. I dump the ash all throughout my garden for fertilizer, so any nails that get mixed in just rust out anyway. It's not the type of garden anyone runs around in, more like shrubs and perennials.

 

[Nosmo]

I'm actually so cheap I filter the old nails out of the ash and save them for reuse.

Yeah, I've got a couple bucket fulls of the twisted type nails from those burned pallets myself.

Nosmo