Dumb question on firewood

[Mnwoodman]

I have a really simple question but here it goes,

I stack my cut and dried firewood outside all year round. Most of what I keep at home is ash and hackberry cut and split, stacked outside for at least a year.
I don't tarp the stack, and I inevitably end up wiping snow and ice off of the top pieces for sure and I am wondering how much moisture comes back into the wood by letting this happen? Snow has a way to sift through the pile so I know it gets onto some of the inner pieces as well.

I burn wood as a secondary source of heat in a bay window fireplace and even slightly damp wood will burn fine once I get it up and going but I want to get the most heat out of my efforts.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[cheeves]

Cover your wood!! I use the green tarps from " Ocean State Job Lot." Cheaper there! Fireplaces are terribly inefficient!!

 

[TreeTangler]

Wet wood from being in the rain is not the same as being wet from being green. Green or unseasoned would actually contains moisture inside the cells of the wood itself. Getting wet from the elemnts is simply that and has little effect to how to wood burns.

 

[philoshop]

Hey, a new firewood guy! Welcome to AS!
TreeTangler nailed it. Bring the wood inside for a few hours and most of that surface moisture will be gone.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Snow's just an inconvenience, and a mess on the floor by the stove when it melts.

Cover it up if you want, but I hate dealing with frozen tarps more than I hate knocking snow off splits, so I don't. Heck, the dog tracks more snow in than the wood does usually. Nothing more fun for her than rolling in the snow right before she comes barrelling in the house at 90 miles an hour...

 

[flashhole]

Yeah, I gave up on covering the stacks too. A bit of snow is not a big deal. I keep a face cord under cover at all times during the burn season so it stays dry. The surface moisture dries pretty quickly, even in the cold unless it is ice.

 

[shutup-n-cut]

Been covering and uncovering mine , this might make me a little less concerned now if I don't cover before the snow flies again.

 

[TeeMan]

Cover it for your convenience if you don't bring in a night's worth of burning before it gets wet. Corrugated plastic roofing panels is what I use (but we just have rain, no snow).

 

[mr.finn]

Why not cover it? It will be that much drier when you go to burn it.

 

[Whitespider]

I ain't never covered a stack of firewood in my life... I fail to see the point.

 

[farmer steve]

Cover it for your convenience if you don't bring in a night's worth of burning before it gets wet. Corrugated plastic roofing panels is what I use (but we just have rain, no snow).

i work to hard to be frustrated with wet wood. i like to cover even if it's only the top.
TeeMan,you better cover it 'cause all us "northerner's "are takin a collection up to send you some snow.
welcome to AS mnwoodman.

 

[Nosmo]

Welcome to ArboristSite Mnwoodman .

 

[Mnwoodman]

Thanks for the input. I keep a face cord in a rack in the garage and I have a pass through box in the house next to the fireplace so I can keep the mess to a minimum. I tried a tarp but it seemed like with heavy snow it just got messy anyway in the end.

I try to keep most of my split stuff in my dad's corn crib and bring a months worth or so home at a time.

 

[autoimage]

welcome...looking forward to your post on which insert to buy

 

[nk14zp]

If you don't want to cover it stack it bark up.

 

[zogger]

I tried that this year and..back to covering the top on wet days, rolling it back on dry days. During the summer it dried off the rain fast, not so good once fall rains hit and barely at all now that it is cold for here weather.

Covering the top to keep the snow and rain and ice off doesn't hurt a bit, just roll it back to wide open during nice spells, if you want to.

 

[Whitespider]

I ain't never covered a stack of firewood in my life... I fail to see the point.

 

[turnkey4099]

Snow contains remarkably little water for its volume. At most your wood will be a bit damp on the top surface. If it really concerns you, toss the top layer or two off the stack and take the stuff under it. That's way I do mostly because I don't like handling snow covered wood.

I'm with many others. Covering is nothing but a nuisance. Worst example was a guy came up with a new idea and spammed a forum with it. Covers with zippers that would cover the top and all sides of a pile. My comment on his first post was "Looks like something you would see on a Yuppie's deck. Picture it with snow ice covering it when you want wood. Now picture it in the tracsh can". Nothing more heard from him.

Harry K

 

[farmer steve]

I ain't never covered a stack of firewood in my life... I fail to see the point.

waitng for the "why won't my wet wood burn" thread.














hi spidey.

 

[JeffHK454]

I leave all my firewood uncovered until mid-October and then cover what's getting burned this season and leave it covered. Yeah I know it's only rain..snow ..ice but I don't want to mess with handling wet wood. I don't want the pool of water around the weeks supply I keep in my garage or wet cloths and gloves. Tossing a tarp over it isn't a big deal .

Nice dry wood makes it just that much easier to get going and helps promote my significant other to load the furnace and maintain the supply.