To season wood, must it be covered

[varna]

First off, Hello folks
Been doing a bunch of reading and this site is awesome.
Well, I am not new to the work involved in gathering and splitting wood. Did that as a kid for Pop but we only did it for a "fireplace" not as a heat source to heat the house. So, now I am heating with a OWB and am having a fun time gathering my wood. For my question:
The wood I am spitting and stacking for "next year" should it be covered? Left open to rain and snow? I have a shed for this years wood but not for next years. If wood is drying or "seasoning" and it rains on it, does that start the process all over again? Does dry seasoned wood act like a "sponge" absorbing any and all moisture it can? Sorry if this has been answered before but my searches haven't found the answer. I would be moving my wood to the roofed wood shed the summer before I burn it. Will that be sufficient to ensure dry seasoned wood for burning?
Thanks

 

[wdchuck]

Welcome to AS.

Wood is hydroscopic.

Covering stacked wood with tin does allow full seasoning, and keeps it clean/dry.

Keeping your wood off the ground, like on pallets will probably be the one best thing you can do for seasoning wood.

Availability to sun/wind all year will get you good wood in the shortest amount of time.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Welcome to AS.

Wood is hydroscopic.

Covering stacked wood with tin does allow full seasoning, and keeps it clean/dry.

Keeping your wood off the ground, like on pallets will probably be the one best thing you can do for seasoning wood.

Availability to sun/wind all year will get you good wood in the shortest amount of time.

Good answer.
I know guys have said that their wood piled up below a tarp is wetter than the wood set on the tarp to hold it down.

 

[scotvl]

No, But it's a good idea once it's seasoned to put it in a wood shed or cover the top of your stacks a couple of months before you burn it.

 

[turnkey4099]

Wood will dry to a level that stabilizes for your weather conditions. It will then vary somewhat season to seasonbut not by a lot. It pretty much only takes in water from the ends, not the sides. Thus while you pick up a 'wet' chunk when it is raining, it is all surface moisture except for alittle that has already absorbed in the ends. You can even burn off of 'wet' piles by just throwing the top layer or two aside and using the dry stuff under them.

Cover or not? Depends on your climate. If I were on the wet side of Washington state I would cover the top. I am on the dry side were we only get wet from about Nov-March. My stacks are left uncovered but the current season's wood is moved inside along about Sept/Oct. Then I fill the woodshed with stuff from the outside stacks.

Harry K

 

[HillRat]

Hi & welcome

I'm in NJ too, a bit north of Trenton along the Delaware. I stack fresh cut/split wood on pallets and leave it uncovered. I find it seasons just fine that way. It sits out in the open (but off the ground) for a year or more.

When that stack is ready to burn, some time in the fall I cover it with a tarp to keep the rain and snow off, and it burns just fine all winter. Your plan to move the next batch of seasoned wood to a roofed shed is similar and should work just fine.

Which types of wood are you burning? We've got lots of ash and oak up this way.

 

[SWI Don]

To reiterate. Get the wood off of the ground! Beyond that covering is dependant on climate.

Here in Iowa, I don't cover anything until it is ready to burn. Then it goes into the woodshed. My woodshed is three sided so there is not enough air movement for good drying so it is best to have it ready to burn when going in.

If you do decide to cover your drying stacks. Be sure to only cover the tops. You need air movement to get it dry and a tarp will trap moisture under it also.

Don

 

[KsWoodsMan]

:agree2: Keep the weather off the top and let the wind/sun get to the sides. The less moisture it has to get rid of the faster it will be ready or the drier it will be when it is needed.

 

[varna]

Thanks for the replies.
I do have my stacks on pallets, 4 long 1 on each end standing with posts to hold them up. I was going to see if I could gather up some old corrugated tin sheets or something just to cover the tops but now I'm not so worried that I "have" to get it done immediately.
Thanks again for the replies.

 

[HOGBEAR]

Keep it off the ground, cover just the top to keep off the moisture but allow the sides to be exposed to wind and sun.

 

[varna]

Hi & welcome
I'm in NJ too, a bit north of Trenton along the Delaware.
Which types of wood are you burning? We've got lots of ash and oak up this way.

I am mostly burning oak. All of my "free" wood I'm cutting off of a friends property. I'm only taking standing non-rotted dead and recent blow down trees right now. There is a few years worth of that easily. He has 200+ acres of woods. I'm sure there are some other types of wood but I am positive I'm not cutting any pine. I have 2 relatives who want their yards cleared almost exclusively oak. About 30 to 40 very large trees each. I just need to find the time to go cut them. We live in very heavily wooded areas of SJ where you need 5 acres minimum to build......some places 10.

 

[Grace Tree]

Keep it off the ground, cover just the top to keep off the moisture but allow the sides to be exposed to wind and sun.

I just finished burning a bunch of cherry that was dropped and left laying on acreage that was logged at least 15 years ago. Whatever wasn't touching the ground was nice and dry in the heartwood; outside sloughed off when I split it. I did it more to clean up the woods than for need of firewood but it was a nice surprise.
Phil

 

[gallegosmike]

In my area ,new mexico high mountains 7500ft. Ive normally got mild warm days and cool nights in the summer time with pretty low humidity. Thats till the monson rain season hits! I season my wood in the open with out any cover. The little rain that I get during the summer helps loosen up the bark on pinion pine that I burn. Come the monson season, I tarp up my wood and get ready for fall. Outside right now, it is a relative humidity of 20%. Ive seen it as low as 4%!!! Bone dry!!!

 

[wkpoor]

Drying down lumber is somewhat like drying firewood. Its best to start outside with no cover. Moisture on the cellular level is what you are trying to dry not surface moisture. In Ohio my wood outside has stayed good for 3 yrs or more with no cover. But I also store my wood out in the wide open space where the sun and wind can get at it from all sides everyday. After a rain its not long before the wood is dry again. So basically I wouldn't move inside till the next year after its had time to dry down good.

 

[dolmen]

. We live in very heavily wooded areas of SJ where you need 5 acres minimum to build......some places 10.

I'm looking for somewhere to relocate to and like the sound of that ... would you have any further details please ... I'm in the uk so all is new to me, thanks.

Cheers

 

[varna]

Well, For new Jersey it is very wooded but in the grand scheme of things across the US, this is by far NOT the wilderness. I was born and raised here and "was" mostly farms and woods. Now, I can't wait to retire and get out of NJ. It gets worse every year. Yes, where I am I am fortunate to not be located right upon my neighbor, but take a road a few miles in most any direction......you will come across a development.
Search elsewhere my friend

 

[HillRat]

The state of New Jersey has some positives that might interest you-- much of it is within commuting distance to New York City or Philadelphia, and the job markets in the cities and in the nearby suburbs in NJ are pretty healthy.

There are some nice rural areas of NJ. Hunterdon, Sussex, and Somerset counties still have a somewhat rural character. Within an hour's drive you can hike the mountains, walk in the woods, or walk the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. You can drive to NYC and visit some of the finest museums in the world, catch a Broadway play, and find any type of food you can imagine. (The southern third of the state I'm not as familiar with, but others here should be able to give you some more details.)

The downside is: many areas are very densely populated, the traffic can be bad, property and income taxes are high, home prices can be high, and the state's politics are extremely corrupt. (Taxes are relative; coming from the UK, you may not find them excessively high. Compared to other states in the US, they are among the highest.)

Now that I've said all the nice stuff, I have to say that I've had enough of the negatives and am on my way out of here after having lived here for ~40 years. The negatives, for me, have been too much for too long... but there are positives to the state, and I know lots of people that are pretty happy here!

Hey, would you like to buy a nice three bedroom ranch with a wood stove on 4 1/2 wooded acres?? :biggrinbounce2:

 

[dolmen]

Thank you very helpful info ... I'm sorry to have side tracked the thread, but I got excited at the thought of my own 10+ acres of woods!

Some have told me to look down NC way in the mountains nice in summer and not too cold come winter? Its difficult doing all the research from this end, its such a big place I need to weed out the possabilities on paper first.

DW and myself would be looking to early retire and have at least 10 acres hopefully more, small highly insulated home that could be left during the winter if need be. I like it rural but not too remote, somewhere ready to go would be perfect ... but anyhow DW is heading over in May 2010 and may see something she likes.

Cheers

 

[savageactor7]

I probably wouldn't cover if I lived in Jersey cause the snow doesn't last long and rain water don't mean jack s.

 

[Uncle John]

Just wondering why its important to get it off the ground when its all off the ground but the bottom layer any how.