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DRYING AND STORING
FIREWOOD
DRYING
FIREWOOD
Wood
for burning in a wood stove must be "dry" to
burn with maximum efficiency. "Dry" means the
wood must be aged, so it is not "green," and
also not "wet" from rainwater. When a
tree is cut down, the wood is "green," or
saturated with water through the normal
capillary action needed to keep the tree
alive. Depending upon the exact tree specie,
it can take well over six months of normal
storage for the wood to "season" and no
longer be "green." If you harvest your
firewood in late summer or early fall, you
can cheat and speed up the seasoning process.
I am assuming you use a stick for measuring*
where to cut, so all of the pieces are the
same length and therefore will stack
reasonably well in a single
row.
The
quickest way to season firewood is to stack
it in a single row along a fence, if
possible, and slightly lower than the height
of the fence. At that point, clear
plastic sheeting, 4 mil thickness
recommended, can be draped over the fence and
the firewood. To keep the plastic tarp
from blowing off, place a piece of lead or a
smooth rock on the edge of the tarp, roll the
tarp over the rock, then tie the tarp beneath
the rock with heavy twine. Repeat every 4
feet and at the corners. The smooth
folds of the tarp will prevent it from
tearing, while the weight of the rock or lead
ingot will keep the plastic sheet from
blowing away. The plastic sheet need
only cover the top of the wood stack and down
to a foot or so off the ground. The sun
heats the wood, condensation form upward
against the plastic sheet, then drains down
the side.
What
you have done is create a miniature
greenhouse! The fence keeps the tarp
above the wood, and being draped over the
fence, it does not touch the wood on that
side. The heat of the sun is trapped by the
plastic tarp, the wood heats up, and natural
condensation forms on the plastic tarp,
draining moisture away from the wood beneath
it. With this method, it is possible to
dry "green" wood into a burnable condition
within only 4 to 6 weeks, and it will be
ready for use in the winter. The
firewood may then be stacked for storage and
use as below.
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Update Sept. 22, 2010. Late
in the season I got 1 1/4 cords of
Douglas fir. The wood was not
green, but it had been out in the rain
and was wet. Only a few weeks of good
weather could be counted on to dry the
wood for use this winter. So, I
tented the stack, this time elevating
the plastic sheet with 1" PVC pipe to
provide a good air channel to dissipate
accumulated moisture. Look at the photo
at right, taken just after dark the
same day - see the moisture on the
inside of the plastic at the top? It
works! The elevated plastic tarp
will not survive a good windstorm, but
before the storms of late October
arrive the wood will be dry. Then
the pipes can be removed and the
plastic tarp lowered to just cover the
wood itself, with the ends enclosed to
keep out the wind.
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[Update October 21, 2005. I was
asked by a reader to amplify the plastic
sheet system and the weights to hold it in
place. [See middle photo above.] I melt
wheelweights, flux with a pea sized piece of
beeswax, remove the dross, steel clips,
debris, etc, and end up with clean lead, 89%
lead, 1% tin, and 10% antimony. I
carefully ladle the molten lead into a muffin
tin, so each "muffin" is a lead weight shaped
like a muffin. Sharp edges around the top are
removed with a wood rasp. I then drill
a hole near one edge of the lead weight with
a 1/4" wood drill, and chamfer both ends of
the hole. The weight can then be used
in the edges of the plastic sheeting during
drying, and to hold down a tarp if the wood
is stored outside. I use seine
line, which is about 1/16" nylon cordage,
cutting a piece about 18" long by burning it
with a lighter; cutting nylon cord leads to
frazzled ends, but melting it through leaves
nice ends that will not fray. That
piece of cord is then tied in a circle by
folding in half and tying a half hitch at the
ends. Poke the end through the hole in
the weight, pull it through, and drop the
weight through the circle you pulled through
the hole. Now the weight is suspended
from a short, doubled length of seine line
cordage. To keep a tarp in place over a
stack of wood, put the end of the cord
through a grommet on the tarp, pull through a
loop, drop the weight through the loop,
repeat at every grommet, and the tarp will
then hang tightly down over the wood.
If a strong gust of wind hits the tarp it
will lift it up, and when the wind dissipates
the weights will settle the tarp back down on
the stack of wood. If you try to tie a
tarp down by the grommets, a strong gust of
wind can tear the grommets right out of the
tarp! With the weight system, though,
the tarp is free to lift, not tear, but not
move enough because of the weights to blow
off the stack of wood.]
* The most common length for
stoves is 18 inches. Some stoves will accept 20" long pieces, and
fireplaces will usually accept 24" lengths. But you do not want
various lengths that must be sorted later before use, so it is best
to cut them all to the useful length for your
stove.
![](pictures/sawbuck-1.jpg)
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By
cutting the firewood to 18" lengths, it
is relatively easy to calculate the
amount of wood you have, as firewood
"cord" measurements are by
volume. A sawbuck makes cutting
even lengths of firewood easy.
See Using
Crosscut Saws Efficiently for more
details.
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A
"cord" of wood is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide,
and 8 feet long, or 128 cubic feet. A
stack of 16 inch wood 4 feet high and 8
feet long is 1/3rd of a cord, and is also
called a "face cord." It takes three
"face cords" to equal a legal cord of
wood. Therefore, a stack of 16" pieces
of wood stacked 4 feet high and 24 feet along
a fence is a whole cord. If loosely
stacked, 18" lengths of wood also can add up
to 1/3rd of a cord, as the "volume" is
deceptive because the wood can be stacked
loosely.
If
you have wood delivered "by the cord," make
sure it is stacked up, not just dumped in a
pile, or you may well find that your delivery
is NOT a whole cord of wood -- what you paid
for.
Freshly cut green wood is very heavy. If
you order wood delivered and it comes in the
back of a 3/4th ton pickup, you are NOT
getting a whole cord of wood, period. The
truck cannot carry that much weight
safely (3,000 to 5,000 pounds), nor
can it hold the volume of a cord. A
standard long pickup bed is 8 feet in length,
5 feet in width, and less than 2 feet in
height. That is 80 cubic feet of wood, not
the 128 cubic feet in a whole cord. Even if
the wood is stacked up higher on the pickup
bed, say to an average of 3 feet high, it is
still less than a cord, and the weight would
have the bed of the pickup right down on the
rear axle with the front end almost off the
ground - very unsafe driving
conditions. [Note: I live in the rain
forest of Western Oregon where "green"
Douglas fir, spruce and hardwoods are very
heavy. East of the Cascade Mountains
wet wood such as pine is often lighter and
will not overload a 3/4 ton pickup, but the
volume issue remains constant.]
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STORING
FIREWOOD
Firewood should be stacked off the ground
so air can pass beneath it, or the bottom
layers will stay wet and moldy. It is
relatively simple to lay down long, straight
branches, and stack the wood on them -- just
be sure the branches (or old 2 x 4's,
whatever is available) are parallel to the
stack and near the outer sides of each row or
rick...in other words, about 15 inches apart.
That way the stacks will still be
stable.
The
entire stack of firewood may then be covered
with a tarp to keep it dry. Lashing a tarp
over a stack of firewood does not work well,
as wind will enter somewhere and tear at the
tarp. Weights tied to the grommets on the
tarp work vastly better. [See above for how
to tie on ingots].
COMMERCIAL
SALE OF FIREWOOD
There
are those who have access to woodlots, have
the tools and ability to cut and split the
wood, and would like a steady source of
income from the dry, split firewood during
hard times. Some people fill up a
pickup bed with the firewood, park at a road
junction, put up a hand lettered sign, and
wait for someone to drive by who wishes to
purchase the wood. That is not an
efficient use of time or resources. The
best potential source of turnover and
quadrupled profit is to shrink wrap in
plastic film a small bundle of firewood and
sell the bundles to local supermarket
stores. Reader Nick suggested the use
of pallet or bundle wrap for this purpose,
and it would be ideal. "A savvy
person could twine and wrap it such that a
hank of twine would be left exposed to serve
as a handle. Contrary to what some may think,
you should NOT wrap the bundle in plastic
completely! Unless the wood is kiln- or
oven-dried, it will still have moisture in
it, even if it has been seasoned on a stack.
Wrapping it tightly will retain that
moisture, it will condense in the plastic and
cause the wood to rot. Simply wrap the bundle
end-to-end, and let the ends remain open to
allow the wood to breathe." One source of the
plastic wrap is Uline.
www.uline.com/Class_03.asp?dup=Stretch+Wrap
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