I’ve been cutting and splitting my own firewood for the past 20 years and your video accurately describes the best practices for effective wood drying. Thank you for sharing your video.
So since you have the experience of time, if a person's lives in a state with high heat and low humidity, will the wood you split, stack and cover dry even faster?
Here in Ireland we get a lot of rain. People stack it along walls and cover it with sheets of corrugated iron with rocks/concrete blocks on top to weigh it down. Some people build a small roof on pillars. Or cover it with a waterproof tarp.We don’t get reliable sunshine but we get a lot of wind. Wind dries better than sun because it blows right through the timber.
Here in Taiwan, and also get lots of rain. When I was renting a room in the mountains, I collected them and just stack it at the balcony, but cause lots of bugs biting it because it is still too wet. At now, I'm in my original house and gonna plan to make a shelf or sth. for it, also at the balcony. Maybe I should try your way to let it dry and store it, thank you so much for sharing ! !
I like the tip about facing the sun. Never heard anyone recommend that one yet. You can also cover top with tarps to block rain, cross stack to open up more airflow, and cut smaller pieces.
Actually winter is a friend of the drying process as well ! The freeze expels moisture at a high rate as well ! Thanks for the video it was a nice watch !
Yes. It’s called freeze dried. The homesteaders used to still hang laundry in the winter and the dry cold air would dry the clothes like in the summer ,Here in Alberta anyways ! Interesting
You made a lot of good points Adam. I dry my wood in a single row for about a year then into the woodshed for another year. I am currently about 2 1/2 years ahead. I burn strictly oak and locust in my house. In my garage I burn whatever is dry. I get a lot of soft maple and it drys much faster than hard maple, usually about 6 months will do. Good video my friend!
Hey Adam, great video! I do agree with several other commenters. I have one long rack; about 75' long, where I stack my firewood on 4x4's. The 4x4's are also laying across cinder blocks which puts the bottom layer of my firewood off the ground by approx. one foot. It gets tons of air flow underneath which seems to help. However, your firewood stack is way bigger and that would mean purchasing lots of blocks and 4x4's; so, placing another layer of pallets down before you stack may give you a similar affect! Keep up the great videos and greetings from northern New Jersey!!
When I cut and split firewood I always split it in blocks 4 sides to have more sides to dry out. Wood sheds are very ideal. High and dry and stacking them full. Summer is also good for drying out the heat and low moisture really helps. If you are using fire wood then split enough more more than a few years every year is far better. Keeping the rain and snow off of it will allow it to dry down to the normal 10 to 15% after a few years. Everyone wants to only cut and store for a years worth which is what gets them in the end. Plan out and build a wood shed for upwards of 5 seasons of wood. If you need 10 cords per year you should have a shed to stack 50 cords. That would be about 15 by 60 long lean too, make sure you have about 4 feet of over hang so that you can avoid most of the rain and still allow good air flow to pass by. The more wood you have the less work you will have to do each year. I see people on youtube trying to catch up with wood all the time. Spend the time and effort to get enough wood ready. Buy a wood splitter, buy or borrow equipment find locals and share in the work. A group of people with some equipment can process a lot of fire wood in a solid week end. Doing this a more than a few times a year will get every one a stack of fire wood for years to come.
Top video as always. Love the new tipper. That's better than flogging the Hilux! Very good point about positioning your piles in North/West facing paddocks. If the grass dries quicker then so will the wood 👍
Thanks a lot. I have trees at my house I usually throw away when I do a yearly trim, some get trimmed every two years. Usually I do it late winter before spring starts growing new branches. I could let that wood dry up for a year and a half to have it ready for a spring/summer cookouts. Thanks a lot.
I never really comment on videos but I need to let you know that in order to dry your wood faster you should pile it right side up. You are piling your wood upside down especially if you are not covering it. Always pile your wood with the bark side up. That way it naturally sheds water when it gets rained on or snowed on.
A Norwegian university tested seasoning split firewood bark side up vs. bark side down. They found that bark side DOWN averaged about 1% drier than bark side up, and concluded there was no significant difference between stacking split wood bark up or bark down.
I live in South Eastern Ontario. I do everything possible at every stage of the firewood hunting and harvesting to maximize the drying process. I cut all my trees in November and december when moisture from sap is lowest in trees. I select 70% Ash, 10% Maple, 10% Beech, and the other 10% is of cherry, apple and iron wood. I stay away from oak because it takes forever to dry. I buck all trees up at the end of February and all of March. I collect all the rounds all of April and May and stack them in single rows off the ground in full sun and wind. Then I stack it off the ground as I split all of June. Then I let it sit in upper field uncovered with full, wind and sun July and August. September and October I transfer wood to lower field for easy pick up when selling. I stack it in 3 single rows of 240 feet each still exposed to sun and wind and rain... Usually I sell 35 cord a year. I burn the same wood as I sell and my wood gets down to 9 to 15% moisture. After that it will fluctuate with humidity in the air.... I have split wood in shed that is leftover from 3 years ago and it stays at around no moisture reading to 6% depending on external humidity. So I'm satisfied with 9 to 15% to burn. I've never had any issues and my clients keep coming back and have never complained. In fact I have 2 clients that drive an hour to pick up 4 cord every fall. This year has been perfect for drying. We have barely had any rain. It was like an oven all summer and even now we are have warm sunny days. Nature has been the kiln this year.
This past year we used a Shelter Logic to season our firewood. We stacked about 3 cord in the shed an hung a fan from the top. We put the firewood in the shelter in April. We checked the moisture a couple times a month. By September it was below 20%. This was green oak mixed with dead ash. Started burning in November and most readings are 15%.
I burn mostly oak and maple. Bringing in firewood from outside cold air, the wood needs to warm up before burning it. I make sure the firewood is cut on 90 degree angles on both ends. When I bring inside, I will put the wood standing up in soldier course fashion in front of the stove and the high heat will further dry the wood. I can bring in wood without any visible checking on the ends, but when I stand them up on end in front of the glassdoor, in about an hour or less, the checking ( cracks on the ends) will develop showing signs of dryer wood. Remember to at least bring your wood inside the room where the stove is, to bring it up to room temperature.
I did have my wood in a pile for about two years. I recently bought a residential splitter it's big enough for my needs. I also have my stacks on pallets double rows. I have my end towards the west for the sun and the wind to blow through the pile.
@@HometownAcres what I have is pine what was in the center was really wet. Most of my pile is tree tops and slabs from my sawmill. I use my split firewood for my fire pit. I am doing my hard wood tonight I will let you know.
My meter start was 10.7 it's old. Big round in the center of pile was 50.1 on the end. The rest was cherry bark was 10.8-19.4 ends 12.7-18.4 centers 17.6 22.1. From now on I will be stacking my rounds.
I live in alaska and burn tons of birch and beetle kill spruce. Every few days I'll crank it up to clean it out. Every spring when I run a brush down the pipe , well its clean. So I can honestly say that burning green birch isn't bad and it does last longer. So the moisture content doesn't matter to me.
Hey Adam, just a few tips. If you can, you should consider adding a second layer of pallets underneath your stacks when theyre sitting on dirt and grass like that. Air flow is your friend, stack loosely but not so that it tips over. 2 layers of pallets lets more air flow underneath it. Also you should leave a gap between your rows to let air pass between them. Im not familiar with how much rain you get over there, but here in Norway we usually cover our rows with typical tin or aluminium roofing panels and a strap around to secure it from blowing off. With all that rainwater not running down into your stacks, the wood dries really fast. We usually cut and stack before easter, leave the stacks open till mid summer and then we cover them from the rain until mid august. Its usually something between 14-17% moisture by that time, and most people sell it in late july/early august so the customer can fill up their storage. In september/oktober the air gets more damp and the wood will pick this up if left outside. Covering from the rain also prevents the wood from turning as grey which my customers usually pay extra for ("designer birch wood", yes my friends laugh at me). If I could attach a picture Id show you but Im sure you get the deal. Anyway, super happy that your wood selling business is blooming, nice stacks and as always thanks for a nice video. Keep up the good work and stay safe. //Finn
Hey Finn love to hear how things are done across the pond. It’s interesting to see how the seasons are different too. I do need to find a way to get my wood covered up here as we start approaching the end of summer. Thanks for the comment buddy. Hope to hear from you again!
I like the corrugated metal sheets, just enough flex and strength in 12’ runs and sheets lap/nest well together for my sloping piles which are normally 30-40’ long... Also agree w elevating w 2x layers of pallets underneath, which I think actually makes the bottom layer stay drier, and last longer as a result... great video, keep up the good work!
I agree with the idea of getting the wood off the ground as much as possible. Rather than 2 layers of pallets, look for scrap building materials and fasten 2X4's or whatever scrap you have to the bottom of your pallets before loading them up with wood. Use the pallets for stacking wood rather than stacking more pallets. They won't collapse unless you really side load the pallets in some way. Like running into them with other pallets. Don't ask me how I know that. And cover that wood in the winter with tarps or tin or re-engineered IBC tanks.
For my own personal firewood I built inexpensive racks: two 8x8x16" concrete blocks sitting on a 2x16x16 brick on the ground. This puts the wood about 15" of the ground. I have two 2x6x12's running between them, and two 2x4x48" tipped into the open blocks at each end, which holds the stacks on the ends. This gives me a drying rack that will hold split logs 16-24" long, stacked up about 4', and over 12' long at the top. This allows the wood to get plenty of air flow and sun. It's 90-100 degrees all summer long with very little rain. That holds all the firewood I need, so it was worth the investment of about $100 per stack that I will reuse every year. I have a shed I move the dry wood to closer to the house.
Really good video and I agree completely with all the points you made. A few things were missed though, if 'faster' is the key word. 1) Cover the stack. Not necessary in deserts, but anywhere else, the number of gallons of water an average season's rainfall will land on the wood is always a surprise to the people I calculate it for. Sheet iron and building blocks is the remedy. 2) De-bark it. Bark is extraordinarily effective at keeping water in (the water just under the bark will move quicker going down through the 5 inches of wood beneath it to reach the split face than it will going up through the bark itself). 3) Split it smaller (obvious I know) and aim for shallow rectangles in cross-section rather than wedges. This reduces the distance the water needs to travel to reach an open surface and requires a straight-grained non-fibrous wood like ash/maple. 4) Choose your species. The pore structure and tenacity of bark vary a lot between species and some (eg birch, hazel, sycamore) give up their water easily. Others are less willing eg oak, holly. And elm is extraordinarily slow to dry. It gets its bad reputation for firewood because of this, when in fact it is a brilliant heat source, and when really dry, has a very low tendency to smoke.
For the Aussie hardwoods i cut, 3 years including 3 summers is ideal for where i live. Split and stacked straight into a woodshed with concrete floor. Any dead standing timber i cut, 6 months on the deck around the house is enough to complete the drying process. Nice video and nice stacks. Cheers Matt
Good tips Adam. I let my wood dry for 5 years then move what I need for winter undercover in the summer, never have to worry about wood not being seasoned. It burns hot and after the burning season when I clean the flue I never get over a cupful of creasote.
I split mine a little smaller (no bigger than the pieces after you split at 3:10 , stack on pallets and keep it covered with a tarp so the rain doesn't soak it every time. Wife and I made a lot of stops at Harbor Freight for free 5x7 tarps with any purchase :). I've heard I may be able to get free tarps they cover lumber with during shipping on rail. Seems like getting is split before July is a huge help.
Older video but a good one. I just got a bit more serious into firewood and luckily our shop is out in the open and always has a good breeze if not just plain windy so drying time seems to be quick. I split and stacked about 4 cords of Maple 2 months or so ago and I was shocked that 90% of the wood was only in the 10's to low, low teens on the outside and high teen's to very low 20's on several pieces I split down to check. We just put in a wood stove and have been burning that wood for a couple weeks now and no issues. I try to stay away from Oak for now only because it takes a while to dry and not much room for cords to just sit there .
I split and stack all my mixed hardwood. Also, when I stack, I stack this years wood in a ring 8' in diameter. Wind can hit all sides evenly. Also if your tree is green, split it into smaller pieces.
I've heard and do practice it myself, when stacking (except for the top layer when in the open) keep the bark side down, the moisture can evaporate easier (does not have to pass the bark). If stacked without a roof put the top layer with the bark facing up to protect the stack from rain. I've stacked my Firewood in an roofed but open sided shed divided in 3 sections of approx. 10x10x8ft I burn about 1 section per year, so my firewood get a least 2 years of seasoning. Love from Germany.
That’s incorrect. You should stack your wood with the bark side up. This helps shed rain and keep the rest of the log dry. When you stack an uncovered pile with the bark side down.the logs absorb a lot more water. Regardless, you should cover the top of your log pile with a thick sheet of black plastic.
So far this winter my sweet spot for a CFM-Century stove w supervent chimney is %15...some %20 moisture wood burned good during the day but not good overnight. I also made a dry rack over the stove top with rebar. One or two fires dries it down to %10. Rack is about 8" above stove
On Canada'a west coast. I stack one row wide facing the spring and summer north wind which have lower RH, with 6'+ between rows. Various species of wood vary in drying. Last fall our maple tested at 6% moisture, Douglas Fir was 14% as the latter is pitchy and holds the water better, obviously. In our cloudy rainy winter we use kiln-dried lumber wrappers on row tops, doing our best to cover the top 2'.
Thanks for the info. I have gotten green wood from my Dad and wood from a friend and it will not burn. I don't have wood on the scale that you do, but I need so warm heat right now. A lot of the time, it's cooler inside my apartment than outside.
Thanks for the video! Lot of good tips in there. I got a cord delivered and almost all of it is still very wet. We stacked it in my garage not knowing what else to do with it - will it dry out if it's not outside?
I just moved to a property that used to be a sawmill and comes complete with a building which used to be a kiln. Seriously considering getting it running again
I’m slowly starting to sell pick up loads of wood here and there. It’s not prime seasoned but I’m selling to a guy that just burns it for his man cave. I’d like to have a stock so I can age the stuff. But I can’t have too much because I’m staking it my parents. If I can get a spot to load up I will and start building a stock. Good stuff.
I live in interior Alaska. I split birch in small pieces winter-cut logs. Then stack loosely in wood sheds with transparent greenhouse roofs...it is over 120 degrees on a typical summer day in the wood sheds.
Some years ago I bought some rolls of 20m (long) x 2m (height) galvanized welded wire fence and every year make some circular ”drying cylinders” of them. Diameter is somewhere between 1.5 to 2 meters and volume about 3.5 to 6.5 cubic meters. I fill them with firewood, put a water resistant cover on top and leave it for drying. Firewood are not set there too tight but rather loose. Here in Finland it takes about 1-2 summers (and winters) for birch to dry. Best time to dry is at late spring when there is not too much humidity in the air.
Thanks so much for all your videos. They are so helpful. I have a question for you, if I check a medium sized or a thicker log and it reads 20% on the outside, if I split it in half, what should moisture percentage be in the middle? Thanks so much.
Cut old tarps to cover the top only. Or make tin roof frames. Cut trees in the winter when the sap is down in the roots. You can girdle standing trees too and let stand a year. Farmers used to cut wood this winter for two years down the road. Be careful cutting dead trees or you might get dead too. Be safe
Mark your trees for cutting next fall with marking tape or paint. Then wait for the sap to drop and girdle them You can then cut and split next fall into winter. Once cut and split and stacked let it season but none of the time before split and stacked counts toward seasoned. Time for seasoning is very species dependent. In our area with mostly oak and hickory it is best to let it season for two years. At that point a fresh split will read twelve to fifteen percent moisture and will burn very clean and hot. I will note that many will use less dry wood at night to get a longer burn. Something in the fifteen to twenty percent moisture reading and usually in half rounds they call slow burners.
I live in northern Ontario, I buy cut this winter hardwood, I have a 20x20 room in my basement, 100% sealed from rest of house, I put the wood from the winter in my wood room, in may, I have a fan that I run at low with a intake that is low in room, I also put a dehumidifier in it for a few month’s then this fall it’s good to go. I keep air circulating all the year, I use a slide dimmer switch, I am on year 3, so I assume the fan will finally burn out but worth it.
I live in a fairly rainy climate along the north shore of Lake Superior. I stack my wood on pallets and cover the elongate woodpile with rubber roofing to keep the rain off. The rubber roofing is screwed into place every few feet along the edge to keep it from blowing off. I prefer to dry wood for 2 years before burning.
Cheers from Germany! My firewood gets about 18 months. I badically have two stacks, one is the one who will be burned in this Winter, the other one next year 😉 sometimes 12 months of drying is enough, but 18 months always does it. firewood starts loosing heating/ fire power after 24 months of drying. Best example is birch wood, if it gets to old, it just falls apart.
If I was just collecting wood for myself I would adopt the same philosophy. But since I sell wood I can never have enough. I usually have a pile of wood set aside for my next winter and then just make a stack as big as I can for selling
In my very limited experience, the differences between different wood are huge. Differences in drying time. Variation in wood species, where and when it was cut, what the climate is where you are, the weather on the particular year. Where it was dried. These things all influence the drying. The 24 months rule is good, still, i would prefer wood which is 3 years and dry to wood 1,5 years old and not entirely dry. Agree? I am in Denmark. Grüsse!
@@Nopsi1300 Hej Nopsi. I split before drying as well. And I dry partly in Holzhaufen, the round stacks, partly in longer or shorter walls of firewood. The climate in Denmark is rather wet and damp but I happen to live on a hill and it is windy here, so it dries pretty ok. I hope you had a good time in Denmark. As for the "hej " and hej hej, i am not a fan. I prefer the old style "god dag" and "farvel". I am an old guy, and very conservative :)
Thanks for the advice time wise. Just started cutting pine logs which I hoped would be ready for this winter here in Scotland UK. Had done everything you said except I thought they would dry faster in my woodshed. I was planning on testing them by sound, ie damp wood has dull thud, dry wood has higher pitched ring. Any advice on how accurate this is?
Latitude 50 North, west coast marine climate in BC. The only time the RH is below 50% is summer season. Tarp the stacks if major rain storms are imminent. Long single stack of D Fir and big leaf maple stacked cross the dry-ish summer wind. Take to basement after 2nd summer. Moistures are 14% and 8% respectively
in climates where it rains, you want a roof over the stack, but leave the sides open. also, if you don't have a roof, stacking bark side up as much as possible helps shed rain better.
G'day HTA, I find the little differences between our woods and hemispheres interesting and entertaining at the end of the day . I remember the first summer my new Canadian wife spent down under she did a load of laundry and hung it on the hills hoist she came back into the house nearly collapsed from the heat I said what are doing sitting down its dry now time to get it off !
Location and species will vary this advice. In the PNW you can fell a Doug Fir today, cut it 14" and split 4-6" and it will be dry by Labor day. Our summers are dry and the softwoods have very little moisture to begin with. I cut some after Easter and it is
@@davegarber7964 Probably not going to get dry enough unless it was semi-seaoned already. I stop cutting green wood in the beginning of August because it won't have enough time to dry. Semi-seasoned wood that was felled a few months before might have a chance if you put it in a nice sunny breezy spot
The first year I moved to Montana it was August already and the previous owner only left about a half chord of dry Larch. I cut and split a few chords of fir and lodge pole but I was leery of it becoming dry enough for that winter. What I did was as I was burning the dry larch I stood the green fir on end around the stove, literally right next to it! Every so often I would flip the wood to dry the other end, and would pick the wood closest to the stove to burn while moving another into the rotation. Made it through the winter, and it only dropped below zero a couple times!! Usually if I do my firewooding in early summer it's pretty dry by Halloween! It's always nice to have back up/left over wood from the previous year!
I think it depends where you live. We have burn warnings through most the summer with generally a week + of 100degree weather, so best time to gather wood is late spring, to gather the freshly dropped trees from winter, and split in the beginning of summer letting it dry until without cover until ~ September/ October, and then cover and use for winter.
Nice video...i stack my wood east to west so the sun is on it all day long...ie. Butt ends facing solar south. I'm in the northern hemisphere so the sun is from the south... Also...if u want dry wood sooner..cut ash or beech they are dryer to start with..cut stack and dry for about 2 to 4 weeks..
Would a black tin roof help in seasoning that pile? Granted it is not a kiln, but I think it would work as a “collector of heat, while also leaving sides open for ventilation of moisture.
Just a word on moisture meters. Years ago I bought one that has a row of LED lights, and they go from green, to yellow, to red (red is TOO wet, yellow is borderline) and use it still. It’s great. When I thought to buy another, because I use this one at the cabin, for home, I just bought one. Sometimes “technology” really does things just because they can without thought of actual practical use. My new one is LCD display. It also has a battery save function that is way too quick to turn off the damned thing. Now, I’m out in the sun often, checking firewood, and with the old LED one I have no problem reading it, even in direct sunlight. The new one, I have to shade with my body to read it, and I much prefer the go-no go of the LED. Often as I am getting a new piece to check the thing turns off, I have to turn it on again. No settings for turning off battery save function, I’d much rather go through batteries than have to keep on turning it on. I also notice a discrepancy (can be fairly large) between the readings of the two different ones where one (and yes I’m measuring in the same place) says dry enough, the other ways too wet. Of course, there is no way to check the accuracy. Calibrate.
I have found that throwing it into a pile instead of stacking, creates better airflow and lets it dry faster. Cover it with a tarp in the winter, uncover it and let it cook in the summer heat. Mine sits for 2 years before using it
I guess the obvious is to split it before you stack it. The finer you split it the greater surface area to mass you have, and the easier it is for the moisture to escape. Also throwing a tarp over just the top or stacking in a open sided shed helps.
Stack wood in rows running East/West. Stretch wire about two feet back on the North and higher, clip black plastic over the top stretch and clip to a low wire about a foot high on the South. Almost a full day of heated low humidity air flow through the stack. Not as good as a solar kiln but no management needed.
Here in Scotland all my logs are dried in a kiln, the kiln is used for heating houses and burns chipped soft wood which is taken from the woods along with hard wood, there is extra energy from the houses which is used for the firewood, in some cases i believe there is a grant from gov to put these in
I am in Louisiana where it gets hot I did firewood for 15 years and it doesn't take that long to dry it 3 -4 months in the summer of course but with that said the longer you let it dry before using is best May to Sept here
If you live in the north as we already hit 40 below .split wood freeze dries in a few days enuf to burn well .i cut my wood in late fall .its all dry by xmas.a good commercial fish freezer works great for your kindling in milk crates takes only a couple days! Blocks dry quickly left on the ice of a frozen lake.Cheers!
Criss-cross stack for best air circulation, less critters. COVER wood in an open roofed shed, pole structure, etc. Or cover top layer only with tarp, or used metal roofing pieces. I've determined winter is when humidity is lowest. Wind your friend.
I've been splitting Ash throughout the summer. Half of it was dead for nearly a year and standing. The other have was a bit green. I've separated the two groups. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a wood moisture meter and check the dead and then green Ash. I've also got a dead Red Oak in the woods that was standing dead for two years before being dropped. It's been down for a year now and I have to get in there to round it.
Wouldn't there be more benefit facing your woodpiles south as opposed to west as you suggest? I would think wood facing south would get a significant amount more sunshine then just catching the sun late (facing west) especially in fall and winter.
No, if possible, have your log pile face west, so the morning sun hits the log pile on the east side of the pile in the morning, and then hits the pile on the opposite side in the afternoon, drying out the pile evenly. If you face your pile south, the majority of the day only one side of your log pile is going to get hit with sun. Also, the wind in my area typically blows from west to east, so if you stacked it facing south, the wind would be hitting the end of the pile, rather than the broadside of the pile, and be less effective in drying it out. Cheers!
Thank you for mentioning a widow maker. I have a situation here and now know to simply stay away from that area, some windstorm over the next years will take care of it. I’ll make sure my wife know to avoid it too
Hi yah! I'm all the way out in South Africa and we've just bought a truck load of wood which is semi-dry, and it's Winter season, which means we still have rainy days, do you recommend I still pack my wood outside but maybe cover with a plastic drop sheet?
The only reason you need a moisture meter is if you haven’t planned ahead and aren’t on top of it enough. Split, stack, cure 2+ years and don’t ever run out. Repeat.
Good video. How it’s split helps too. Triangle splits are better than cube splits and outside of the block splits have less moisture than the middle of the block. I’ll take 5 smaller splits and one center piece all day when trying to speed the process. 5 quick and 1 slow drying piece.
Your outside splits are where the tree transports moisture so it is the wettest portion. A cube split dries faster because more surface area is exposed.
@@davegarber7964 thanks for the reply and your experience is a a lot different than mine but that’s the funnest part of the fire wood hobby. I dry and burn mine and you do yours. That makes the world go around lol.
I’ve just split and staked a lad of oak. I’ve doe a long ple on pallets facing west and a round Holtzhaussen pile. It’ll be interesting to see which dries best. They are right next to each other. Round pike is 8 feet diameter. Whe do people move wood into woidsheds? I have a large woodshed open on the west side and wonder at what point I take wood off the piles and stack it in there? Or do I just leave it outside?
Not sure if its been mentioned but always have a tarp or something under , with air flowing between tarp and wood ofc. Cause water damps up from ground after the sun has set..
#1 top cover it so it doesnt get rained on. It gets punky repeatedly getting wet and then drying and mold can devolpe in the stacks where the sun doesnt reach. #2 face it south so it gets good and hot (west??) #3 get a year or two ahead in your piles so it has time to dry and you dont have to worry about it as much. #4 get it off the ground.
I’ve been cutting and splitting my own firewood for the past 20 years and your video accurately describes the best practices for effective wood drying. Thank you for sharing your video.
Thanks Joe! Glad you enjoyed it
@@HometownAcres hey
So since you have the experience of time, if a person's lives in a state with high heat and low humidity, will the wood you split, stack and cover dry even faster?
Here in Ireland we get a lot of rain. People stack it along walls and cover it with sheets of corrugated iron with rocks/concrete blocks on top to weigh it down. Some people build a small roof on pillars. Or cover it with a waterproof tarp.We don’t get reliable sunshine but we get a lot of wind. Wind dries better than sun because it blows right through the timber.
We're in Wales. Similar to you.
@@johnmainwaring6556 Hello from the U.S! My great grandfather was from Wales! 👍🏼
I’m in Scotland, and we do the same.
Here in Taiwan, and also get lots of rain. When I was renting a room in the mountains, I collected them and just stack it at the balcony, but cause lots of bugs biting it because it is still too wet.
At now, I'm in my original house and gonna plan to make a shelf or sth. for it, also at the balcony.
Maybe I should try your way to let it dry and store it, thank you so much for sharing ! !
humidity is so bad here though
I like the tip about facing the sun. Never heard anyone recommend that one yet. You can also cover top with tarps to block rain, cross stack to open up more airflow, and cut smaller pieces.
Actually winter is a friend of the drying process as well ! The freeze expels moisture at a high rate as well ! Thanks for the video it was a nice watch !
Yes. It’s called freeze dried. The homesteaders used to still hang laundry in the winter and the dry cold air would dry the clothes like in the summer ,Here in Alberta anyways ! Interesting
Just found your channel this morning. So far I like what you are sharing. Thanks for all the helpful information.
You made a lot of good points Adam. I dry my wood in a single row for about a year then into the woodshed for another year. I am currently about 2 1/2 years ahead. I burn strictly oak and locust in my house. In my garage I burn whatever is dry. I get a lot of soft maple and it drys much faster than hard maple, usually about 6 months will do. Good video my friend!
Hey Adam, great video! I do agree with several other commenters. I have one long rack; about 75' long, where I stack my firewood on 4x4's. The 4x4's are also laying across cinder blocks which puts the bottom layer of my firewood off the ground by approx. one foot. It gets tons of air flow underneath which seems to help. However, your firewood stack is way bigger and that would mean purchasing lots of blocks and 4x4's; so, placing another layer of pallets down before you stack may give you a similar affect!
Keep up the great videos and greetings from northern New Jersey!!
When I cut and split firewood I always split it in blocks 4 sides to have more sides to dry out. Wood sheds are very ideal. High and dry and stacking them full. Summer is also good for drying out the heat and low moisture really helps. If you are using fire wood then split enough more more than a few years every year is far better. Keeping the rain and snow off of it will allow it to dry down to the normal 10 to 15% after a few years. Everyone wants to only cut and store for a years worth which is what gets them in the end. Plan out and build a wood shed for upwards of 5 seasons of wood. If you need 10 cords per year you should have a shed to stack 50 cords. That would be about 15 by 60 long lean too, make sure you have about 4 feet of over hang so that you can avoid most of the rain and still allow good air flow to pass by. The more wood you have the less work you will have to do each year. I see people on youtube trying to catch up with wood all the time. Spend the time and effort to get enough wood ready. Buy a wood splitter, buy or borrow equipment find locals and share in the work. A group of people with some equipment can process a lot of fire wood in a solid week end. Doing this a more than a few times a year will get every one a stack of fire wood for years to come.
Top video as always.
Love the new tipper. That's better than flogging the Hilux!
Very good point about positioning your piles in North/West facing paddocks. If the grass dries quicker then so will the wood 👍
Thanks a lot. I have trees at my house I usually throw away when I do a yearly trim, some get trimmed every two years. Usually I do it late winter before spring starts growing new branches. I could let that wood dry up for a year and a half to have it ready for a spring/summer cookouts. Thanks a lot.
I never really comment on videos but I need to let you know that in order to dry your wood faster you should pile it right side up. You are piling your wood upside down especially if you are not covering it. Always pile your wood with the bark side up. That way it naturally sheds water when it gets rained on or snowed on.
I would think this is common sense tho 💁🏾🤣
What is right side up and who is the you piling it upside down? How do you even upside-down stack?
What they mean is that the bark is facing down or up
A Norwegian university tested seasoning split firewood bark side up vs. bark side down. They found that bark side DOWN averaged about 1% drier than bark side up, and concluded there was no significant difference between stacking split wood bark up or bark down.
@scandibilly I agree with that assessment. The bark side up or down is an old wives tale that has been around for hundreds of years.
I live in South Eastern Ontario. I do everything possible at every stage of the firewood hunting and harvesting to maximize the drying process. I cut all my trees in November and december when moisture from sap is lowest in trees. I select 70% Ash, 10% Maple, 10% Beech, and the other 10% is of cherry, apple and iron wood. I stay away from oak because it takes forever to dry. I buck all trees up at the end of February and all of March. I collect all the rounds all of April and May and stack them in single rows off the ground in full sun and wind. Then I stack it off the ground as I split all of June. Then I let it sit in upper field uncovered with full, wind and sun July and August. September and October I transfer wood to lower field for easy pick up when selling. I stack it in 3 single rows of 240 feet each still exposed to sun and wind and rain... Usually I sell 35 cord a year. I burn the same wood as I sell and my wood gets down to 9 to 15% moisture. After that it will fluctuate with humidity in the air.... I have split wood in shed that is leftover from 3 years ago and it stays at around no moisture reading to 6% depending on external humidity. So I'm satisfied with 9 to 15% to burn. I've never had any issues and my clients keep coming back and have never complained. In fact I have 2 clients that drive an hour to pick up 4 cord every fall. This year has been perfect for drying. We have barely had any rain. It was like an oven all summer and even now we are have warm sunny days. Nature has been the kiln this year.
I like your flag. Good tips for drying wood too. Thanks
@@truthinian thank you. Merry Christmas!
This past year we used a Shelter Logic to season our firewood. We stacked about 3 cord in the shed an hung a fan from the top. We put the firewood in the shelter in April. We checked the moisture a couple times a month. By September it was below 20%. This was green oak mixed with dead ash. Started burning in November and most readings are 15%.
I burn mostly oak and maple. Bringing in firewood from outside cold air, the wood needs to warm up before burning it. I make sure the firewood is cut on 90 degree angles on both ends. When I bring inside, I will put the wood standing up in soldier course fashion in front of the stove and the high heat will further dry the wood. I can bring in wood without any visible checking on the ends, but when I stand them up on end in front of the glassdoor, in about an hour or less, the checking ( cracks on the ends) will develop showing signs of dryer wood. Remember to at least bring your wood inside the room where the stove is, to bring it up to room temperature.
I did have my wood in a pile for about two years. I recently bought a residential splitter it's big enough for my needs. I also have my stacks on pallets double rows. I have my end towards the west for the sun and the wind to blow through the pile.
Have you tested the moisture to see how it’s working out?
@@HometownAcres what I have is pine what was in the center was really wet. Most of my pile is tree tops and slabs from my sawmill. I use my split firewood for my fire pit. I am doing my hard wood tonight I will let you know.
My meter start was 10.7 it's old. Big round in the center of pile was 50.1 on the end. The rest was cherry bark was 10.8-19.4 ends 12.7-18.4 centers 17.6 22.1. From now on I will be stacking my rounds.
I live in alaska and burn tons of birch and beetle kill spruce. Every few days I'll crank it up to clean it out. Every spring when I run a brush down the pipe , well its clean. So I can honestly say that burning green birch isn't bad and it does last longer. So the moisture content doesn't matter to me.
Morning Adam. Thanks for the great tips! Cheers!
Thanks im new to burning wood in my wood burning stove and i was having alot of problems burning and you just spelled it out. Thank you !
very informative especially the moisture meter.
Excellent Advice! I do cover the stacks here too. Having a meter is necessary in my book.
Hey Adam, just a few tips. If you can, you should consider adding a second layer of pallets underneath your stacks when theyre sitting on dirt and grass like that. Air flow is your friend, stack loosely but not so that it tips over. 2 layers of pallets lets more air flow underneath it. Also you should leave a gap between your rows to let air pass between them. Im not familiar with how much rain you get over there, but here in Norway we usually cover our rows with typical tin or aluminium roofing panels and a strap around to secure it from blowing off. With all that rainwater not running down into your stacks, the wood dries really fast. We usually cut and stack before easter, leave the stacks open till mid summer and then we cover them from the rain until mid august. Its usually something between 14-17% moisture by that time, and most people sell it in late july/early august so the customer can fill up their storage. In september/oktober the air gets more damp and the wood will pick this up if left outside.
Covering from the rain also prevents the wood from turning as grey which my customers usually pay extra for ("designer birch wood", yes my friends laugh at me). If I could attach a picture Id show you but Im sure you get the deal.
Anyway, super happy that your wood selling business is blooming, nice stacks and as always thanks for a nice video. Keep up the good work and stay safe. //Finn
Hey Finn love to hear how things are done across the pond. It’s interesting to see how the seasons are different too. I do need to find a way to get my wood covered up here as we start approaching the end of summer. Thanks for the comment buddy. Hope to hear from you again!
I like the corrugated metal sheets, just enough flex and strength in 12’ runs and sheets lap/nest well together for my sloping piles which are normally 30-40’ long... Also agree w elevating w 2x layers of pallets underneath, which I think actually makes the bottom layer stay drier, and last longer as a result... great video, keep up the good work!
I agree with the idea of getting the wood off the ground as much as possible. Rather than 2 layers of pallets, look for scrap building materials and fasten 2X4's or whatever scrap you have to the bottom of your pallets before loading them up with wood. Use the pallets for stacking wood rather than stacking more pallets. They won't collapse unless you really side load the pallets in some way. Like running into them with other pallets. Don't ask me how I know that. And cover that wood in the winter with tarps or tin or re-engineered IBC tanks.
For my own personal firewood I built inexpensive racks: two 8x8x16" concrete blocks sitting on a 2x16x16 brick on the ground. This puts the wood about 15" of the ground. I have two 2x6x12's running between them, and two 2x4x48" tipped into the open blocks at each end, which holds the stacks on the ends. This gives me a drying rack that will hold split logs 16-24" long, stacked up about 4', and over 12' long at the top. This allows the wood to get plenty of air flow and sun. It's 90-100 degrees all summer long with very little rain. That holds all the firewood I need, so it was worth the investment of about $100 per stack that I will reuse every year. I have a shed I move the dry wood to closer to the house.
I have all mine under a lean to wood shed. Mostly open on the sides. Keeping it covered is really helpful in NW PA.
Looks good. Never had a problem burning wood that has seasoned for a year even uncovered. To each his own.
Yeah same
Upgraded from a Poulan Pro 442 18” (Still use she’s faithful), to a Husqvarna 450e 20”. I’m looking to start a small business, thanks for the advice!
Really good video and I agree completely with all the points you made. A few things were missed though, if 'faster' is the key word. 1) Cover the stack. Not necessary in deserts, but anywhere else, the number of gallons of water an average season's rainfall will land on the wood is always a surprise to the people I calculate it for. Sheet iron and building blocks is the remedy. 2) De-bark it. Bark is extraordinarily effective at keeping water in (the water just under the bark will move quicker going down through the 5 inches of wood beneath it to reach the split face than it will going up through the bark itself). 3) Split it smaller (obvious I know) and aim for shallow rectangles in cross-section rather than wedges. This reduces the distance the water needs to travel to reach an open surface and requires a straight-grained non-fibrous wood like ash/maple. 4) Choose your species. The pore structure and tenacity of bark vary a lot between species and some (eg birch, hazel, sycamore) give up their water easily. Others are less willing eg oak, holly. And elm is extraordinarily slow to dry. It gets its bad reputation for firewood because of this, when in fact it is a brilliant heat source, and when really dry, has a very low tendency to smoke.
For the Aussie hardwoods i cut, 3 years including 3 summers is ideal for where i live. Split and stacked straight into a woodshed with concrete floor. Any dead standing timber i cut, 6 months on the deck around the house is enough to complete the drying process. Nice video and nice stacks. Cheers Matt
Great video, thank you for posting.
Good tips Adam. I let my wood dry for 5 years then move what I need for winter undercover in the summer, never have to worry about wood not being seasoned. It burns hot and after the burning season when I clean the flue I never get over a cupful of creasote.
That's ideal as long as it's not begun to rot or mold.
@@harveyroad6 never had an issue with rot or mold. I do keep it off the ground and its well ventilated.
A solar kiln made with clear plastic in the sunshine will do a lot. I have done this to dry logs for log home construction.
I split mine a little smaller (no bigger than the pieces after you split at 3:10 , stack on pallets and keep it covered with a tarp so the rain doesn't soak it every time. Wife and I made a lot of stops at Harbor Freight for free 5x7 tarps with any purchase :). I've heard I may be able to get free tarps they cover lumber with during shipping on rail. Seems like getting is split before July is a huge help.
Older video but a good one. I just got a bit more serious into firewood and luckily our shop is out in the open and always has a good breeze if not just plain windy so drying time seems to be quick. I split and stacked about 4 cords of Maple 2 months or so ago and I was shocked that 90% of the wood was only in the 10's to low, low teens on the outside and high teen's to very low 20's on several pieces I split down to check. We just put in a wood stove and have been burning that wood for a couple weeks now and no issues. I try to stay away from Oak for now only because it takes a while to dry and not much room for cords to just sit there .
I split and stack all my mixed hardwood. Also, when I stack, I stack this years wood in a ring 8' in diameter. Wind can hit all sides evenly. Also if your tree is green, split it into smaller pieces.
Some great insights. thanks very much for the video!
Have you looked into a solar kiln? Easy/inexpensive to build. Accelerates drying.
I've heard and do practice it myself, when stacking (except for the top layer when in the open) keep the bark side down, the moisture can evaporate easier (does not have to pass the bark).
If stacked without a roof put the top layer with the bark facing up to protect the stack from rain.
I've stacked my Firewood in an roofed but open sided shed divided in 3 sections of approx. 10x10x8ft I burn about 1 section per year, so my firewood get a least 2 years of seasoning.
Love from Germany.
That’s incorrect. You should stack your wood with the bark side up. This helps shed rain and keep the rest of the log dry. When you stack an uncovered pile with the bark side down.the logs absorb a lot more water. Regardless, you should cover the top of your log pile with a thick sheet of black plastic.
Great video/advice; I agree with you completely! Thank you ~
Great video adam. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Andrew!
So far this winter my sweet spot for a CFM-Century stove w supervent chimney is %15...some %20 moisture wood burned good during the day but not good overnight.
I also made a dry rack over the stove top with rebar. One or two fires dries it down to %10. Rack is about 8" above stove
Stacking the splits vertically, like a teepee, allows the wood to dry MUCH faster. Most of the moisture just drips out the bottom of each split.
Hilltop would allow more air movement. A hoop type solar kiln costs little to make and almost nothing to run and can really cut drying time down.
On Canada'a west coast. I stack one row wide facing the spring and summer north wind which have lower RH, with 6'+ between rows. Various species of wood vary in drying. Last fall our maple tested at 6% moisture, Douglas Fir was 14% as the latter is pitchy and holds the water better, obviously. In our cloudy rainy winter we use kiln-dried lumber wrappers on row tops, doing our best to cover the top 2'.
Thanks for the info. I have gotten green wood from my Dad and wood from a friend and it will not burn. I don't have wood on the scale that you do, but I need so warm heat right now. A lot of the time, it's cooler inside my apartment than outside.
Old wood is just as bad as new wood, it loses its strength in heat source. Plan ahead and you will be ahead of the game.☺️
Thanks for the video! Lot of good tips in there. I got a cord delivered and almost all of it is still very wet. We stacked it in my garage not knowing what else to do with it - will it dry out if it's not outside?
I just moved to a property that used to be a sawmill and comes complete with a building which used to be a kiln. Seriously considering getting it running again
Great video Adam! 👍.. thanks for reminding me I'm way behind on firewood like always lol
Haha you got that new wood furnace for a reason! You gotta feed it lol
CJ get used to burning that anthracite and you won’t need much wood
I’m slowly starting to sell pick up loads of wood here and there. It’s not prime seasoned but I’m selling to a guy that just burns it for his man cave. I’d like to have a stock so I can age the stuff. But I can’t have too much because I’m staking it my parents. If I can get a spot to load up I will and start building a stock. Good stuff.
I live in interior Alaska. I split birch in small pieces winter-cut logs. Then stack loosely in wood sheds with transparent greenhouse roofs...it is over 120 degrees on a typical summer day in the wood sheds.
Some years ago I bought some rolls of 20m (long) x 2m (height) galvanized welded wire fence and every year make some circular ”drying cylinders” of them. Diameter is somewhere between 1.5 to 2 meters and volume about 3.5 to 6.5 cubic meters. I fill them with firewood, put a water resistant cover on top and leave it for drying. Firewood are not set there too tight but rather loose. Here in Finland it takes about 1-2 summers (and winters) for birch to dry. Best time to dry is at late spring when there is not too much humidity in the air.
Thanks so much for all your videos. They are so helpful. I have a question for you, if I check a medium sized or a thicker log and it reads 20% on the outside, if I split it in half, what should moisture percentage be in the middle? Thanks so much.
The wasp really love those wood stacks here in Texas
Cut old tarps to cover the top only. Or make tin roof frames. Cut trees in the winter when the sap is down in the roots. You can girdle standing trees too and let stand a year. Farmers used to cut wood this winter for two years down the road. Be careful cutting dead trees or you might get dead too. Be safe
Mark your trees for cutting next fall with marking tape or paint. Then wait for the sap to drop and girdle them You can then cut and split next fall into winter. Once cut and split and stacked let it season but none of the time before split and stacked counts toward seasoned. Time for seasoning is very species dependent. In our area with mostly oak and hickory it is best to let it season for two years. At that point a fresh split will read twelve to fifteen percent moisture and will burn very clean and hot. I will note that many will use less dry wood at night to get a longer burn. Something in the fifteen to twenty percent moisture reading and usually in half rounds they call slow burners.
I live in northern Ontario, I buy cut this winter hardwood, I have a 20x20 room in my basement, 100% sealed from rest of house, I put the wood from the winter in my wood room, in may, I have a fan that I run at low with a intake that is low in room, I also put a dehumidifier in it for a few month’s then this fall it’s good to go. I keep air circulating all the year, I use a slide dimmer switch, I am on year 3, so I assume the fan will finally burn out but worth it.
You picked a good axe! Those Fiskars are amazing for splitting!
In your video, mention that drying times also depend on what type of wood you're talking about. Example, oak takes much longer to dry than ash.
The real trick is to plan ahead more, let time be your friend, your cost free assistant, instead of your enemy ...
Well said my friend.
Well said indeed.
Have you tried the holz haufen method? Curious if it dries as well. Great video.
I live in a fairly rainy climate along the north shore of Lake Superior. I stack my wood on pallets and cover the elongate woodpile with rubber roofing to keep the rain off. The rubber roofing is screwed into place every few feet along the edge to keep it from blowing off. I prefer to dry wood for 2 years before burning.
Cheers from Germany! My firewood gets about 18 months. I badically have two stacks, one is the one who will be burned in this Winter, the other one next year 😉 sometimes 12 months of drying is enough, but 18 months always does it. firewood starts loosing heating/ fire power after 24 months of drying. Best example is birch wood, if it gets to old, it just falls apart.
If I was just collecting wood for myself I would adopt the same philosophy. But since I sell wood I can never have enough. I usually have a pile of wood set aside for my next winter and then just make a stack as big as I can for selling
Agree for white birch, but yellow birch lasts much longer.
In my very limited experience, the differences between different wood are huge. Differences in drying time. Variation in wood species, where and when it was cut, what the climate is where you are, the weather on the particular year. Where it was dried. These things all influence the drying. The 24 months rule is good, still, i would prefer wood which is 3 years and dry to wood 1,5 years old and not entirely dry. Agree? I am in Denmark. Grüsse!
@@Jack_Schularick hej to you 😉
Totally agree, I forgot to mention, that we split the wood before we let it dry.
I was 2014 on Langeland!
Hej hej 👍😉
@@Nopsi1300 Hej Nopsi. I split before drying as well. And I dry partly in Holzhaufen, the round stacks, partly in longer or shorter walls of firewood. The climate in Denmark is rather wet and damp but I happen to live on a hill and it is windy here, so it dries pretty ok. I hope you had a good time in Denmark. As for the "hej " and hej hej, i am not a fan. I prefer the old style "god dag" and "farvel". I am an old guy, and very conservative :)
Thanks for the advice time wise. Just started cutting pine logs which I hoped would be ready for this winter here in Scotland UK. Had done everything you said except I thought they would dry faster in my woodshed.
I was planning on testing them by sound, ie damp wood has dull thud, dry wood has higher pitched ring. Any advice on how accurate this is?
Latitude 50 North, west coast marine climate in BC. The only time the RH is below 50% is summer season. Tarp the stacks if major rain storms are imminent. Long single stack of D Fir and big leaf maple stacked cross the dry-ish summer wind. Take to basement after 2nd summer. Moistures are 14% and 8% respectively
in climates where it rains, you want a roof over the stack, but leave the sides open. also, if you don't have a roof, stacking bark side up as much as possible helps shed rain better.
I like sawing, chopping, and stacking January... Frozen wood flys apart when splitting
G'day HTA, I find the little differences between our woods and hemispheres interesting and entertaining at the end of the day . I remember the first summer my new Canadian wife spent down under she did a load of laundry and hung it on the hills hoist she came back into the house nearly collapsed from the heat I said what are doing sitting down its dry now time to get it off !
Good video. Thank you.
Location and species will vary this advice. In the PNW you can fell a Doug Fir today, cut it 14" and split 4-6" and it will be dry by Labor day. Our summers are dry and the softwoods have very little moisture to begin with. I cut some after Easter and it is
What if "today" is August 31st?
@@davegarber7964 Probably not going to get dry enough unless it was semi-seaoned already. I stop cutting green wood in the beginning of August because it won't have enough time to dry. Semi-seasoned wood that was felled a few months before might have a chance if you put it in a nice sunny breezy spot
The first year I moved to Montana it was August already and the previous owner only left about a half chord of dry Larch. I cut and split a few chords of fir and lodge pole but I was leery of it becoming dry enough for that winter. What I did was as I was burning the dry larch I stood the green fir on end around the stove, literally right next to it! Every so often I would flip the wood to dry the other end, and would pick the wood closest to the stove to burn while moving another into the rotation. Made it through the winter, and it only dropped below zero a couple times!! Usually if I do my firewooding in early summer it's pretty dry by Halloween! It's always nice to have back up/left over wood from the previous year!
I think it depends where you live. We have burn warnings through most the summer with generally a week + of 100degree weather, so best time to gather wood is late spring, to gather the freshly dropped trees from winter, and split in the beginning of summer letting it dry until without cover until ~ September/ October, and then cover and use for winter.
Nice video...i stack my wood east to west so the sun is on it all day long...ie. Butt ends facing solar south. I'm in the northern hemisphere so the sun is from the south...
Also...if u want dry wood sooner..cut ash or beech they are dryer to start with..cut stack and dry for about 2 to 4 weeks..
Would a black tin roof help in seasoning that pile? Granted it is not a kiln, but I think it would work as a “collector of heat, while also leaving sides open for ventilation of moisture.
Just a word on moisture meters. Years ago I bought one that has a row of LED lights, and they go from green, to yellow, to red (red is TOO wet, yellow is borderline) and use it still. It’s great. When I thought to buy another, because I use this one at the cabin, for home, I just bought one.
Sometimes “technology” really does things just because they can without thought of actual practical use. My new one is LCD display. It also has a battery save function that is way too quick to turn off the damned thing. Now, I’m out in the sun often, checking firewood, and with the old LED one I have no problem reading it, even in direct sunlight. The new one, I have to shade with my body to read it, and I much prefer the go-no go of the LED. Often as I am getting a new piece to check the thing turns off, I have to turn it on again.
No settings for turning off battery save function, I’d much rather go through batteries than have to keep on turning it on. I also notice a discrepancy (can be fairly large) between the readings of the two different ones where one (and yes I’m measuring in the same place) says dry enough, the other ways too wet.
Of course, there is no way to check the accuracy. Calibrate.
I have found that throwing it into a pile instead of stacking, creates better airflow and lets it dry faster. Cover it with a tarp in the winter, uncover it and let it cook in the summer heat. Mine sits for 2 years before using it
Nice and informative. Please cover the firewood with something if you want it dry well.
Love the video.
Thanks Tony!
👍 appreciate the information 🤙
I guess the obvious is to split it before you stack it. The finer you split it the greater surface area to mass you have, and the easier it is for the moisture to escape. Also throwing a tarp over just the top or stacking in a open sided shed helps.
The only bad thing about fine splitting is that wood doesn’t last as long in fireplace.but using a tarp is a must if no wind.👍
Stack wood in rows running East/West. Stretch wire about two feet back on the North and higher, clip black plastic over the top stretch and clip to a low wire
about a foot high on the South. Almost a full day of heated low humidity air flow through the stack. Not as good as a solar kiln but no management needed.
Can you explain this again? Not quite understanding it
Here in Scotland all my logs are dried in a kiln, the kiln is used for heating houses and burns chipped soft wood which is taken from the woods along with hard wood, there is extra energy from the houses which is used for the firewood, in some cases i believe there is a grant from gov to put these in
I am in Louisiana where it gets hot I did firewood for 15 years and it doesn't take that long to dry it 3 -4 months in the summer of course but with that said the longer you let it dry before using is best May to Sept here
thanks for the video
If you live in the north as we already hit 40 below .split wood freeze dries in a few days enuf to burn well .i cut my wood in late fall .its all dry by xmas.a good commercial fish freezer works great for your kindling in milk crates takes only a couple days! Blocks dry quickly left on the ice of a frozen lake.Cheers!
Criss-cross stack for best air circulation, less critters.
COVER wood in an open roofed shed, pole structure, etc. Or cover top layer only with tarp, or used metal roofing pieces.
I've determined winter is when humidity is lowest. Wind your friend.
I've been splitting Ash throughout the summer. Half of it was dead for nearly a year and standing. The other have was a bit green. I've separated the two groups. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and buy a wood moisture meter and check the dead and then green Ash.
I've also got a dead Red Oak in the woods that was standing dead for two years before being dropped. It's been down for a year now and I have to get in there to round it.
Great advise.
Good advice, too.
Wouldn't there be more benefit facing your woodpiles south as opposed to west as you suggest? I would think wood facing south would get a significant amount more sunshine then just catching the sun late (facing west) especially in fall and winter.
No, if possible, have your log pile face west, so the morning sun hits the log pile on the east side of the pile in the morning, and then hits the pile on the opposite side in the afternoon, drying out the pile evenly. If you face your pile south, the majority of the day only one side of your log pile is going to get hit with sun. Also, the wind in my area typically blows from west to east, so if you stacked it facing south, the wind would be hitting the end of the pile, rather than the broadside of the pile, and be less effective in drying it out. Cheers!
Thank you for mentioning a widow maker. I have a situation here and now know to simply stay away from that area, some windstorm over the next years will take care of it. I’ll make sure my wife know to avoid it too
Hi yah! I'm all the way out in South Africa and we've just bought a truck load of wood which is semi-dry, and it's Winter season, which means we still have rainy days, do you recommend I still pack my wood outside but maybe cover with a plastic drop sheet?
Hi cool video what's your moisturiser meter called thanks
Good info but what's that say for the row behind there.can't get as much sun can it?
Great video. Curious about the music too. Who is these artist, you?
The only reason you need a moisture meter is if you haven’t planned ahead and aren’t on top of it enough. Split, stack, cure 2+ years and don’t ever run out. Repeat.
calm down. it's been 3 months.
@@methus57 Muy calm
Dummy,it is a good guide as different woods dry @ different rates:/
@@jazpanoz4996 Dummy?
Brookwood @ Yes ewe!
Good video. How it’s split helps too. Triangle splits are better than cube splits and outside of the block splits have less moisture than the middle of the block. I’ll take 5 smaller splits and one center piece all day when trying to speed the process. 5 quick and 1 slow drying piece.
Your outside splits are where the tree transports moisture so it is the wettest portion. A cube split dries faster because more surface area is exposed.
@@davegarber7964 thanks for the reply and your experience is a a lot different than mine but that’s the funnest part of the fire wood hobby. I dry and burn mine and you do yours. That makes the world go around lol.
Good info. 👍
Great job!!
What wood splitter do you use??
Looked very good!!
It’s an Eastonmade 12-22
Thank you
what about in winter and the rain, what can one do with it, and does rain affect wood, im just new to this stuff
Rain will dry out of the wood within a day or 2. So as long as you can keep like 1/3rd of a cord dry at a time you should be good
Great video! unfortunately I live in one of the rainiest states, Oregon.
Same I live in Washington :/
I’ve just split and staked a lad of oak. I’ve doe a long ple on pallets facing west and a round Holtzhaussen pile. It’ll be interesting to see which dries best. They are right next to each other. Round pike is 8 feet diameter. Whe do people move wood into woidsheds? I have a large woodshed open on the west side and wonder at what point I take wood off the piles and stack it in there? Or do I just leave it outside?
We move our wood into a covered shed anytime it's dry. But we get it done before the wet fall weather.
Depends on what your kiln heats with. A Kiln could make sense if it runs on sawdust, bark and offcuts.
Not sure if its been mentioned but always have a tarp or something under , with air flowing between tarp and wood ofc. Cause water damps up from ground after the sun has set..
What about storing in black boxes with vents? Since black absorbs a lot of heat it would naturally heat from the sun and then vent out the moisture?
#1 top cover it so it doesnt get rained on. It gets punky repeatedly getting wet and then drying and mold can devolpe in the stacks where the sun doesnt reach. #2 face it south so it gets good and hot (west??) #3 get a year or two ahead in your piles so it has time to dry and you dont have to worry about it as much. #4 get it off the ground.
We have a winner here 👏
I find doubling your pallets to get it further off the ground helps a lot.
The smaller you split the faster the dry
Time is too.
Stanley Shostak but the smaller it’s split the quicker it burn. Firewood belongs in a shed
Good info