# Drying time for fallen Red and White Oak



## airdriver100 (Mar 27, 2010)

Sadly, a large number of Oaks were killed by disease and have fallen over here in NW Virginia. I do not know if they are Red or White Oak.

Happily, I can score a lotta firewood as a result.

These downed trees are rotted from just a little to several inches on the exterior, but solid inside. The solid part is still very wet, even when the tree has been down for several years and not in ground contact. 

They are easy to cut and split, but wet through and through.

Besides the obvious bugs in the rotted part, the wet center needs to dry.

Any suggestions on curing time? I've seen suggestions on freshly fallen Oak, but not on this not too attractive but still very useful alternative.

Thanks to all and Happy Spring!


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## ryan_marine (Mar 27, 2010)

Depends. Is it going to be cut to leangth and split up? Stacked or not? Is it going to be stored in side or out side? If out side covered by a tarp or not? For outside uncovered cut split and stacked then I would say 6 months for your area.

Ray


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## Rudedog (Mar 27, 2010)

ryan_marine said:


> Depends. Is it going to be cut to leangth and split up? Stacked or not? Is it going to be stored in side or out side? If out side covered by a tarp or not? For outside uncovered cut split and stacked then I would say 6 months for your area.
> 
> Ray



Should the top layer be covered with a tarp or should I leave my split and stacked red oak naked? I have it in a location that gets good sun.


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## amateur cutter (Mar 27, 2010)

Should the top layer be covered with a tarp or should I leave my split and stacked red oak naked? I have it in a location that gets good sun.

I cover just the top of my stacks to shed rain, & leave the sides open for air flow. I too have cut some oak similar to what you describe. It took a full 9 months to dry completely. It was split pretty big though. If you make small splits it'll probably be good by winter.

A C


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## ryan_marine (Mar 27, 2010)

I leave my stack naked. I hate chasing a tarp if it comes loose. Also the rain will wash any sap and small amounts of dirt off of the wood. But that is for the wood I sell. For my own personal wood it is stored inside. 

Ray


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## NC4TN (Mar 28, 2010)

Stack it nice and level on top as high as you want it; then get all the scrap pieces of roofing tin that you can find and cover the stacks with it, weighting it down with cinder blocks or whatever. 

The tin gets hot in the summer and does the finest job of seasoning the oak that you ever did see! Just remember to look out for hornets, yellow jackets, and the like when you take it off the stack this fall; copperheads too, if you're in "snaky" country.:sword:


Ready for the fire by that first cold snap in October!


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## airdriver100 (Mar 28, 2010)

*Thank you for the suggestions!*

I did not start cutting and splitting in 2009 till Oct and was lucky to have plenty of downed locust logs which seem to dry well once the tree is down. 

I also had some of this wet oak, split in late Oct, which I started using in January. It was still a bit damp, but quite usable. Now the chimney needs cleaning, but that is annual maintenance anyway.

The oak I split last fall I covered with a tarp to keep rain off. It did that, but I had to keep the tarp off the wood except during rain. Moisture would form underneath as the drying wood exhaled water and that was certainly not what I wanted. The foot or two of breathing space all around the bottom of the tarp was not enough for the big stack and it clearly wanted more fresh air. It was a bit of a PITA to manage the tarp, but long bamboo poles on two sides helped.

Summer here makes a wood pile a critter palace and they all love it. This is true of a wood shed or shelter, too. Squirrels, ants, bees, wasps, mice, lizards, snakes and every other conceivable creature move in and feel right at home. Most are not very tidy housekeepers, so the dry wood is pretty dirty by fall. 

I'll split some of the oak now, stack it, and let the rain and the wind do its job in anticipation of burning it this fall.


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## TreePointer (Mar 28, 2010)

I make a distinction between burnable wood and fully seasoned wood. Fully seasoned to me means that there is little to no smoke and essentially no hissing during the burn. For most oak, and especially freshly cut healthy oak, it will take two years to be fully seasoned after being cut, split and stacked.


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## Coldfront (Mar 29, 2010)

I burn mostly Red Oak and it takes at least a full year cut, split, and stacked, and covered on top, outside with good ventilation.


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## Fireaxman (Mar 30, 2010)

airdriver100 said:


> ... downed trees are rotted from just a little to several inches on the exterior, but solid inside. The solid part is still very wet, even when the tree has been down for several years and not in ground contact.
> 
> ... Any suggestions on curing time? I've seen suggestions on freshly fallen Oak, but not on this not too attractive but still very useful alternative.



How big are the rounds? How much heart wood do you have?

I get a good bit of oak like you are describing. I try to split the punky wood off the sides of the logs, leaving just enough heart wood to make a clean split on the punky stuff. Then I stack the punky wood seperately from the heart wood. If I stack the punky stuff with the heart wood, the varmints in the punky wood contaminate the heart wood and after a year I've got nothing left but mushrooms, mold, fish bait, and beetle frass.

Since there is only a sliver of heart wood on the punky stuff it dries enough to be burnable pretty quickly, within a month or so (note: "Burnable", not "Cured" - but I have to go ahead and burn it pretty quickly or it all just turns to beetle frass). I let the heart wood cure for a year and it seems to me to be as good as green wood that has cured for 2 years. It seems to me that dead and down heart wood cures faster than green wood. But I have to call that "Opinion", I have not actually run any tests for moisture content.

Seems to me Green wood still has live sap in it. Dead and down heart wood just has plain water.


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## airdriver100 (Apr 2, 2010)

*Nice size, but manageable*



Fireaxman said:


> How big are the rounds? How much heart wood do you have?



12" to 24".

You are right. That rotted stuff does not lend itself to long storage times as the bugs are quite happy and active during the warm months. I have a separate pile of firewood like this. The heart wood is fine for the long term.

It does appear that the water content of the dead wood more easily and quickly dries than sapwood. Again, I have no proof of this. It just seems to be so.


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## angelo c (Apr 2, 2010)

airdriver100 said:


> Sadly, a large number of Oaks were killed by disease and have fallen over here in NW Virginia. I do not know if they are Red or White Oak.
> 
> Any suggestions on curing time? I've seen suggestions on freshly fallen Oak, but not on this not too attractive but still very useful alternative.
> 
> Thanks to all and Happy Spring!



Red or white ?

Red which is more often actually "black oak" or "pin oak" has a destinctive smell to it. I describe it as brewers yeast or fresh baked bread. it has flakes in the cross grains that give it a shine if you reflect it in the sun. Also you can blow in the end of red and it will blow through( slightly) White oak will not it it is much more solid and less pourous. thats why white oak is a very popular "outdood" wood when available. Both are excellent high BTU burners. 

Oak that's been down log enough to be rotting on the outside is "wet" not green. Split it stack it and use it in about 3 months. I would not tarp it until about a month prior to use. Tarping to me is something to keep rainwater off for short time usage. Like the next months firewood. Our snowfalls don't usually last longer then 3 weeks before they melt off.


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