Fastest way to season firewood?

[moresnow]

I'm surprised the middle dries out in a 20ft container. It's filled from the top with a conveyor?

This crib has 2 home built swing doors 4' wide x 6' tall. He backs his yard cart/wagon in those doors with a old Deere lawn tractor to hand stack the crib full. The splits getting loaded into the crib come from another staging/stack area that has been seasoning since the past late summer/fall. It has started seasoning a bit already. Being wrapped up through the spring/summer/fall seems to be accelerating the drying. I checked MC on random splits last fall after cutting the plastic off the loading doors to start sliding the splits into his basement on a slide. I was floored! Yes. The splits checked were re-split and checked on the fresh split face. As well as being around 60-70 degrees ambient. Most was <20%. A few were just over 20%

To test the shrink wrap/top cover method myself I am planning on splitting/stacking 4 separate 1 cord groups of green cut elm, maple, ash that has been cut and stacked in rounds since late last summer. I plan on shrink wrapping/tar papering the pallets on half of the individual pallet stacked cords and top covering. The other half will be my standard pallet stacked pile with no top cover or wrap. Should provide a interesting comparison between the separate piles I think? We shall see how MC compare's over time.

 

[Rjpoog1989]

Burning wood that is not dry increases your chances of having a chimney fire by increasing the creasote that builds up in your chimney. If you can get three years ahead then you only have to worry about putting up one years worth per year. It also helps to have a number of years ahead incase of an illness or injury that would prevent you from getting wood put up. It helped me alot when I had carpal tunnel surgery on both hands. Didn't get much wood put up that year but still had dry wood to burn.

I agree with being ahead. I already have enough for next year and then some. But none of it is split. It’s on pallets, so off the ground, but I have no desire to split it all. Plus, most of what I get is crap we don’t feel like dealing with at work. That means tree Ys and gnarly stuff that won’t split easy. I don’t have a hydraulic splitter and there’s no way this stuff splits by hand.

 

[Erik B]

I agree with being ahead. I already have enough for next year and then some. But none of it is split. It’s on pallets, so off the ground, but I have no desire to split it all. Plus, most of what I get is crap we don’t feel like dealing with at work. That means tree Ys and gnarly stuff that won’t split easy. I don’t have a hydraulic splitter and there’s no way this stuff splits by hand.

It might be worth while to get a moisture meter to check the wood you are burning. They can be found for less than $30. Keeping your home and family safe while burning wood can't be measured in dollars.
How often are you cleaning your chimney and how much stuff are you getting out of it? Have you had it inspected by someone with a video camera that can get a good look at the entire run? The one thing none of us want to read about is someone having a chimney fire that destroys their home and harms their family.

 

[Rjpoog1989]

It might be worth while to get a moisture meter to check the wood you are burning. They can be found for less than $30. Keeping your home and family safe while burning wood can't be measured in dollars.
How often are you cleaning your chimney and how much stuff are you getting out of it? Have you had it inspected by someone with a video camera that can get a good look at the entire run? The one thing none of us want to read about is someone having a chimney fire that destroys their home and harms their family.

I try to clean what I can get to every other month. The back chamber is a PITA to open up with a fire going, so I only do that once a year. I figure as long as the chimney and top chamber are clear I’m in good shape. If the back chamber were to catch fire I can’t see any consequences to that, because if the top chamber and chimney are clean there’s nothing up there to catch fire. The entire thing is easily accessible though when torn apart in the spring, no need for cameras.

This link has a picture of the chambers I’m referring to. First picture, top of page. http://www.taylorstove.net/taylorGuts.htm

I’d worry about my garage burning up before my house. Furnace is like 10yds from garage but like 30yds from my house.

 

[Erik B]

I try to clean what I can get to every other month. The back chamber is a PITA to open up with a fire going, so I only do that once a year. I figure as long as the chimney and top chamber are clear I’m in good shape. If the back chamber were to catch fire I can’t see any consequences to that, because if the top chamber and chimney are clean there’s nothing up there to catch fire. The entire thing is easily accessible though when torn apart in the spring, no need for cameras.

This link has a picture of the chambers I’m referring to. First picture, top of page. http://www.taylorstove.net/taylorGuts.htm

I’d worry about my garage burning up before my house. Furnace is like 10yds from garage but like 30yds from my house.

I guess I missed the part of your furnace being outside and not in your house. The part of the chimney that builds up creasote the most is the top 3-4 feet. At least that has been my experience.
I would like to see what your furnace looks like. Post some pics of your setup.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

Salt and pepper to taste.

 

[Woody912]

Abandoned greenhouse. In Arizona. Split your wood small

 

[Wood Doctor]

The cost?

It's a convienence, so it's not going to be the cheapest thing. Lot more involved in bundles vs bulk wood.

It's "premium" wood and dry. Hard to bundle odd shaped wood, plus it's not eye appealing. Then there's the cost of the wrap, label, and labor.

Then cost to deliver it to the store, and the store has to make a bit off it too. Around here, the store is doing quite well selling them, usually close to doubling what they pay for them... ie... the guy doing all the work isn't making much in the scheme of things.

Doubling the unit cost to obtain the initial selling price is the typical retail "Golden Markup" that's been around for as long as I can remember. Kiln drying is bound to increase the cost of a firewood bundle, unless the supplier has enormous volume and enormous kilns to dry the wood prior to bundling. I suppose that's possible.

I once offered a retailer a price per bundle that's about half the price of what they could sell it for. They turned me down because they did not want to own the bundles as salable property. Retailers take title to the goods that they sell unless they allow space for a jobber to operate withing the confines. All sales revenue then should go to the jobber.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Doubling the unit cost to obtain the initial selling price is the typical retail "Golden Markup" that's been around for as long as I can remember. Kiln drying is bound to increase the cost of a firewood bundle, unless the supplier has enormous volume and enormous kilns to dry the wood prior to bundling. I suppose that's possible.

I once offered a retailer a price per bundle that's about half the price of what they could sell it for. They turned me down because they did not want to own the bundles as salable property. Retailers take title to the goods that they sell unless they allow space for a jobber to operate withing the confines. All sales revenue then should go to the jobber.

The local grocery chain came to me last fall wanting to do bundles. Long story short they wasted my time and money and strung me along for several months. I never could get them to commit to a price. They sell small ".75" cu ft bundles of what I'd call kindling wood, I wasn't interested in putting my name on that ****.

They allegedly sell around 60,000 bundles a year out of the 5 or 6 stores in the local area.

 

[Wood Doctor]

The local grocery chain came to me last fall wanting to do bundles. Long story short they wasted my time and money and strung me along for several months. I never could get them to commit to a price. They sell small ".75" cu ft bundles of what I'd call kindling wood, I wasn't interested in putting my name on that ****.

They allegedly sell around 60,000 bundles a year out of the 5 or 6 stores in the local area.

Hard to believe they turned you down. Quality apparently means nothing to them. I also have a hard time believing that they sell 12oo bundles a week unless they have a couple dozen or stores selling them. Anything is possible I suppose.

One of my new truckload customers was buying bundles for his fireplace at home from a grocery chain. He said the wood burned like popcorn. After I delivered a truckload of quality firewood, he called me up and said he would never buy another firewood bundle from them again as log as I am in business. He could not believe he was paying $6 a bundle for kindling. He showed me one bundle that he had kept to compare with my hardwood splits, and I had to agree with him.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Hard to believe they turned you down. Quality apparently means nothing to them. I also have a hard time believing that they sell 12oo bundles a week unless they have a couple dozen or stores selling them. Anything is possible I suppose.

One of my new truckload customers was buying bundles for his fireplace at home from a grocery chain. He said the wood burned like popcorn. After I delivered a truckload of quality firewood, he called me up and said he would never buy another firewood bundle from them again as log as I am in business. He could not believe he was paying $6 a bundle for kindling. He showed me one bundle that he had kept to compare with my hardwood splits, and I had to agree with him.

I don't have that spreadsheet in front of me, but yes, it was around 10-12 stores (in an area of around 400,000 people). I would have been an additional vendor, they already have 2 outfits doing it but they couldn't keep up.
The one outfit also does the local gas stations. I had looked into it (knew the manager of the local store so she gave me the info) They only pay around $2.25 a bundle and sell them for $6 each.
I'm not sure how the other guy can sell them that cheap and be ok. I sat down and really ran the numbers (best I could) and was looking at around $2.00 a bundle in direct costs.

On top of that he has to deliver the bundles to all the gas stations in a radius of about 100 miles. Not sure how often he does it, but most of the gas stations have just a small pile by the store, maybe 30-50 bundles.

The bundles are .75 cu ft, so let's say 160 bundles to a cord if he's fairly stingy. That's $360 a cord. Can sell it as bulk wood for $275, so $85 "profit". Take away about .75 a bundle for the wrap, label and labor... that a "profit" of $10. And that's not counting having to deliver it for that price too.
Makes no sense to me.

As far as the grocery store, it was a mega headache dealing with them. They expected me to know how they do things and who to talk to. The irritating thing too is they brag all over about being "local"... we support local farmers, producers, "buy local" etc.
They've had wood bundles or sale there from Utah, Texas, and even Lithuania! (I'm not kidding!)

The only info I had really was from a manager that handles the stores in the state. He was the one that called me out of the blue wanting to know if I'd be interested in selling bundles to them.


The guy I was dealing with, the the regional outdoor/gardening purchasing manager outright told me that he didn't have time to "spoon feed" me when I asked questions.
Knowing now how it all ended up going I should have told him to shove it at that point. He certainly could have used some lessons in humility and courtesy!

I don't know why they never would give me a price on them. Just the required 2 million in insurance and the bar code I would have needed to pay for would have cost me close to $2500 for a year.
Yup... 2 million in insurance for a small time guy to show up at the loading dock with a few pallets of bundles a week. No idea what could happen to do that much damage!

 

[TeeMan]

 

[Wood Doctor]

I don't have that spreadsheet in front of me, but yes, it was around 10-12 stores (in an area of around 400,000 people). I would have been an additional vendor, they already have 2 outfits doing it but they couldn't keep up.
The one outfit also does the local gas stations. I had looked into it (knew the manager of the local store so she gave me the info) They only pay around $2.25 a bundle and sell them for $6 each.
I'm not sure how the other guy can sell them that cheap and be ok. I sat down and really ran the numbers (best I could) and was looking at around $2.00 a bundle in direct costs.

On top of that he has to deliver the bundles to all the gas stations in a radius of about 100 miles. Not sure how often he does it, but most of the gas stations have just a small pile by the store, maybe 30-50 bundles.

The bundles are .75 cu ft, so let's say 160 bundles to a cord if he's fairly stingy. That's $360 a cord. Can sell it as bulk wood for $275, so $85 "profit". Take away about .75 a bundle for the wrap, label and labor... that a "profit" of $10. And that's not counting having to deliver it for that price too.
Makes no sense to me.

As far as the grocery store, it was a mega headache dealing with them. They expected me to know how they do things and who to talk to. The irritating thing too is they brag all over about being "local"... we support local farmers, producers, "buy local" etc. They've had wood bundles or sale there from Utah, Texas, and even Lithuania! (I'm not kidding!)

The only info I had really was from a manager that handles the stores in the state. He was the one that called me out of the blue wanting to know if I'd be interested in selling bundles to them.

The guy I was dealing with, the the regional outdoor/gardening purchasing manager outright told me that he didn't have time to "spoon feed" me when I asked questions.
Knowing now how it all ended up going I should have told him to shove it at that point. He certainly could have used some lessons in humility and courtesy!

I don't know why they never would give me a price on them. Just the required 2 million in insurance and the bar code I would have needed to pay for would have cost me close to $2500 for a year.
Yup... 2 million in insurance for a small time guy to show up at the loading dock with a few pallets of bundles a week. No idea what could happen to do that much damage!

Just to add some fresh meat here. I received a call recently from one of my steady buyers. He found another buyer of my firewood. I believe he was a bit skeptical that I would be able to supply two truckloads of good seasoned firewood per month to another customer.

I said the magic word in today's millennial language: "No Problem."

Well, I haven't heard a peep since. That's the way it is these days. Just for the record, I collected another truckload of dry wood today, all ready to split. I'll do that tomorrow.

 

[Ontario Firewood Resource]

I don't have that spreadsheet in front of me, but yes, it was around 10-12 stores (in an area of around 400,000 people). I would have been an additional vendor, they already have 2 outfits doing it but they couldn't keep up.
The one outfit also does the local gas stations. I had looked into it (knew the manager of the local store so she gave me the info) They only pay around $2.25 a bundle and sell them for $6 each.
I'm not sure how the other guy can sell them that cheap and be ok. I sat down and really ran the numbers (best I could) and was looking at around $2.00 a bundle in direct costs.

On top of that he has to deliver the bundles to all the gas stations in a radius of about 100 miles. Not sure how often he does it, but most of the gas stations have just a small pile by the store, maybe 30-50 bundles.

The bundles are .75 cu ft, so let's say 160 bundles to a cord if he's fairly stingy. That's $360 a cord. Can sell it as bulk wood for $275, so $85 "profit". Take away about .75 a bundle for the wrap, label and labor... that a "profit" of $10. And that's not counting having to deliver it for that price too.
Makes no sense to me.

As far as the grocery store, it was a mega headache dealing with them. They expected me to know how they do things and who to talk to. The irritating thing too is they brag all over about being "local"... we support local farmers, producers, "buy local" etc.
They've had wood bundles or sale there from Utah, Texas, and even Lithuania! (I'm not kidding!)

The only info I had really was from a manager that handles the stores in the state. He was the one that called me out of the blue wanting to know if I'd be interested in selling bundles to them.


The guy I was dealing with, the the regional outdoor/gardening purchasing manager outright told me that he didn't have time to "spoon feed" me when I asked questions.
Knowing now how it all ended up going I should have told him to shove it at that point. He certainly could have used some lessons in humility and courtesy!

I don't know why they never would give me a price on them. Just the required 2 million in insurance and the bar code I would have needed to pay for would have cost me close to $2500 for a year.
Yup... 2 million in insurance for a small time guy to show up at the loading dock with a few pallets of bundles a week. No idea what could happen to do that much damage!

Forget the big companies. depending on your location, there may be plenty of pricate customers. I sell firewood and provide junk removal service. Cash at the end of the job is inifinitely less time consuming that going through the commercial route and all the politics that surround it.

 

[Ontario Firewood Resource]

Here's how to season firewood as fast as you possibly can

 

[vtcycle]

I am not at all surprised that the large stores don't take into account your time, insurance and barcode pricing.