newbie needing wood seasoning advice

[jd6030]

Will loose piles of wood dry well in dumped piles? Looking at a getting a Central Boiler 2300 and dealer said it will get a lot better burn times with dry wood. Started stacking in rows but have pieces with knots and crotches and 6 inch lengths between some pieces. Tried a round holz hausen pile and it collapsed today. Just curious on how other wood users are seasoning wood.

 

[mimilkman1]

I just pile it up and leave it. I finished cutting at the end of April last year and by October everything seemed to be well seasoned to me. I mainly had white ash, silver maple and elm in the pile. They say oak and maple take longer to season, but I had pretty good luck just tossin it off the truckand leavin it.

Kyle

 

[pdqdl]

It dries much quicker if you can keep the rain off, exposed to the sun, and plenty of air circulation.

Seems kind of contradictory, doesn't it?

 

[doubletodd]

this year doing 16' straight rows on old pallets to keep it off the ground. I stack the crooked,small and knotty pieces on the top of the rows so they don't mess up the stack. stacking two rows together then a space before the next row, that way I get good air circulation and I can get to all rows at any time.I cover Top with old plywood and a tire or a couple big chunks to keep the plywood on. Have used piles in the past too,but hard to cover, gets nasty on the bottom, and hard to tell how much wood I have. I also think the stacks look neater.[got the pallet idea from a guy near me who sells alot of firewood. He stacks all his wood on pallets]. Seems to be working well.I just pound in stakes to start a row.one row equals aprox 2 face cord depending on how high. Will take some pics when I get a chance

 

[Mike Van]

Drier wood burns better than wet -

 

[Rookie1]

I stack on little Buckeye trees that are a couple years old i cut out of my property,found something buckeye is good for,to keep wood off ground. I dont like bugs crawling around in it. Any way you do it I would keep the wood off the ground.

 

[Chuck Diesel]

Stack all mine on pallets 24x20x6.5. With a couple of air rows in between. Pics soon.

 

[gink595]

Will loose piles of wood dry well in dumped piles? Looking at a getting a Central Boiler 2300 and dealer said it will get a lot better burn times with dry wood. Started stacking in rows but have pieces with knots and crotches and 6 inch lengths between some pieces. Tried a round holz hausen pile and it collapsed today. Just curious on how other wood users are seasoning wood.

I stack on pallets as well, I stack in rows and try to leave some air space between rows. Mine is all stacked in a open walled barn used to be for steers so I get good air flow but no sun, but since it has a metal roof it does get warm in the summer. Kinda like a oven effect. As for the knots and crotches I just throw them off to the side until my rows are complete and then throw them on top. Or if to bad just stay in a pile near my stacks and get used for campfire wood during the summer.

 

[Chuck Diesel]

If you had the block sitting around, Thats perfect idea.

 

[Hugenpoet]

Thanks for the photos. Great idea.

 

[max2cam]

Keep the rain off!

Otherwise sooner or later you'll experience periods of constant prolonged soaking rains that will leave your exposed pile drenched that in fall or spring will not quickly dry out if at all and/or will freeze leaving you with poor quality fuel. Same is true of snow if you get any there...

 

[Zodiac45]

I also use the pallet program. Allot of my wood is knotty and crooked but if you run a few courses one way then an opposing course it stacks up just fine. So far here's about 4-5 cords worth on 8 pallets. The key is good airflow, even more than sun. This wood was collected and quartered last year and split last month, so it sat last fall and all winter. Some of it could burn now, but I'll let it sit all summer and get crispy.

 

[computeruser]

I did the pallet thing for the past couple years, as well using pressure treated timbers directly on the ground. In both instances I found that I got all kinds of moisture-trapping debris beneath the pile, and vermin living beneath the piles, in the pallets. No question that dry works better than wet. Odd-sized pieces get discarded, usually through freecycle, used in the outdoor firepit, or stacked on top of the pile where their shape does not interfere with stacking.

I decided to raise my piles up off the ground a bit more, using 4x8x16 solid concrete blocks ($.98/each) to hold my pressure treated 2x4x8' cross pieces above the ground (2 8' pieces + 3 12" cross pieces + a couple nails). Already this spring I've seen the neighbor cats underneath the piles in the evenings, hunting mice. And I suspect that it will be much easier to rake up the leaves that fall between (and end up beneath) my rows.

I keep the wood uncovered until early November, at which point the pile is tarped for the winter. This technique worked much better for me than leaving the top covered all season long, as I had in previous years.

I'd conservatively estimate that we've got 3.5 full cords in the yard, between the stacks outside the fence and those behind the fence.