some random questions

[imagineero]

I put a slow combustion heater into my in laws house recently, my mother in law isn't too fond of me and I thought it would give me a chance to maybe bond with her a bit more. Install went just fine, and she's slowly warmed to the idea over the winter (it's winter here). Its given me an excuse to pop round, clean the thing out, split some wood, make a bit of conversation etc so that's a good thing. She's a bit fussy about not having stuff laying round the yard and it's a small place so I have very little room to stack there and no room at my own place. She also doesn't want me splitting there, but it's not a big deal, I split the wood then drop it and stack it. The only real space I've found is stacking around the 3 walls of the garage (inside). Some random questions in no particular order;

Is the wood going to dry inside the garage? There's no sun and the door is shut. It's all split

Any ideas for other out of the way places to stack?

Is pecan any good as burning wood?

Any way to make the stacks so they can't fall over? Would hate to see them get hurt if one did.

 

[svk]

The wood will dry very slowly inside a garage and may mold if put in when green.

Only way to reduce chance of tipping a stack is to do a good job stacking and don't stack it very high.

Pecan has a good rating but I've never personally burned any.

You are a good son in law to install, clean, and deliver split wood!

 

[Guswhit]

If I were you, I'd keep the Pecan for smoking something on the grill!
A big atta boy for you trying to appease the in-laws!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Personally, I am not a good @ss kisser, hence not many get together's at my house on that side.

 

[zogger]

Might dry in a few years, if the bugs don't eat it up
Pecan is close to hickory, excellent heating or cooking wood

Really needs to be outside until right before winter. I guess..your best bet is dry it elsewhere and deliver it when dried.

My friend I am now supplying with heating wood has a similar problem with his spouse, firewood stacks are an "eyesore" no matter how neat, so he has to stack out back under a tree instead of in the open yard, and they have plenty of open yard. Told him it wasn't going to work very well, but....I think what is going to happen is I season the wood here, the next batch, he comes and gets it on demand, truck load at a time. I don't want them to be burning half way dry wood.

 

[turnkey4099]

Might dry in a few years, if the bugs don't eat it up
Pecan is close to hickory, excellent heating or cooking wood

Really needs to be outside until right before winter. I guess..your best bet is dry it elsewhere and deliver it when dried.

My friend I am now supplying with heating wood has a similar problem with his spouse, firewood stacks are an "eyesore" no matter how neat, so he has to stack out back under a tree instead of in the open yard, and they have plenty of open yard. Told him it wasn't going to work very well, but....I think what is going to happen is I season the wood here, the next batch, he comes and gets it on demand, truck load at a time. I don't want them to be burning half way dry wood.

Nothing wrong with stacking in the shade. Air movement is the most important part of drying wood, sun shining on it has only a minor effect.

Harry K

 

[zogger]

Nothing wrong with stacking in the shade. Air movement is the most important part of drying wood, sun shining on it has only a minor effect.

Harry K

Makes a difference here. Shade keeps the dew on for hours and hours sometimes, whereas just a few feet away, other wood is surface dry shortly after the sun hits it, which then allows the subsurface drying to recommence. I have stacks in open sun and partial shade, see it all the time. The stuff in full sun dries overall a lot faster (to full ready to burn status), and it is the same wind.

 

[svk]

Makes a difference here. Shade keeps the dew on for hours and hours sometimes, whereas just a few feet away, other wood is surface dry shortly after the sun hits it, which then allows the subsurface drying to recommence. I have stacks in open sun and partial shade, see it all the time. The stuff in full sun dries overall a lot faster (to full ready to burn status), and it is the same wind.

I'd have to agree with this, I'd choose full sun/no wind over no sun/high wind but that's just me.

 

[Dirtboy]

Sun makes a big difference here to, knocks off the dew quick.

 

[GeeVee]

+2 on sun. I own Hammock land. In the South.

Though I need not be precise because it isn;t my heat source, I prefer dry wood.

 

[cantoo]

Maybe you can make something she would be happy with.
Holz Hauzen.

 

[imagineero]

The wood will dry very slowly inside a garage and may mold if put in when green.

Only way to reduce chance of tipping a stack is to do a good job stacking and don't stack it very high.

Pecan has a good rating but I've never personally burned any.

You are a good son in law to install, clean, and deliver split wood!

That's kind of what I thought about the slow drying. On the plus side it's pretty warm here year round (100+ in the summer) and the winter is not that cold, just they're getting older and keeping warm has to be a good thing for their health. I'll take a pic of the stacks and the garage. It has a metal roof and it's brick, maybe keeping the door open in the summer will help? I don't have anywhere to stack it at my own place, i live in an apartment. I think I stacked it ok, I put all the nicer straighter bits at the bottom and tried to stack them tetris style to keep it pretty solid, kept it 2" off the wall and tried to stack it level or *slightly* leaning back.

We all have our burden in life, though I can't say mine is much of a one. I'm just hoping she'll run out of energy for hating me before I run out of energy to care for her. The in laws are good folks, I guess they just think their daughter deserves someone better and I kind of feel the same way so I can understand that. It would be a good thing for the whole family if they liked me, and I know it would make my girl happy.

Shaun

 

[stihly dan]

Best way would be spend that energy on the girl not the inlaws.

 

[imagineero]

Best way would be spend that energy on the girl not the inlaws.

Happy wife equals happy life ;-) She gets plenty of attention from me~ I know it brings her down a bit that her mum doesn't like me. Honestly it isn't that much of an effort. I run a full time tree service so it's not that big of a deal to cut and split a bit of wood rather than put it through the chipper. Since it's all getting chipped anyhow I can just keep the clear knot free stuff and throw anything with a crotch in it straight into the chipper which makes splitting easy. I'd really like to get on with them well too, there's a lot of happiness to be had from having a family where everyone loves and cares for each other.

 

[svk]

That's kind of what I thought about the slow drying. On the plus side it's pretty warm here year round (100+ in the summer) and the winter is not that cold, just they're getting older and keeping warm has to be a good thing for their health. I'll take a pic of the stacks and the garage. It has a metal roof and it's brick, maybe keeping the door open in the summer will help? I don't have anywhere to stack it at my own place, i live in an apartment. I think I stacked it ok, I put all the nicer straighter bits at the bottom and tried to stack them tetris style to keep it pretty solid, kept it 2" off the wall and tried to stack it level or *slightly* leaning back.

We all have our burden in life, though I can't say mine is much of a one. I'm just hoping she'll run out of energy for hating me before I run out of energy to care for her. The in laws are good folks, I guess they just think their daughter deserves someone better and I kind of feel the same way so I can understand that. It would be a good thing for the whole family if they liked me, and I know it would make my girl happy.

Shaun

If its that hot outside, I'd think its quite a bit hotter under a tin room. But I might suggest thinking about both the possibility of crime and/or critters moving in if you kept the door open. If you partially season the wood at your place to get rid of the initial moisture and then move it in to her garage for the final dry you should be ok.

 

[zogger]

Maybe get them to put a fan on the stack inside the garage, might help some.

 

[Festus]

You sound like a pretty darn nice son in law to me. Heck, I'm thankful my mother in law lives 60 miles away. My daughter is getting married this November. I'm very happy her fiance is a responsible hard working guy. People need to get their priorities straight and stop worrying about some level of "perfection," they have in their head.

I'm not sure, but I think if you could leave that wood outside for even just a few weeks after it is split, it would maybe help out a lot.

 

[Oliver1655]

Just for grins a couple of weeks ago I took an 18" round of oak & checked the moisture:
- Just cut off the the log, end read 34%.
- Split it roughly into quarters, & took an 8x8" split & stood it on end with one split surface facing the sun & the other split surface away from the sun.
- 2 hours later, side in the sun measured 21%, shaded side measured 31%.

I will have to vote for sun having a major impact on drying.

 

[Marine5068]

You're a good man and Son-In-Law

 

[imagineero]

Here's a few photos for you guys. My partner has a boy and I treat him like my own. We had a great old time building the hearth together. He's only 7 but smart as a button. I got to be proud of him, he made all the measurements for the frame and I cut the wood, he got to nail it down with the nail gun. We framed it up and lay 1" formply over it then tiled it, tiled right over the top of the existing open fireplace too so we could use it for storing wood. Frame isn't painted in these pics, but we got the trim painted up nice to match the walls and laid down a floating floor over the existing one.

Couple months before I got to have his first camp fire with him, we talked it through, safety, prep, best way to put it together for it to start easy etc. He got it first time and it went off like a beaut! We had a couple more after that, and he did the whole thing himself. He got to light the first fire in the slow combustion heater and didn't need any prompting to get it right first time.

Installing the whole thing is a great future memory for me and hopefully for him too. Hopefully when his grandparents use it they'll get a feeling that people in their family care about them too. It's always great to be able to do things like this.

 

[zogger]

That came out real nice! The mum in law may be hesitant, but the little guy will be more important to you day to day and looks to be working out well.