I do not have any real experience burning slab wood and figured a few of you guys may have some insight. I can get a 12 cord load of mixed hardwood logs for $1285 Or a 25 bundle load of hard wood slab for about $950 delivered. (40”x40” x8/10’ bundles) Recently I bought a bundle to see how big of a PITA it would be. Turns out I can cut the hole bundle to size in about 15 min. And have it stacked in about 45 min. Anyway. My thought is that the slab would be a good way to get ahead of things in a hurry to to get closer too the three year plan. I have bought 2 semi loads in the past from the same fella and have been happy so far.
I burn slabwood all the time from my own mill sometimes you can stack it to tight that impedes drying a little but there is no problem with it I thought it would burn a lot faster since it was thinner but you can pack it tighter in the stove and it lasts pretty well most of mine is oak or black locust and it sure does save time not having to split all my wood JB
Given a choice & Having a year or 2 before it needs to be burned. Logs $100 / cord .. sounds good to me
The only bundles of slabs available around me is cedar and I only burn " my cedar" ( dead, looooong standing) split for kindling. But, I sure wouldn't shy away from a good deal. A couple extra trips to the pile is worth the savings, to me. So long as you know your stove, etc.
The only hardwood slabs I have dealt with were all bark on, which for about 50% thin stuff ends up being a LOT of bark. Bark supposedly has the same BTU as the wood but man it sure seemed like a lot of ash to me. About half luckily fell off by the time we got around to burning it and it all got raked up and tossed in the woods. If the bundles are no bark (17 cord ? ), and you're happy with the slab piece sizes ( ie, not a lot of smalls) then the slabs seem to be a pretty good deal. Otherwise I think I'd rather have logs to have some large splits.
I don't care too much for slabwood. Doesn't seem to last as long in the boiler & as billb3 said, lots of ash from the bark.
I also can get slab wood at $25 per bundle which is about $32 per cord if the bundle is just 8 ft boards. Dried and aged oak for that price is hard to beat. There is bark but alot of boards with wayne that didn't meet grade. Not all slab wood is aged well but the guy I buy from won't sell lumber or even slab wood until it's dry. Says he only sells quality product.
Yes, the slabs are cheaper...for a reason. Remember that most slab wood is with bark on, which means, you are paying from 40-50% for bark rather than wood, which also means much more ash to take care of. Yes, they are easy to cut up but sometimes can be a pain to stack decently. As for me and my house, I'd take the log load without any more thought as it is the much better deal, especially when considered that you are heating a home in Wisconsin, which means it gets cold outside!
I wish I had a source for good hardwood slabs at that price...all the mills near me that I know of grind all their slabs and cutoffs.
I'd prefer logs over things slabs. However, if I knew I going to be short, I wouldn't hesitate. If I did have slabs, and they were dry enough, I'd work them in with full splits. Thinking, it would be a good way to extend the split wood you already have.
I would try slabwood for those prices. Just saw an add on CL for $175.00 / cord. Guy acting like it was a great deal.
I’ve burned slab wood in the past if it had bark on its usually not worth the effort except for shoulder season and semi seasoned purchased wood. Now the debarked stuff is 10x better but you better have good gloves as the splinters are TERRIBLE. I would buy those anytime I find them for $25 in 3000 pound bundles.
I have cut both also in the past and while the logs seem to be nicer wood wise the price and volume up here makes the choice rather easy.I can get 20 bundles slab wood dropped off for 1130.00Cdn and it will yield approx 14 bush cord.Logs seem to be $2300.00 cdn for a load and supposed to be 15 bush cord.If I buy it already cut& dry it runs $300-350 a bush cord delivered.Many suppliers here charge $90 a face cord. I burn spruce,poplar, scrap 2x4 pieces and even cut up hardwood pallets from neighbor
Not sure yet if the load of bundles will have bark on but the bundle that I have messed with did not have bark.
There is a (flooring) mill about 25 miles from me that sells oak bundles for $40/cord and they strip the logs of bark before cutting. I considered it at one point despite (less than half) quite a few rejected for wane boards in the bundle. They looked like 5/4 boards which wouldn't be all that bad for burning, but they wouldn't deliver 25 miles out. At the time some property that needed dead standing oak removed project came up and we went with that instead. Got a lot of nice oak logs firewood out of it.
When Chaz is out cutting after a 12 pack of Busch...some pieces are 12" long, some are 20", some are 18", some are 24" and so on!!
