Is this normal? Cut, split, stacked, top covered, plenty of room between ricks, not the best sunny spot, up off of ground. Granted I don’t have the best moisture meter. A cheap General brand I bought at Gillman’s Hardware. Checked three splits...split them again and checked middle and ends. Surprisingly still at 18%. The one caveat to the three splits I tested were that they were oak. I’d say this is close to normal for oak in not the sunniest location. Gets about 6 hrs of sunlight a day during summer. I live in a small valley between hills that is sheltered from sun, wind. I’m in no hurry for the wood and generally season in much longer anyway, but in a more ideal and sunny location where it can also get more wind. That said, this is my first wood testing at this home location which is providing different seasoning challenges.
20% or less is the goal... and during a wet year like this that’s about as good as you’ll likely get it. Send it
How long have they been CSS/covered there? I've seen oak that was 3 years CSS/C and still not under 20%...
How long has the wood been split & stacked? How far down the sides of your stacks are you tarped? As mentioned above, 18% is great MC for firewood.
We’ve had some oak to take almost 5 years to stop hissing & pizz’n TurboDiesel, ya have a similar pic from a certain condition…? Maybe from around April 2016….?
Agree with others 18% oak? You can burn it, but need more info like when cut, when split. Nothing wrong with your stacking unless those top covers go down the sides too far.
I usually season oak 3 yrs bare minimum...but I used to season it 5 years minimum, but that was before I owned a moisture meter. If this meter is correct...now I know what mc I have. My first two ricks have been CSS and covered for 3.5-3.75 years now and is mixed hardwoods. Another 2 cord is 2.5 years mixed hardwoods. I normally separate the oak, hedge, hard maple, and black locust from the rest of my wood, but I didn’t do that this time because I didn’t cut it. It’s all wood that I had to buy. I just happened to grab three splits of oak.
Covered down about 1.5 ft, but the three pieces I grabbed were below the tarp level. My big stack of 2+ cords is down about a foot. Just enough to tie a rope around to keep it from flying off. Flat top covering so they are fully open is best I know. I have some metal awning from a 20’x30’ large covered patio that was damaged by a hail storm that I’m going to get after Thanksgiving. That should do the trick. Strange enough this wood still looks almost like it was delivered. Still has a light color to it rather than darkening real dark like normal. I mean it darkened some, but not much at all.
I've got some oak that's 3.5 years that still isn't perfect. It was stacked beside the house and only got morning sun and very little wind... The same stuff i burned last winter was great but was stacked out in the open for about 2.5 years.
Anything under 20% is fair game to me. I can usually get decent size splits of red to that in 3 years. With your conditions, what every you did for those splits, I'd say keep on doing it. 18% is good to go.
I recently re-split a larger red oak split and tested it. Almost 19%. 6.5 years stacked/top covered and only down to 19%. Later on I took a more normal (to me) sized split of red oak, re-split it and tested it. 17% in the middle and 15% near the ends. It too was stacked/top covered for 6.5 years. I took a smaller pine split which was stacked/top covered for about the same time (6.5 years) and that tested out at 10%.
