There is no wrong way here, just thought I would start a thread on how our ways have changed over the years to make firewood hoarding easier. For some it might have meant getting new equipment, and for some it may not. The idea here is to reflect back at how things have changed. When I was a kid, we put up 25 cord of wood, but it was done in this manner from stump to woodstove: Felled, limbed and topped out Cross cut into 4 foot sections and loaded onto a trailer and unloaded into a pile Using a Buzz saw it was cut into 16 inch sections Then it was split and allowed to dry (1 summer) Then it was picked up and hauled into the woodshed Then it was stacked in the woodshed Then it was hauled into a wood box by the stove Burned Today I: Fell the tree Limb then cut the tree into sections over the dump box of my trailer and haul home and dump Push wood into my woodshed with my tractor (no stacking) Haul inside my home Burn Today I have eliminated limbing, topping off, loading by hand, unloading by hand, buzz sawing, splitting (I use small trees) and piling wood compared to the old way.
Maybe it's me, but I find that no matter how small wood is, it doesn't dry till it's split. Actually my motto is, "It's not firewood till it's split".
I'd say it depends on a lot of factors. I burn a lot of wood that isn't ever split, branches up to about 6". It does take longer for the wood to dry with the bark on and unsplit. I'll cut, and split ( once big enough) dead standing elm and burn much of it, that season. I can even cut and burn that same day with dead standing barkless elm. The bottom parts, I split, and put up for at least the following burning season. Now, sugar maple, shagbark, and especially oak, pretty much all that gooder stuff, yeah you have to split it. Small ironwood, can be dead standing dry on its own just like elm, even with the bark on it. OTOH, birch, if not split right away after being cut, will rot. So it really varies per tree species.
I have always hated splitting gum and since I've owned a OWB, I haven't had to split much. I have taken 18" diameter gum and cut it to roughly 2' long, put them under cover in the carport off the ground and in 2-3 years it is dry as can be. And I know they are dry because I wouldn't be able to lift them into the boiler if they were still wet
When I was a younger man it was: 1. Cut with gear driven chain saw. 2. If a large tree we would buck it there or 3. If small, we would cut into 8-10' then use buzz saw to buck it 4. Split 5. Stack what we could in wood shed and leave the rest uncovered but stacked. 6. Move some into enclosed porch as needed throughout the winter 7. Put wood in stove 8. Empty ashes 9. Repeat. Today: 1. Cut with chain saw. 2. Usually buck where the tree fell but the last couple of years we have 3. Cut into 8' logs and skid to open area. 4. Wait for GTG and let the guys have some fun bucking and splitting. But they also do some felling and skidding 5. Stack and cover wood 6. Wait. 7. Move enough wood for winter into barn 8. Move some to porch as needed to make it easy to load stove 9. Feed stove 10. Empty ashes 11. Repeat.
Because it dries adequately while inside my house. Wood is more like a sponge then a rock. If wood is outside and the day is damp it begins to take in moisture, but when it is dry, it gives any within it, out. Yet there is no drier place then a woodstove heated home in the middle of winter. Moisture content here is often in the 6% range so it is ideal conditions to dry wood. 70 degrees, and low moisture. That means the moment firewood is brought in to fill the woodbox, it gives up any moisture and continues to do so until it is burned. Within 3 weeks it is just as dry as if it was outside for 3 years giving and taking moisture in and out. You can tell what is happening just by the popping and noises it makes as it dries out. After about 3 weeks that cracking and popping slows. The key is always having 3 weeks of wood in rotation...dried, drying and from the woodshed.
We move about a cord into the basement at a time. (six weeks worth) I love to hear it cracking and snapping at it dries out. It goes on for weeks, but the first few days in a 80-85 degree basement it makes a lot of noise. And it definitely catches faster and burns better after it's been inside a while!
I thought you had a super-insulated house? And my understanding is that only leaky (not air sealed well) homes that suffer low humidity in winter... I can't say how much wood drys when brought into the house because I've only tried bringing wood into the house ahead of time once...so many bugs/spiders "woke up" and started crawling/flying around, I said never again. It stays in the unheated attached garage 'til I'm ready for it now. All that to say I don't know what all you burn, but I really doubt I could get away with burning Oak and some other hardwoods if it was cut same year, piled up, and then just dried in the house for a few weeks. I've had some White Oak that was CSS for 3 years and still had some sizzle to it when thrown in the fire!
That is no where near correct. A super insulated home, coupled with a woodstove is going to be VERY dry. Add to that back up radiant floor heating systems which do not heat the room, but rather the contents in the room (including the firewood), makes for a very dry environment. When there is a spill upon the floor within a few hours it dries up, same thing with the bath mat around the shower, etc. When the wife washes her delicate s like pantyhose or sweaters, to dry them, she lays them right on the laundry room floor. That is the good side of things, the bad side is the wife and my oldest daughter tend to get a lot of nose bleeds.
How so? My experience has been completely different from what you are saying...Maine opt out from the laws of physics? We are 100% wood heat here...and no humidity issues...can hold 25-45% RH at 72* all the time in the winter no problem...with no humidifier used. But we also don't use vent fans, and the electric dryer vent gets switched to indoor discharge in the winter, so that helps keep humidity up some...but we don't take a ton of long steamy showers like some familys tend to do...and laundry is not done everyday, so its not like its a big here steambath either. And our house has just OK insulation and air sealing...not great, but OK. (working on an upgrade there right now) Now, people that I know that have leaky houses tend to have very low humidity in the winter...especially the real cold weather times. There is a member here that I PM with regularly, they have a pretty leaky 100% wood heated house in a northern state...house has pretty low humidity in winter, even with putting gallons and gallons of water in the air every day...especially when its gets real cold. Not trying to pick a fight here...its just when I read your OP I thought it sounded like kinda poor SOP for 99% of the woodburners out there...and as you well know, FHC is all about promoting good practices when it comes to safe wood heating. You are obviously making it work somehow...maybe hafta clean your chimney often? Maybe you have a ton of wood available, so burn the stove hot and fast? IDK... Regardless, burning green wood out of a "pile in the barn" isn't going to work too well for most people...I tried burning sawmill (amish pallet shop) cutoffs one year...and only one year...couldn't get any of it to dry (except the very smallest chunks) if you stack it (PITA) it won't dry...leave it in a pile, it won't dry...I said the heck with that! But we are well off your intended topic here...so I'll just let this discussion drop if you would rather...
OK, I'll take a swing at this When young #1 Storms would come though and take out trees on the farm #2 Would help dad pulling what I could and stacking rows for winter #3 Would be in charge of getting the fire going in the morning, the stove was almost six ft. long and at least 3x3 and heated the whole house #4 Liked that Now #1 Go to work #2 Take down or prune trees #3 Cut any available firewood from the job and stack #4 Ask customer if they wish to keep the firewood #5 90% of the time get to take the cut firewood #6 Take wood home and split and stack it #7 Wait at least 2 years on the hardwoods and one year on the softwoods #8 Burn and repeat
Pretty much the same process; fell, buck, haul rounds, split, and stack in shed to dry. Cut one winter and burn the next. Never cut green. Only dead standing, leaning and fallen barkless red oak, elm and ironwood What has changed the most for me is equipment. Better more powerful saws, splitting axes, hydraulic splitters, ATV or tractors to access and haul and wood stoves. Process quicker and burns longer.
I love how some people on forums say the latter part: "Now that I said what I wanted to say, I want to drop it okay?" There is no change in the law of physics, but rather working within the laws of physics. It is hard to define "super insulated home", much less describe an individual's homes characteristics in a threads replies, but I'll try. Now maybe a lot of it is exposure; my house sits atop of a hill that has views some 175 miles away on a clear day, and has some 60 acres of open land around it with views of hills on all four sides. Wind is a huge factor here and why it is super insulated in the first place. As I type this 30 mph winds are blasting the house. Another reason might be wood. This is a timber frame home, and being self-built with a family with several sawmills, a lot of it is made of real wood; floors, walls, ceilings, etc...there is not a lot of drywall considering the homes size and construction. I also think the slab-on-grade has a lot to do with it; its not like I have an eight foot hole underneath my house allowing moisture to migrate up through, and protected by moisture barrier, and with radiant pipes running through it, it stays VERY dry. Of the 6 people in this home, 5 are girls so there is steamy showers, lots of laundry and dishes, but it does not make a dent in how dry it is here. (Our propane dryer is vented outside though). So wood does dry in here, and I think in most peoples homes it does. I was not advocating any particular method in which to process firewood. I have known by human nature people do things a particular way and rationalize it, and promote it as the only way to do something when that is NOT the case at all. There are multiple ways of achieving the same thing. Most Mainer's do not buy into the 3 year plan; they cut the wood in winter, and by the next winter they burn it. A large part of that is in having a wood box in the house where knowing it or not, it further dries. Most Mainer's don't do it for that reason per say, but because it sucks to make a trip to the woodshed at 3 Am and like to keep wood close by. If a person is going to have a little wood, why not a lot, and so that is the general practice. What I do with my firewood is no different than what Robbins Lumber does with their wood. They have some that they dry outside which is known as Surface Dry (stamped s-dry under Northeast Lumber Manufacturer Association stampings), but the majority of their wood goes into a kiln. That is just a giant box that has carefully controlled heat and moisture settings...about as close to a home in winter as a person can get. In fact, in the old days, milled lumber was often stored for a winter under the beds so that it would acclimate to the house before being installed. A test would be easy to conduct. Outside: Insert a moisture meter probe into a piece of wood and record its addition and subtraction of moisture over a 3 year cycle and plot out its moisture content. Inside: Insert a moisture meter probe into a piece of wood and record its addition and subtraction of moisture over a 3 year cycle and plot out its moisture content. In the end, compare at what time the sticks of wood had their lowest moisture content. I bet the the stick of wood placed inside the house would reach that limit in only a few weeks time due to optimal drying conditions. keep in mind, it is not what the moisture content is in the end that is important, what is trying to be determined is; what the fastest way to dry wood is. I propose thousands of sawmills and their kilns cannot be wrong.
Well since this has kind of gone off the rails, I might as well help. A few years back I had a home energy audit. They created negative pressurize in the house and measure air infiltration and got a reading. Come to find out a majority of heat loss in a house is from the "make up" air that has to be heated to the ambient temperature. If there is a lot of make up air the humidity is going to be very low due to cold winter air heated up inside the house is very dry. If a house is very "airtight", i.e. very little air infiltration the humidity is going to be higher especially with un vented bathrooms with frequent showers. A house can be very insulated but still have high air turnover which defeats the purpose. When the energy audit was done, steps are taken to stop the air infiltration. It surprised me to learn that doors and windows are not the greatest culprits. The big offenders of air leaks are: 1. Box sills 2. Unsealed dry wall seams leading to the attic 3. Penetrations in the ceilings that aren't sealed When we sealed up , #1, #2, & #3, the house was then deemed "too airtight" when an after blower test was done. The remedy suggested then was an air to air heat exchanger so fresh outside air could be brought in. (I did not do this) Anyway, that my 2 Cents. Hope that muddies the discussion further.
Humans evolved to burning wood around a million years ago, so is it any wonder there are so many different "right" ways to do it.
Okay... When young 1, Dad would "rent" me out to trim and remove trees. 2, Fill up the truck before dad returns for it. 3, unload truck, rolling and tossing into a big pile. 4, split and toss into another pile (after prolonged hounding by parents) 5, keep back porch full of wood. Now 1, cut mostly on neighbors land, occasionally cut for a contractor with wood as payment, general scrounging... 2, cut large rounds to length, smaller left as long as can be lifted. 3, pile everything on pallets. 4, split the larger rounds first when I get around to it. 5, buzzsaw the rest and split, again when I have time. 6, stack on pallet racking and cover just the top, with breathable canvas. 7, fill 2 section rack by stove.
I will say that our house used to be very low humidity. However, since we super insulated it and replaced doors and windows, it is no longer the low humidity and we keep our house much warmer than most (around 80).
