Hi everyone I purchased a house with a 27 acre wood lot so naturally i wanted to take advantage of it! It mostly contains spruce and aspen which is a bit of a bummer but almost everyone in this area uses aspen to heat their houses anyway. The previous owner fell some trees 1 or 2 years ago and left them in piles of 8 foot logs on the ground to "dry". They don't dry much aside from like 6 inches from the edges (edge pieces are noticeably lighter than middle pieces) but it's better than nothing i suppose. Stupid, inexperienced me didn't know that you have to season wood before it becomes usable and safe to store inside. I have a space in my basement (concrete floor with some kind of hard material on the walls, not sure what it is but it's not wood) that is 8 foot by 8 foot by 6 foot, perfect to fit 8 cords of 8 foot by 4 foot. The previous owner told me he's filled up this space with wood completely each of the past 10 years and that usually lasts him all winter. I cut and split enough of the logs he left on the ground to fill up this space completely. I also fell a new, huge tree and, sadly, not knowing any better, i stacked all of that in my basement as well. Only the face cord is exposed to air so naturally drying is probably a challenge for the rest of the stack. I can tell that the pieces that are not the tree i cut myself are drying visibly faster (different color, more cracks on the edges, etc) but i'm still worried about the possible issues i might be facing here. I have a dehumidifier running 24/7 right next to the stack as well as a fan pointed directly on it but still, when i wake up in the morning, my windows are COVERED with water drops and i need to wipe it off so it doesn't just drip on the frames and sit there rotting them. I will purchase a second, hopefully better dehumidifier to help but i wanted to see if anyone had some advice for me. Moving the stack back outside is not an option, this took me too much time and i'm running out of time before winter hits for real (Canadian winter...). My current dehumidifier is not hooked up to any form of water drainage so i need to empty it myself every 6 hours or so. I do have a curious looking screwing cap thing in the floor in the basement i suspect might be a water drainage system, i will look to hook into that to at least make it so that i never need to tend to it. Relative humidity next to the stack is between 70% and 85% even with the dehumidifier running, me lighting a fire does help dry the air even if what i'm burning is not seasoned wood (I am not burning the freshly cut tree, it's deeper into the stack). Realistically how long am i looking at for this to dry? I can see moisture oozing out the edges of the logs which i'm taking out of the air so it is definitely working. BTW, next year i'm building a wood shed outside and i'll be felling next year's trees this winter. Not making that mistake again! Thank you Martin
Ouch, I am not a spruce or aspen guy, but I suspect you are doing all of the right things you can now. You may want to buy some seasoned stuff if you can find it....I will let others expound on drying. Welcome to the club
Right now i have about 6 cords worth inside and 2 cords sitting in a pile, cut to 16 inches lengths on my wood lot waiting for me to transport (my trailer is already full of wood from a little bridge i had to destroy). I plan on stacking those somewhere outside sheltered from the rain and at least let that portion dry outside and not contribute to the madness in here. I did think of looking around for 1 or 2 cords of seasoned wood but apparently it's getting pretty rare.
I would think re-stack the green stuff back outside. And bring it back in for next season. A pain, but better then buying and running dehumidifiers. Add some more to your outside stacks for next year.. maybe some standing dead would even work for this year if the moisture meter agrees. Buy seasoned, look for pine that might be ready sooner, or scrounge some pallets for stacking on and burning. Good luck and have fun with the learning curve and the wood lot.
Wow Martin Denis you have a tiger by the tail for sure. Good luck. I do not know of anything you can do to hasten the drying in the basement outside of what you are already doing. For sure keep the humidifier and fan going and yes, I'd also keep a small fire going to help. Not sure where you are in Canada but I do know the further north we go the better the aspen gets. Much different from what we have in MI. Also, welcome to the forum. And being new, here is some reading that might be of some help to you: Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage You can read that online or even download it to your computer. Good luck.
The issue with that is i have nothing to burn for this year if i do that. Most of the wood has been cut probably 2 years ago but since it was left in 8 foot logs i suspect it didn't do much for proper drying aside from maybe the edge pieces like i mentioned. At this point i think my best bet is to not bring the last 2 cords inside, let them dry somewhere not in my basement and i assume they should be somewhat dry come January or February?
Yep, stove is in the basement about 10 feet from the stack. This is a relatively old house and the basement is quite drafty (old windows, not so air tight area between the top of the foundation and the floor) so it doesn't get nearly as hot in the basement as it does on the main floor but it certainly helps. I see a pretty big difference in humidity when the fire is lit (83 RH VS low 70s).
If i move some of it the only other place where it can go is outside. I could get a friend to help and that might be doable relatively quick but i'm trying to avoid this at all costs. Given the circumstances right now i'd much prefer doing everything i can for this stuff to dry inside but i do realize i may have no choice.
Hello and welcome to the FHC Martin Denis . Great to have you here. Sounds like you are doing all you can to alleviate the problem. I myself don't store any wood indoors until its almost ready to go into the fire. I have a friend who "seasons" his wood in his basement. His wood stove is down there so the heat helps, but not a good idea IMO. BTW as ive learned here we refer to it as drying/dried rather than seasoned! Can you open a hopper window with an exhaust fan blowing out? The species you've stated are lower btu woods, but when dried still throw heat. Dry being key! Sometimes you have to do the best you can with what you've got. Can you purchase half cord/cord of DRIED wood? Is there any "standing dead" in your woods? Basically ready to burn.
There is a relatively big aspen right next to where i chop that appears to have been hit by lightning, i think that's my next target
Is it dead? Ive never cut any aspen dead or alive. Dont know if standing dead aspen is dry enough to burn right away. Perhaps another member could shed more light on this?
Welcome aboard Martin Denis Gonna be a tough one for sure, but I don't think you can do much more than you are. Keeping the humidity down, with good airflow is the best you can do under the circumstances.
The newest tree you stacked - is there someplace else in the basement that it could be re-stacked to? It would open up more space around it, and give you access to the older wood there. As buZZsaw BRAD mentioned, any way to vent the air outside? Even if it's not 24x7, it would help get it out of the house.
Long, long ago I lived in a cave in the Sierra Nevada. A nearby forest provided our firewood, including aspen which we used for cooking. Standing dead aspens were dry enough to burn nicely right after falling. To make it even better, the roots would rot enough that you could push the trees over by rocking, some as big as 12-16 inches. Target any standing dead that you may have.
The newest tree is the last thing i stacked so it's the first thing in front, i could bring at least that outside but honestly i don't think the rest is much drier. Even if it's been cut for 2 years the fact that it was left in 8 foot lengths directly on the ground didn't do much for it, the middle logs feel just as heavy as the fresh one i cut it seems. I can't open up more space because the stack is literally walled in aside from the front. Bringing some of it outside would at least make it so that there's LESS green wood inside but again this is what i'm stuck burning this year it looks like. What i do is keep a box of really thin stick of wood i make with my log splitter right next to the stove, like less than an inch width pieces. Those dry pretty quickly and become somewhat easy to light after a few days. I do realize (now) that burning green wood is quite wasteful and somewhat dangerous but my chimney and flue were cleaned to an inch of their life about a month ago. The windows are older slide type windows and don't have a screen on them (could fix that though) plus it's getting pretty close to freezing point outside so outside venting is not very realistic right now i think.
Colder air is drier air. You might get lucky with the older stuff. It might be more surface wet, instead of wet at the cellular level. If that is the case, it could dry out faster than the newest tree. If you have no standing deadwood, you cold look into how feasible for you, would be getting some manufactured logs. A buddy of mine use them and is happy with them. There's different types, not sure which he uses.
Here's what I have to work with btw, you can clearly see where the new tree starts when looking at the log faces
Looks like the window might be big enough for a box fan. Put one in the window, blowing out. At least during the day.
