Ive been part of a thread on AS about wood drying. A guy like us has asked if wood will dry sitting on the ground on a pile....... Enjoy Drying firewood in a pile?
FYI, this is a good look into the mentality of the wood dealers. They really think they're doing it right.
I think the only way you could properly dry wood in a pile is if it was raised up high enough i.e. On a 3 pallet high base. Lots of people dry wood in a hauls hosen (sp?) and there a pile basically. Scotty Overkill dries his wood in big cubes. I didn't know people were that rude to one another on the Internet.
Interestig read. Kinda reminds me of some posts I usta read on a site that shall remain nameless. The "I'm right and your wrong!" mentallity cuz thats the way I do it always slays me. There seemed to be 1 recurring word in that AS thread. Lazy. Now call me stupid but wood heat and lazy are 2 terms that dont even belong together. As far as those firewood mongers in that thread go, IMHO as a business man, I would not want to partner up with them in thier business venture. They might be making a qwick dime as apposed to a slow nickle but over the long haul when selling a product or service to the public, quality wins over quantity every time. Thats my story and I'm stickin to it.
That's exactly what I think about it too. I am kinda one of those my way out the highway though. I think I can be that way because I have tried all the wrong ways on my way to my right way. My right way goes right in line with all of what I've heard here.
There's a firewood processing business by me that sells to the local gas stations. I know their wood gets stacked about as high as a house before they bundle it. But we all know that the majority of firewood sellers really don't care about seasoned wood, that takes up too much space to make money a heck of a lot of folks that burn wood don't know any better anyways. I don't really blame them for not seasoning their wood when most buyers aren't demanding it. As to stacks vs piles, I doubt it makes enough difference to argue over. I've left a stack about 8' high for 6 months during the summer, it was full of ash and sycamore and dried an impressive amount before I stacked it. Really it's only the bottom layer that'll never dry, unless of course you use pallets. Like it's been mentioned, several folks stack in those super cubes and their firewood dries. That's much more densely packed (and therefore less airflow) than a tossed pile. Even the holzhausen I made was 8 ft in diameter and 8 ft tall and all the wood was seasoned after 2 years. Linear stacks aren't the only way to dry wood.
Interesting read. At least till I got to the name calling and such. I'm in the mountains of Pa. If you want to dry wood here you better be stacking it up off the ground. Firewood sellers are in the business to make money. I get that. I've bought wood and sold wood over the years for a little spending money. But some people don't know enough to plan ahead. Then they end up trying to burn firewood that isn't dry enough. If I had to buy wood now I would be buying next years wood this year. Or two years ahead.
Piled wood will dry out, although maybe not as good as a stack. Lots of things to consider though. The big cube Scott uses was mentioned, one note on that is he is many years ahead so he has plenty of time to let those dry out. Also from my own experience a pile will not shed rain like a stack does. When it rains on a stack the water won't penetrate into the stack as much as it does in a pile
My method works very well for MY situation. As others have mentioned, my main stack is a huge cube (12' wide, 70' long, 5.5' high), as is the smaller stack (6' wide, 30' long and 5.5' high) all of it is off the ground on skids. I top-cover the stuff I plan on using that winter the summer before I use it. All of my wood has 3-4 full split/stacked years to season. It burns beautifully. I plan on someday building a shed, when time and funds allow. As for piles, they season but they season very slowly. Half the battle in seasoning wood is getting air UNDER the stacks. That allows for convection of sorts.....
That thread is a prime example of why I no longer participate in 'conversations' on AS. Thank goodness I found a better place with better people. I'll hang out at Cheers over the frat house any day!
I couldnt agree with you more. One of the first things I noticed when I joined not to long ago was that people here treat each other with respect, wish I had been here from the beginning.
Well forum differences aside.. ( I like it here and love all of you ) You all make this place what it is period! I have not had a good experience with pile drying I have tried and failed twice once on the ground and once on top of pallets. Its to hard for moisture to get out from what I can tell... It seems to me this would very heavily depend on what area of the world you live in too... If your in the low rain high heat areas it would probably work fine but here in Michigan we have high humidity and sometimes rainfall so we have to do more to protect the wood from rain.
I have done pile drying a couple of times ( room / time/ lazy) I have always had the pile on asphalt ( so not much in the way of ground moisture to delay things) on top of skids- allowing air under - mixed hard woods about a 3 year cycle until usable for me.
Every time I have just piled wood the bottom is, at best, wet and moldy. I agree with others that getting it off the ground is key.
