I saw a German video where the guy did a thorough experiment over a couple of years. He did basically what you said to maximise drying, and tested a few logs (i.e. the same, numbered, logs) every so often with the moisture meter and weighed them and recorded the data. He found that using those methods the logs were all below the moisture threshold by winter time. There was no advantage to keeping them any longer. After the end of the first summer the moisture content only fluctuated a small amount with a wet/humid spell making the logs re-absorbe some moisture. The bottom line, cut before the sap rises, cut and split straight away into smaller logs, stack in a ventilated shed in separated stacks, and you have very dry wood the next burning season.
If the exterior of the wood is testing at 20%. The interior is no where near that. Split your firewood in half an dtest the very center. That gives you a far truer reading.
Hello from Kentucky, new subscriber here. Very informative video, I burn wood as my primary heat source and just bought my first new saw cause I'm tired of paying for it. . I have alot of places to cut wood where I live due to loggers leaving behind wood they don't sale as logs so I'm fortunate to be able to gather my own firewood here but just learning about moisture content, best way to store green wood to get it seasoned fast so I find your videos very helpful. I'll be watching many more of them and continue to try to keep up to learn as much as possible. Your never too old to learn new things. Thanks for sharing
I live in NS> Canada, drying season is short. We put our wood all into the basement end of October. Put about 6 cords down there for winter burn, put dehumidifier down there for about a month. Goes from 18-20 % down to12-14 in a month. November you have perfect wood.
What a great idea! We’re in New Hampshire and have had record rainfalls this summer. It’s been so hard to get the 6 cords we got delivered stacked in the woodshed. We do however have a brand new dehumidifier in the basement!
West coast Canada here, latitude 50 degrees. : Summer R H goes to 30%; other seasons are 50-95%. So, stack wood outside in one long 4 foot pile set against the drying Northwind and stack as loosely as poss. to encourage air flow. After 2nd summer the maple is about 6% moisture, D. Fir is 12% moisture or so. We never put wet or green wood enclosed as on the video. Awaiting a modern cat. stove; our present very old furnace gives creosote because of its inefficiency
@@Tailspin80 Good one uses not a lot, plus if house feels dry humidity low, hot weather is easier to take, no AC here. Cheaper than a window AC to run.
Great tip on the heartwood, I have noticed this as well, the exact center of the tree needs to be split up into pieces or it will take much longer to dry (like 2x as long!) I was going to work on some other stuff today... but after watching this, its firewood time!!! :D
There are quite a few issues with this approach. 1. No air flow 2. Where is the moisture going? 3. Wood is messy stuff and will leave debris, insects, cobwebs, etc. in dark corners of your nice clean garage 4. The wood needs stacking very carefully or those thin walls of wood will be unstable and dangerous. 5. Space in a garage is always going to be very limited compared to how much wood you will need to heat a house right through the winter. I stopped storing wood in my garage 25 years ago and built two large wood stores in the garden. They are lined top, bottom and sides with damp proof membrane and the ends are left open. Each stores about 20 cubic metres of wood (mostly ash, cherry, birch). I use one a season and refill it during the spring months, so all the wood has nearly two years to season. I don’t find I have to leave air gaps inside the wood stack - just pack the split logs in to create a stable stack and there will still be plenty of air flow between the open ends. I don’t use a moisture meter because I can tell just by the look and feel of the wood that it is ready to burn. Key factors are air flow, keeping the rain off, preventing condensation and time.
He did mention that he keeps his garage door open all the time and it's facing a direction with a lot of wind. Agree with it being messy, mold, termites when it's close to the home. Would do annual bug spray between garage space and home.
Getting enough wood cut ahead for proper seasoning is always a challenge. At least for me it is. The smaller you split it the faster it will dry. I also have found that the sun will play a big part in rapid drying. In my area there is less rain from July to Sept. and good sun with air flow, making for good drying conditions. I then cover the top for winter use,. Keep in mind that the wood is stacked in rows. pilled wood will not dry in the center. Like you say some woods are dryer when cut than others. Ash and walnut come to mind. When I check for moisture of dried wood I like to split the wood and check it on the inside. Wood dries from the outside in. If my probes only penetrates 1/4 of an inch I am only testing the outside of the wood. You have good advice. This is just my 2 cents.
Wood needs 3 elements to season properly: (1) Sun, (2) Wind, (3) Time. You are handicapping yourself. Stack wood outside uncovered in the sun and wind to season. In the fall move to cover.
Keep up the good work, I’ve been doing it just like this for years. Wood is ready by winter and have a wood rack in the wood stove area that holds 3 days of wood in cold New England weather conditions . The heat from the stove and dry conditions also sucks the moisture out of that stack.
Great advice which once you've heard it, as usual, feels like you should have known it all along! Much appreciated, thank you, the first thing I'm doing at the weekend, is splitting my wood into thinner shorter pieces and stacking with more airflow gaps. Hopefully no mouldy wood anymore!
Good tips. I use an old corn-crib for wood storage. I've found it has great airflow, and it has a tin roof, which really helps to keep it nice and hot in there on the sunny, summer days.
its so easy ... I get 2 to 3 years ahead on split stacked off the ground wood..split smaller to dry faster..can stack it in the stove to burn better and fits better then big rounds
Great video ! yes high humidity area like yours, a lot of extra work, way north where I am it's much lower, a lot of popular in my parts I cut green I usually fell in Jan-Feb and try to have it all split & stacked by the end of May, June, July the hotter months is is amazing how fast it dry's by Dec it burns awesome, bigger pieces I do like to leave dry a full year if im selling it,
I am finding yout that in US you have different aproach in wood heating then we in central europe. We use indoor boilers all the time and acumulate heat into huge water tanks. Then regulate how much of hot water gets into radiators . It is much more complicated and sophistacated, but has got advantages too
I thought it was against the fire code to so this. " It's advisable to keep your firewood storage at least 30 feet away from your home or any other structures, according to the National Fire Protection Association. This is crucial in minimizing the risk of fire spreading to your home, especially in the dry season when firewood can easily catch fire."
I've done moisture testing too and it depends on how long it was dead before it was cut down. One indication is whether there is still bark on the oak tree. No bark typically results in a much dryer standing dead tree, so much shorter dry time once it is cut and split.
I think what may help a lot is to split them in to more flat shape. Because this rectangle shape has got more surface area/volume ratio. Which makes for better drying. Instead of round or square shape "crosscut" which would have more volume. May work in case of need to make it dry faster
I'm not sure if the area you are storing your wood in is a garage that is separate or attached to a house, but wouldn't bringing all that wood in there introduce wood ants, bugs, etc. into your home?
are you seeing mold in your garage. You have created a perfect enviornment to destroy your home. A huge volume of water that remains for a long time. Also the moisture meter is being used wrong. With a pin type meter they are designed to measure across the grain and not into the end grain but a flat face. The deeper u go the wetter be the wood. May i sugguest that you plug a fan in and try to promote dry as u can feel the coolness from the evapro of the water from the wood. ( think swamp cooler) I am not knockin ya but pointing out things that need to be covered. also to get accurate measurements the different species of wood need to be corrected.
How many cords of wood do you burn in a typical winter? I live in south east Michigan. I’m getting a wood burner next year. I want to know how many cords I need to get? Thank you for the video.
West Coast of BC here. We stack the pieces outside in a row facing our dryest wind for 2 summers stacking loosely for better wind. We use plastic sheet when it's rainy.A carport would need fan use here. The meter should be used on a recently cut surface--the minute beforehand--where you'd get the wettest sample
Wonderful! Thank you. This video was very timely.......as I have not been timely at all. Hopefully getting some slab wood this week and paying an acquaintance to get our wood stoves installed in the next few weeks.
Why don't you check out selling that beautiful wood to guitar makers or manufacturers. The big logs when cut into slabs are worth a fortune. Your oak,cherry,ash and maple are sought after. And black walnut is a fortune.
C'mon. If you seriously heat with wood, learn to know HOW to tell if your firewood is seasoned. Besides, moisture meters are NOT accurate and vary. Stack in the open with sun, wind, air. Cottonwood or Poplar is useless unless that's all that's around. Here's how to know. 1. Look for cracked/checked ends. 2. Firewood will gray and/or change color 3. When dry two splits will "ring" like a ball bat. And 4. the splits will be lighter than when green. Do you heat with wood or heat "up from" your furnace or mini split set at say 65 F ? Expert or simply RU-vidr? Bill is in the mail.
