wood

[johnycarper]

Can anyone advise me about wood storage as i have a large amount of wood to store and I am unsure if it should be stored in the total dry or just left covered and outside.I have a very large wood store that is completly dry and i could put all the wood in there,but i am thinking that you always see most houses with the logs left outside with a tarp on them.

[nectarine]

I'm not an expert but most of the houses around here have the wood in the open with a tarp over the top .... my neighbour says it's so the wood can dry with an air flow in between the logs but it won't get soaked on top from rain.

We keep ours stacked in a barn and it burns just right ... maybe it dries out a little earlier but I don't know.

I wonder w hether the custom of leaving the wood outside might be that farmers' barns were used for animals, machines, hay, etc., whereas we incomers tend to use barns for storage only.

[cooperlola]

A good bit of air circulation between the logs will mature them best - the way you stack them will have as much to do with how well  they season and how long they last, as whether they are covered on all sides or not.  I seem to remnember that when York Minster had a big fire a few years ago, the oak for the replacement beams was out in all weathers in York station yard for two or three years waiting to be used!

My own experience (30 years burning logs) is that they mature best outide but burn best after a coupleof months under cover so - store outside stacked under a tarp (each layer at 90 degrees to the one underneath.)  This will also save you barn space.  Then have a corner of a building available for the wood you'll use in the current  month to dry the logs more thoroughly before puttting them on the fire.

Of course, for every person there's a personal opinion on this one....

[JohnRoss]

We buy ours in the late Summer from a local farmer who keeps the cut wood outside under tarps. We stack it in the well ventilated barn and by Winter it is quite dry and ready for the stove, no problems...................JR 

[Just Chris]

Yes, ours is kept in the barn for a year before use - the supplier we purchase from seasons it for a year before sale, so the extra time under cover certainly helps. I'm also in the habit of splitting it, and that certainly assists seasoning.

Chris

[BIG MAC]

I am intrigued re splitting because we find that wood tends to burn better / longer split near to the time of use of course that may all be in the mind!

[JohnRoss]

This site suggests that logs should be spilt and then stored for a full Summer before use. http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/burning_wood_better  However, and this is just a theory, if the split wood absorbs moisture from the air into the split wood surface, wood is a  hydroscopic (hygroscopic) substance and ash and oak are for sure, then maybe it would not burn as well as it does just after splitting. I split logs for the stove as I need them on almost a daily basis. They seem to burn ok. I can only do about 20mins maximum on the hydraulic splitter I use without the risk of overheating, 7mins is sufficient for daily  use. My logs are stored in a dry barn but the air humidity must be about the same as outside, no doors and several odd holes in the walls.............JR 

[Just Chris]

Splitting logs early exposes more surface area, and assists further drying.  Also, because we don't burn overnight, we have more control with thinner logs - they burn hotter and quicker, and we're not left with large, charred lumps to deal with when we let the fire go out.

Having said that we DO burn overnight in the woodburning range, but we still use split logs for that, mainly because the firebox is smaller.

Chris

[NickP]

Split logs burn better; because the flame catches the sharp edge of the wood easier than if the wood was round. If you have beams in the ceiling that are very old, you will see that the edges are "chipped" away, this was done with an axe as a means of delaying flames in case of a fire. The rounded edges slowed down the rate of burn. I am sure you have noticed that  logs that are not split are more prone to smoldering than split ones.