Whether you burn wood to heat your home or to enjoy watching a bright blaze, you should know how to pick the right kind of wood and logs to build the best woodpile.
A well stocked woodpile will save you money and make your winter more pleasurable.
For the ideal woodpile you will need seasoned logs. Wood must generally season for at least six months to ensure optimum efficiency. Wood that was stacked this past spring should be ready to use this fall and winter.
Although most woods season in six months, some hardwood may take up to nine months. Oak generally needs a year. Ash however, can be used almost at once. If you must use unseasoned wood try Ash, Beech, Pine, Spruce, Hickory or Fir.
Properly seasoned firewood is stacked outdoors and piled loosely on a raised platform. This is a perfect use for wood pallets so often discarded or given away by construction sites, building supply and landscaping centers. Lay them end to end and you have a great platform for stacking and seasoning wood.
To provide maximum circulation around the logs – critical to the seasoning process – criss cross the logs: after splitting put logs spaced parallel to each other on the first layer and then another set of logs on top running the opposite direction. Continue stacking in this manner. The idea is to get air to circulate freely around the logs. If the logs are stacked tightly and against a wall they will not breathe properly and thus will take much longer to season. If possible stack your wood so that the prevailing wind blows through the long axis.
Split wood seasons faster than whole logs. Stack your wood with the split face down to help protect the core from the rain. Paper Birch must be split because the bark seals in moisture causing the wood to rot.
You should always keep your woodpile covered. If you do not have a wood shed or lean-to for your woodpile, a tarpaulin or heavy poly-sheeting will provide you the best protection from the elements.
Anchor the tarpaulin on top or lash it down and allow only a few inches to hang over the wood on each side. This will let the air circulate freely through the logs.
I cannot stress enough how important it is to store wood away from your house to help keep termites and other wood damaging insects out of your framing.
Remember, if you have purchased your wood from a landscaping company or a tree trimming company, many of the trees that they have taken down died of disease or bug infestation. If you stack your wood up against the house or in close proximity to then you stand a greater chance of providing remaining wood munching pests easy access to your home. Never stack wood on your porch or stockpile it indoors.
In the dead of winter I may stage some wood on the back unheated porch or deck for easy access in my sheepskin slippers but the logs remain frozen. Near the fireplace I’ll place just a few logs that I will be using within the next couple of hours.
The ultimate is to create a wood pile with a variety of woods that includes wood for heat that are long burning with some woods that provide a fine scent as well as wood for kindling and wood for a quick starting fire.
In the next part of this series we will discuss buying wood, what to look for, what to expect and how to determine if the wood you are purchasing has been seasoned or not.
