Your Guide To Drying Firewood By Kneebone Trees
Whether you have a log burner in your home or enjoy unwinding around an outdoor fire pit, having a good supply of firewood is essential. Firewood needs to be properly seasoned before it can be used, as this ensures a long burning time and clear flames.
Seasoning firewood refers to removing all moisture from the wood, helping to keep it in good condition for a long time. Moisture can hinder how easy it is to get a fire going and cause issues in your wood storage which is why proper seasoning is essential. However, there are some issues with seasoning as drying out the wood incorrectly can cause it to crack and fall apart.
To maintain your woodpile and ensure you have enough seasoned firewood to keep your home warm, Kneebone Trees is sharing everything you need to know about drying firewood, and the correct process for seasoning and storage.
Why Properly Dried Firewood Matters
Ensuring that you are drying firewood properly offers a range of benefits and is essential if you rely on this particular source of fuel. Failure to season firewood properly can impact the structural integrity of your firewood, leaving you with less fuel than you expected and a difficult time when lighting the fire.
Seasoning firewood, which is the correct term for drying firewood, is required before lighting it because it offers benefits such as:
- Firewood burns efficiently, giving you more fuel from your woodpile
- Fires burn with less smoke, keeping your home or garden safe
- Prevents cracking of the wood which can lead to waste or poor burning quality
To ensure you can use your woodpile, you need to know the correct process for drying firewood and ensure this is maintained at all times.
What Causes Firewood To Crack?
Understanding what causes drying firewood to crack is a great way to avoid these issues when organising your woodpile. Cracked wood will not burn as efficiently and can lead to more waste, which impacts the environment as well as wastes your money.
There are several causes of cracking in drying firewood, which should be avoided at all costs:
- Rapid Moisture Loss: Drying firewood incorrectly and too quickly can stress the wood, causing it to lose structural integrity and crack.
- Direct Exposure To Sunlight And Wind: Leaving your firewood exposed to the elements in a bid to speed up the drying process can cause more issues, as this can lead to uneven drying and cracks.
- Incorrect Cutting Methods: How you cut your firewood matters just as much as how it is seasoned, as cutting logs too small or unevenly makes them difficult to store leading to poor seasoning and potential cracking.
These issues can be avoided by learning how to correctly dry firewood and how it should be stored.
Your Guide To Drying Firewood: The Correct Process
To ensure that you are successfully drying firewood without it cracking, there is a particular process you should follow:
1) Choosing The Right Wood
The kind of wood you use in your fire pit or log burner will determine how easy it is to season without cracking. The process for drying firewood can vary based on the kind of wood used, for example, hardwoods such as oak and ash need a slower process as they can crack if dried too quickly.
If you are sourcing your own firewood, aim to cut wood during the winter as this is when sap levels are the lowest. This will help reduce moisture levels in the wood from the beginning, speeding up how is needed for drying firewood.
2) Cutting And Storing Firewood Properly
Once you have sourced your firewood, how you store it plays a big role in the drying process.
To aid the drying process, make sure that all wood is cut into evenly sized pieces. Avoid cutting wood too small, as this makes it easier to control the drying process and how it is stored.
Wood should be stored in a criss-cross formation to aid air circulation, allowing drying firewood to completely season before use.
3) Covering Drying Firewood
If your firewood storage is outdoors, you need to protect your drying firewood from the elements. As we have mentioned, direct sun or wind exposure can lead to uneven drying and cracking of firewood and should be avoided as much as possible.
When storing wood outdoors, you want to keep it dry as rain and snow will hinder the drying process. Creating a roofed wood storage or using a material such a tarpaulin is a great way to protect the wood from the elements, but make sure to leave the sides free.
While you want to keep the wood dry and free from direct exposure, over-sealing can cause trapped moisture which makes drying firewood difficult. This is why you should avoid plastic coverings when storing firewood, as these trap moisture and heat.
4) Drying Firewood In A Controlled Environment
Due to the issues that can arise when drying firewood outside, it is recommended to have a concealed storage solution. Using a shed or similar structure is the best way to create a controlled environment for drying firewood.
Ensure that this enclosed environment has good ventilation, to aid the drying process and prevent moisture from becoming trapped. If required, you can use fans to aid this airflow which is especially useful in small spaces.
5) Allow Enough Time For Season
Drying firewood can be a timely process, as you need to ensure that the wood is properly seasoned before use. You need to keep track of the moisture content in your firewood while drying it.
In most cases, aim for a moisture content of 15% to 20% as this allows for efficient burning. This can be determined using a moisture meter.
Most wood takes between six and 12 months to completely season, so make sure you have a constant supply of fresh and fully seasoned firewood to keep your fire burning.
Choose Kneebone Trees For Fully Seasoned Firewood
If the process of drying firewood seems too complicated or something you do not have time for, you can rely on Kneebone Trees to provide a constant supply instead.
As leading arborists, we understand the process of drying firewood and offer completely seasoned firewood to our clients in the region. We source all firewood ourselves, making us a sustainable option, and will only provide fully seasoned wood to ensure an efficient burn in your home or garden.
Conclusion
Drying firewood can crack if the correct process is not followed. Leaving wood exposed to the elements, tightly storing your woodpile, or trying to speed up the process can lead to cracking in the wood. Cracked wood will not burn efficiently and may need to be thrown away, wasting your time and money.
In this guide, leading tree specialists Kneebone Trees have shared to correct process for drying firewood so you can maintain a healthy woodpile to fuel your log burner. Relying on our expert tips or working with our professionals is the best way to have access to safe, effective firewood.
Contact Us Today
To learn more about our services or to request a quote, reach out to the team today.
