Drying wood.

fleeto3

I'm getting a mf stove installed next week. I've started getting some good but very wet oak from a nearby wood. My question is I've a garage that is centrally heated(don't ask) how long would the oak take to dry out in there before it is usable in the stove? Garage is probably a few degrees less than room temperature. The stove is going in a Summerhouse so the amount of wood that'll be getting used every week will be about a third used in a house one. Am I being unrealistic in hoping to get some at least partly dry and usable for this Winter

savemoney

Simplest way to find it is get a damp meter that measures how wet the wood is. If its very let it probably need at least Summer maybe more.

The only way for it to dry out properly is air circulation, dehumidfer or some heat

A meter can be bought for around £10- £20

example http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Meter%C2%AE-Display-Digital-Moisture/dp/B00118SL6A

Can be bought cheaper

Greenfires

Oak will probably need at least two years - and may well be better outside where it can get some draught through it - you might well end up with a damp garage otherwise. It's also probably not the easiest wood to get on with if you're new to stoves and/or woodburning in fairness.

I'd suggest getting in a supply of seasoned logs for this season, or briquettes if you want guaranteed and reliable dry fuel (much drier than kiln dried logs by the way)

Ectophile

It depends what you mean by "wet". If it's green, unseasoned oak, then allow at least a year for it to season. I find poorly seasoned oak to be terrible stuff in a small stove. It lights OK, but then goes out, leaving you with a big black lump sitting in your stove.

If it's seasoned, but damp, then you may be able to dry it out much quicker. Get a moisture meter, split a log or two, and stab the surfaces, including the newly exposed one, with the meter to see what the moisture content is like.

Be careful trying to dry logs indoors. If you're not careful, you can end up with a pile of damp, mouldy logs.

fleeto3

Thanks for the replies. The oak is from a very large fallen bough that was brought down by a fire at the side of the tree weakening it and probably high winds. It's very wet at the bark but the wood feels quite dry after I cut it into rings about 6 inch thick. The rings are about 18 inches across. It also splits really easily. I think it's been on the ground for a few years. Will this dry it out as well? I'll get a damp meter this week. Seems like I'll be having all the gear and no idea lol.

SG27

fleeto3 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. The oak is from a very large fallen bough that was brought down by a fire at the side of the tree weakening it and probably high winds. It's very wet at the bark but the wood feels quite dry after I cut it into rings about 6 inch thick. The rings are about 18 inches across. It also splits really easily. I think it's been on the ground for a few years. Will this dry it out as well? I'll get a damp meter this week. Seems like I'll be having all the gear and no idea lol.

If it's been on the ground for a few years I'd happily burn it once the surface water has dried off. Leaving it in the garage should be fine. Or outside under cover and open at the sides. A week or two should do it fine as long as it's had 3 years + since it fell.

Ectophile

It sounds like it's well on the way to being seasoned. Split it and dry it out and it should be good to go.

Avoid bringing anything that it rotting into the house, though.

Dieselman

It's better to dry outside in a wood shed with open slated sides letting the wind blow through it & the sun to bake it.

Kept indoors may attract mold or damp.

Or pile it up outside and throw over a tarp to cover it letting the air flow under it stacked on pallets.

fleeto3

I've made a few schoolboy errors since I started getting wood organised for the fire going in. Two weekends sawing, chopping and stacking four large Leylandii tree trunks were in vain. They're going up to my mates farm to lie for two years in a shed.

I thought I'd the jackpot when I came across the oak bough. I'm hoping that'll be dry enough to use this Winter. It's not green wood but it might be to wet to burn. I'm not that interested in efficiency but I don't want something that'll cause a chimney fire. Reason being my OH's disabled daughter will be in there and the odd time she'll be unattended and is unable to get herself out if the worst should happen :-( Safety is top priority. Especially as it's a wooden structure the fire is going into.

Storage is a problem. If I'm building a wood store I'd like it to go with the rest of the garden and not built out of pallets. Then again wood is wood. Once it's painted it'd look just as good. I thought about putting it under the decking and leaving the front open as well but I'd imagine that the rain would get to it.

Another option is a pallet and stack on some common waste ground but that'd mean either cutting a hole in the Ulster fence behind the garage or bursting the heavy padlock o. The gate near us. Neither of which the Council will approve of :-(

It looks as if I'm going to have to pay for some sort of wood/coal or briquettes this year. Starting in October wasn't the best time but its the hand that was dealt me. I'm certainly enjoying foraging for wood and the illegality of it doesn't bother me that much. An act of vandalism brought the big branch down. I'm just tidying it up lol

Ectophile

Unfortunately, the down-side of scrounging free wood is that you have to have somewhere to store it all until it's ready to burn. I end up buying most of the wood I use, with only a relatively small proportion of free wood.

My log store is a professionally made one from a local shed company. But it wasn't cheap, and doesn't really hold enough wood. Last time I had a delivery, some of it ended up piled on the driveway under a tarpaulin until I could burn some of it.

Wherever you store wood needs to be ventilated. Before I got the log store, I tried piling my firewood in a rather damp, unheated garage. I have never seen so many different colours of fungi before!

Kiran

I've got a garden incinerator which has to be lit on a semi regular basis to clear a considerable amount of gerden rubbish, scrap timber which is not suitable for a log burner etc. If I was to construct a rack over the top do you think it would be suitable for drying out wood that had been laying around for a while and getting a bit wet or would it just be the surface that ended up drying. I was wondering if the by drying out the surface the water inside would be pulled out by capillary action?