Keeping firewood (inside and out)

oligopoly

Hi,

We inherited a wood burning stove when we moved house last September. I have a few questions about keeping the wood and I seem to read conflicting advice online...

Outdoors
I ordered a large bulk bag of seasoned and chopped wood last winter. As it's already seasoned, I'm thinking it's ok to keep it in the garage? I originally planned to build an outdoors log store but I figure since i'm (currently) buying it already seasoned then storing it outside for drying isn't as important ?

Indoors
Is it ok to store seasoned logs inside in a basket or rack or something similar? I'm thinking more for decorative reasons but it would then also be handy (and room temperature) ready for burning. The US sites talk about the dangers of termites etc but I guess insects etc aren't really an issue in the UK ?

Thanks in advance.

andrewf75

Don't see any issue with keeping it inside if its already seasoned, but probably worth getting a log store in the long run as you may acquire some wood that is not seasoned - or the wood sold as seasoned may benefit from more seasoning.

Davesnave

Seasoned wood may still arrive wet, so the garage would need to be well-ventilated. Also, there is no hard and fast definition of 'seasoned,' so you may well get variable qualities of wood.

Storing wood in a basket etc poses no risks here. You might get the odd wood louse, or three.

Grenage

I've got a cubic metre of seasoned wood in our living room; no worries thus far.

oligopoly

Thanks guys. Sounds like bigger problems with this over the pond then. Also sounds like it would be worth me storing my wood outside all year round to ensure it's definitely seasoned before use - and then put some in the lounge for decoration/use.

FreeBear

If you store the wood outside, it needs to be off the ground and covered. I keep the bulk of my wood outside stacked on pallets and have a smaller pile in a storeroom ready for use. There is also a couple of days worth by the fire which is replenished from the storeroom.

If you have space in the garage, it would be as well to keep a pile stacked on a pallet or a crate used for shipping paving slabs.

Kiran

I store outside and bring in a few days worth at a time. More for space reasons as I have a few log stores on the go at any one time.

Gloomendoom

You won't get termites in this country but you might get the occasional drowsy hornet waking up and flying around the room.

We do.

keith969

I wouldn't store logs in the garage. Did that once, and a swarm of tiny flies found it a nice place to live in.

Google 'log stores' and you will find ones ideal for outside. Then get a wicker basket big enough for an evening's worth to keep near the fire.

DigForVictory

When we burn wood, we bring logs in in a luggable bucket - a wicker basket big enough for an evening would have to be sourced from a balloonist & the devils own job to lift laden.
We'd then stack more wood around the edges to season for a few hours/save lugging later. We always stored outdoors, not in any structure, it needed the breeze more than walls, so a well tied tarp worked for us!

I gather some woodburners keep the "pretty logs" for decorative purposes indoors but that baffles me. Almost all wood can be beautiful, but rarely more so than when it's burning & drying my wet socks...

Enjoy! We found wood burning great fun - it really does warm you several times over, walking to find it, lugging it back, chopping it up, stacking it to dry, lugging it in & finally burning it.

Ectophile

Ventilation is important, especially if the garage ever gets damp, or if the wood is damp when it's delivered. Before I got a proper log store, I tried keeping firewood in my rather damp garage. Roll on a few weeks, and I had never seen so many different colours of fungi in my life - orange ones, purple ones...

I keep several days' worth of logs indoors in a cubbyhole I made specially. The wood is nice and dry on the surface when I come to burn it, and I don't have to go out in the rain every time I need a bit more firewood - I can wait until the weather's better.