How to Buy Firewood

With fuel prices soaring, wood heat is having a resurgence in popularity. Sales of wood stoves and fireplace inserts continue to grow due to the relative affordability of firewood. But not all firewood is created equal. Here's how to make sure you get the best firewood without getting ripped off.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Understand what a cord is. A cord of wood is a stack of wood that measures 4 feet high by 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and totals 128 cubic feet in all. This cord measurement is standard regardless of what area of the country you live in.

2. Realize that the price per cord will vary widely depending on the area of the country in which you live and whether you are buying green or dry firewood. For example, the price for a green cord of firewood can range from $60 dollars in upstate New York to $160 or more in parts of New England. The best way to know you're getting a fair price per cord is to check prices with multiple wood dealers in your area. It's also a good idea to ask your neighbors where they get their wood and how much they pay per cord.

3. Know the length of wood your wood stove, fireplace or fireplace insert can burn. The standard length for firewood is 16 inches, although some larger wood burning units can take wood as large as 20 inches or more. Make sure when you order your firewood you request the right length.

4. Buy your firewood from wood dealers who are in the business of supplying firewood. Don't burn construction scrap or wood from other questionable sources.

5. Request all hardwood, preferably oak, maple or elm, from your firewood dealer when you buy your firewood. Hardwood burns longer, generates more BTUs of heat and produces longer lasting coals.

Tips & Warnings

• A face cord is 4 feet high by 8 feet long by the depth of the length of the cut wood. Assuming the length of the wood is 16 inches, then three face cords would equal one full cord.
• It's hard to tell whether you got a full cord from your wood dealer until you actually stack it. In general, two full-size pickup truck loads of wood equals one cord, and four compact pickup truck loads of firewood equals one cord.
• Green firewood is wood that has been recently cut and is still too wet to burn well. Dry, or seasoned, firewood is wood that was previously cut and has been stacked and dried for a period of six months to, preferably, twelve months before being burned. Green wood does not burn well and creates creosote buildup in your chimney. Dry firewood burns very efficiently and does not promote creosote buildup.
• Buy your firewood in the spring, stack it immediately so it does not develop mold and so that the sun and air have a chance to dry it completely before you need it in the fall.

Resources

• Wood Heat offers tips on buying, stacking and burning firewood.

[Sweeper]

on 7/21/2008 To determine if the wood you're buying is seasoned(proeprly dried out) look at the ends; if one sees "check marks", irregular lines, not unlike crooked pie slices, then that wood is seasoned. These check marks/crack lines exist becasue wood that has dried completely to the center because the loss of moisture causes the wood to srhink, as it were. Also, beware the wood hustler who will stack, on the back of the load, the end you inspect, one row of seasoned wood, but behind that he'll put greener wood. Inspect it as he unloads it. If you smooth ends on the logs, even split pieces will have a few check marks, either he dramtically lowers the rpice or he loads it up and sells it elsewhere.