How to Dry Green Firewood Safely

A fireplace is a wonderful inviting amenity in any household but it is especially grand when it's freezing outside and there's a cheery fire blazing inside. Cutting your own firewood can save you a bundle of money - if you are willing to take the time it needs to properly dry out and be safe and smart to burn. Here's how to do just that.

Things You'll Need

• Wood to make a wood box
• Pipes - metal or PVC

Instructions

1. Green wood should never be burned. First it really doesn't generate any heat because the fire ends up just evaporating the moisture inside the wood. Sometimes the water weight equals half the weight of the actual wood so the water content is considerable. Also green wood smokes badly and leaves creosote deposits inside the chimney which is a chief cause of chimney fires. Another problem with green wood comes if you try to cut it. It will often cause a chain saw to hang up which can be really dangerous.

2. You can tell if firewood is green because the bark will adhere to it strongly and it will be damp on the cut ends. If you bang pieces of the wood together and it has a dull flat sound, it is probably green. The other option is that it is rotten which you don't want either as it burns far too quickly. Another sign of rotten wood is that it has cracks on the ends that go into the rings and it looks and feels overly dry.

3. Green wood can be dried simply by leaving it outside for six months to a year. You need to make sure that it isn't stored directly on the ground where insects can invade and where it can grow rotten. If you don't have a commercially bought wood holder, there are things you can make yourself. Just putting down some long pieces of metal or plastic for the wood to sit on will help a great deal. Old lengths of PVC or metal pipe would be great. Just lay then ten or twelve inches apart and put the wood so that it's lying across both pieces. You don't want any of the wood touching the ground.

4. You can also make a wood box to store green wood while it's aging. You want to make sure that the wood is exposed to the air so that it will dry well and evenly. If you make a box for wood to lay flat in, make the back out of boards with spaces between them or use lattice work. If you want the logs to stand upright, put the box up on blocks and leave spaces between the boards on the floor. You can't use lattice for this as the wood will break through it with it's own weight.

5. You can store wood inside near a heat source like in a basement near the hot water heater. You still don't want to have it laying on the floor because of bugs. You also should make really sure that the wood is coming in clean and free of bugs. You don't want your house infested with anything you may bring in with the wood. You can put the wood up on pipes or make a wood box inside, too.

6. If you find you've bought green wood when you didn't want to, don't burn it. It will cost more in the long run by gumming up your chimney and it burns really badly, throwing little heat but burning really quickly. It's not safe to burn. Just bite the bullet and go out and get you some that you know (after reading this) is aged. Next season you will have a nice pile of seasoned wood and you won't have to buy any.

Tips & Warnings

• Always store wood up off the ground or floor with plenty of ventilation for even drying.

• Green wood is dangerous to burn indoors.