How to Burn Unseasoned Wood in a Fireplace

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Things You'll Need

  • Fire starters

  • Dry kindling

Break up green, or unseasoned, wood to improve its ability to burn.

Burning unseasoned wood in a fireplace is never advisable, because unseasoned wood has a lot of moisture that causes it to smoke much more when burning. In addition, burning unseasoned wood increases the amount of creosote that builds up in your chimney, which can become dangerous. Unseasoned wood is also difficult to light and doesn't generate as much heat because of its high moisture content. Seasoned wood, on the other hand, lights easily, burns cleaner and puts off more heat. Unseasoned wood still burns, though, as raging forest fires attest regularly.

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Step 1

Make sure the flue in your fireplace is completely open to allow good air flow. The better the air flow, the hotter the fire burns, and the less the unseasoned wood smokes while burning.

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Step 2

Cut the unseasoned wood into small pieces, with no more than a 3-inch diameter. Wood cut to this size ignites more quickly and burns despite its high moisture content.

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Step 3

Burn only a few unseasoned pieces at a time for best results. Do not attempt to burn more than five of these small pieces at a time. Including too many pieces at once prevents the fire from burning as hot, increasing the likelihood that the wood will smoke and smolder.

Step 4

Add fire starters, dry wood or other kindling to the fireplace when building the fire, which helps the unseasoned wood ignite and keeps the fire burning hotter.

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