How To Store Firewood So It's Ready For Winter

Here is the short answer. Cut your firewood into pieces, stack it off the ground where wind can blow through, cover only the top, and wait until it reads under 20% moisture before you burn it. Pellets are the opposite: store them indoors, sealed and dry.

That's it. The rest of this page shows why each step is important, and how to avoid the mistakes almost everyone makes in their first winter.

The Water Hiding In Your Logs

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Firewood is the oldest kind of biomass energy: sunlight a tree stored in its wood. A freshly cut log looks solid. Heavy. Ready to go. But about half of its weight can be water.

When you toss that log on a fire, the flames spend their energy boiling that water off before they can properly burn the wood. You get a cool, smoky fire. And that smoke leaves sticky black tar (scientists call it creosote) in your chimney, which is the stuff that can catch fire.

So storing firewood properly comes down to one number. You want your firewood under 20% moisture before you burn it. Below that, it burns hot and clean. Above that, it fights you the whole way.

How Do You Know Firewood Is Ready To Burn?

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Firewood is ready to burn when a moisture meter reads under 20%. That one reading matters more than the calendar. Break a log open first and push the pins into the newly opened face, not the bark or the old dry end.

A cheap pin-type moisture meter costs about the same as a pizza, and a number pops up in seconds. That's the most honest test you'll get, and it lets you store firewood properly instead of guessing.

No meter? Seasoned wood is darker and lighter than green wood, and it sounds hollow when you knock two pieces together, while wet wood makes a dull thud. Dry logs also show little cracks on the ends (people call them checks), and the bark often comes off easily.

How Do I Season Firewood?

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Cut it into pieces, stack it in a sunny, windy spot that allows good airflow, cover the top, and wait at least six months. In a cool, damp climate like Britain's, getting under 20% can take two summers or more.

Here's the catch. The clock doesn't start when the tree is cut down. It starts when the wood is split open and stacked so air can circulate. A whole round log is like a closed lunchbox, and what's inside has nowhere to go.

Smaller pieces dry faster too, so cut them as small as possible for your stove. A UK forestry guide suggests cutting logs down to less than 10 cm across, so it can dry efficiently from the middle out.

So the rule everyone learns the hard way is: one year ahead. Stack this spring what you'll burn next winter.

Stack Firewood Off The Ground And Cover The Top

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A good woodpile does three things at once, and you're done once all three are true.

First, it keeps the wood off the ground. Wet ground means wet logs, and the bottom layer is where bugs and rot start. Two pallets, some old planks, or two long poles to rest it on will do the job.

Second, it allows airflow. Stack the wood loosely, no more than two rows deep, with the ends open so wind can sweep around and through it. Good airflow is the engine of drying. Don't wrap the whole thing tight in plastic. The wood needs to breathe.

Third, it protects the top from rain. A tarp, a sheet of metal roofing, or a few boards angled to shed rain. Cover only the top and leave the sides open. That's the combo that works.

Outdoor Firewood Storage Ideas You Can Build

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You have three main options, and they all follow the same rule: roof on top, airflow on the sides.

• A tarp over a woodpile. The cheapest way to store firewood outdoors. Just make sure it only covers the top, and leave an air gap between the wood and the tarp.
• A firewood rack. A metal or wooden frame that lifts the wood up and allows airflow underneath, often with its own small roof. You can buy one or build your own.
• A woodshed. The best of the outdoor options: a simple structure with a roof and slatted or open sides. You can build one with bays, so you burn from one while the next one keeps drying.

Where should it go? The ideal place gets sun and wind, but keep the big pile about 30 feet or more from your house. Mice and bugs love to live in a woodpile, and you don't want them moving next door.

Should You Store Firewood Inside?

Only a little at a time. Store about one or two days' worth inside or by the door for easy access, and fill it up again from the big pile outside.

Wood is home to ants, beetles and spiders. In a cold woodpile they sleep, but bring a big pile into a warm house and some of them wake up. That isn't a surprise you want in your living room. If a log has carpenter ants or termites in it, take it back outside.

The good news is that a few days indoors before burning also dries the logs a little more.

How Long Does Firewood Last In Storage?

Stored correctly, raised up with the top covered, seasoned wood can keep for years without going bad.

The danger is rain. Dry wood can soak it back up if rain runs through the pile or it sits on wet soil, and damp wood is where rot starts. So the same simple setup that dries your firewood also protects it from rot, as long as you keep the roof in good shape.

Pellets Play By Different Rules

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Pellets are wood too, just squeezed and dried way down. Premium pellets leave the factory at 8% moisture or less, which is already much drier than well seasoned firewood.

The problem is they love to soak up moisture. Pellets that get damp swell, break apart, and can jam the screw that feeds your pellet stove.

So pellet storage is the opposite of firewood storage. Indoors, not outdoors. Sealed, not airy. A dry corner of a basement, a metal bin with a lid, or just the original bags stacked on a pallet off the concrete floor.

How Not To Store Firewood

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Most firewood storage problems come from a few common mistakes, and they are easy to avoid once you know them:

• Piling it straight on the soil. The bottom logs soak up damp from below and start to rot.
• Covering the sides. A tarp tied all the way round traps the moisture in the stack.
• Stacking it against the house. It invites insects and rodents right up to your walls.
• Burning it too early. This is the big one.

A green log has only about half the energy of a properly seasoned one. The rest goes up the chimney as steam. Plus the smoldering fire makes more smoke and tar, which means more chimney cleaning and a higher risk of a chimney fire.

So wet wood costs you twice. More cutting and carrying for less heat. Dry firewood burns efficiently and gives free heat, while wet wood is hard work for half the result.

The Habit That Makes It All Easy

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Get into a yearly rhythm. Cut and stack in spring. Let the summer sun and wind do the work. Burn last year's properly dried wood this winter.

How much do you need? That depends on your house, your insulation, your wood stove and how cold your winter gets. The honest answer is you find out in your first winter, then stack a good bit more the next year. Better leftover wood than running out in January.

Always be one year ahead, and the whole thing stops being work.

Sources

• US EPA Burn Wise, Best wood-burning practices
• US EPA Burn Wise, Test your wood with a moisture meter
• Forest Research (Biomass Energy Centre), Wood as fuel: a guide to choosing and drying logs
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Franklin County, Storing and drying firewood
• University of Kentucky Forestry Extension, Firewood seasoning
• Nebraska Extension Lancaster County, Don't create a firewood haven for rodents and insects
• Pellet Fuels Institute, Standard specification for residential/commercial densified fuel