Preparing Firewood For This Winter

Even if it's impossible to imagine cold weather during the lovely summer months, if you burn wood, you must begin preparing before the weather changes. To ensure that wood dries out correctly, it must be chopped, split and stacked months in advance. Read on to learn our top tips and tricks to remember when preparing firewood for this winter.

Before the winter weather arrives, hire an expert chimney sweeper to examine all areas of the chimney. Wood-burning stoves and chimneys should be cleaned at least twice during the wood-burning season and once afterwards to ensure that all flammable residue is removed.
 

Be sure to look out for broken, missing or spalling brickwork, missing or damaged mortar joints, faulty flashing or holes in the flashing cement crowns, and missing or incorrect chimney coverings on masonry chimneys in the spring.

The finest wood is made from trees felled in the wintertime. This is because the sap has dried out and the wood has lower water content. Do this by cutting the tree into rounds of the appropriate height for your stove, then split the logs with a maul as soon as possible. Chopped logs dry quicker than rounds of wood, and newly cut and wet wood is much easier to split.

Use a log shed or make covered stacks to store the wood in a well-ventilated, dry location. While the wood can be kept this way for a season, we recommend storing the wood like this for two seasons to make it burn optimally. This is ideally from the time it is felled in the winter until the start of the heating season in late October.
 
Wood should be stored in an open space with enough ventilation on all sides and protection from the rain. If possible, keep freshly cut firewood in a windy, sunny area to allow it to dry faster. If you're looking for the most effective seasoning, firewood can take up to 1-2 years to dry completely.

Here at Complete Demolition, our expert and friendly team of excavation and demolition contractors is proud to offer licensed arborist tree and firewood services. So, get in touch with Complete Demolition for more information on preparing firewood for the coming winter today.