Not exactly home repair, but I bet many of you can answer this one. I have a couple cords of green wood, mostly 2" and 3" diameter logs. I have it sitting outside in the sun in a single layer on a concrete pad. How long would it take for it to be dry enough to burn? I expect to be able to leave it outside in the sun for up to a month before the rain sets in, after which I'll put it under a carport that is open at both ends.
Well.. It will BURN right now.
Depends on what kind of wood, and whether it's been split. Ideally, you'd want to split it and then let it sit for a year. Failing that, split it fairly small, (well, it's already pretty small, so just split each stick once, you may be better off using a froe if you can find one, or a machette and a mallet for splitting small stuff.) and roast each armload/hopper next to the stove while the previous one burns. And inspect the chimney every couple months for as long as you're burning bad wood.
wood that small shouldn't require any splitting. Some folk will burn almost anything but one year under cover is considered adequate. For sure it will dry faster if split but unlikely to be worth it with small wood like that. a carport sounds excellent and there are no special requirements, just stack it neatly out of the way but not too far from the stove.
But keep it away from walls and up off the pavement. You don't want to leave enclosed spaces between the wood and the walls which are attractive to insects like carpenter ants, powder post beetles, and termites. 6" is probably sufficient spacing between the walls and the wood with half that (I use a "rack" made of PT 2X4 to raise mine from the ground) below the stack. Exposure to cross-ventilation will really help the trying as will direct sunlight. As others have written, wood that size really doesn't need to be split to burn well -- I've burned in-the-round hickory and ash and oak at least 6" across after a couple of years of drying with no problem. I've burned small ash after just a few months of drying with acceptable results.
It depends on how long the wood is. Wood dries mainly from the ends and splitting has little to do with it. If it is about a foot long then several months is long enough. If 3 or 4 feet long, then it will take over 6 months to dry to the same ammount of water content.
learn from my experience on stacking:
if you stack the wood in several rows, keep the rows tight together. I thought I would be smart and leave 6" - 8" space between rows of stacked wood for better ventilation, with a tarp on top of the pile. Started out good- this allowed the neighbor cats to hunt mice in the wood pile. It was great for drying wood, bad for providing shelter for critters- I had racoons take up residence in my pile. Have also had ground hogs. I ended up having to throw small stuff down between the rows to keep critters away.
Another factor that makes it impossible to give a simple answer- species. For example: white ash can be cut, split, and burned same-day; northern red oak is ~45% moisture (overall) on the stump and may take more than a year; gray and white birch will rot before ever being ready to burn if not split. Some conifers take forever to season & dry. And ... growth habitat makes for substantial variation within species. IOW, try what you can, then assess success/failure.
Oh, yes, 2-3" sticks are not ever "logs" around here.
JOok wrote:
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