Wood that doesn't want to burn.

[TnAndy]

I worked in old houses as an electrician many years ago and at times you could take a ten inch screwdriver and poke it right through a floor joist, being just a planed down tree. So what caused that?

Dry rot.....which is really mis-named.....it's actually wet rot. Wood is in a higher humidity area (crawl spaces are bad about not having good ventilation), so the wood holds a moisture content above 20%, and the bacteria that cause wood to rot does exactly that.

Neighbor of mine had a rental house the floor joists simply fell apart. I told him the above, he didn't believe it....handed him my moisture meter, "crawl under there and check them". He came back convinced since the meter pegged at 30% (highest that meter would read). It can seem more humid under a place like that than you would think.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Thank You for that info. Now I know.

 

[oosik]

The first ten years we were here on the property we burned wood. It was all Ponderosa pine. It was an easy burning wood. Down the road about three miles were some old Black Locust trees - another old homestead. I cut them up for firewood. Now this locust stuff WAS hard to burn. Took a good hot fire to get it going. Once it was going - burned 2X to 3X longer than the pine. Down side - it made a lot more ash than the pine.

It was a good wood for a "carry over" fire. Throw one stick of locust in the wood stove when I went to bed - still a good bed of hot coals in the AM.

Old racked up pine of any type SHOULD burn easily.

 

[cat fever]

That's what I thought oosik, this wood is dry for sure with no rot. I do know I'm going to burn all the old stuff up. Besides being hard to burn it's all to long for the new wood stove I have now.

Thanks for all the replies.

 

[jpm]

I'm not sure what pine you have out there but here in the east , eastern white pine will burn when you have heat and air flow but it doesn't coal up to keep the fire going

 

[oosik]

Oh - wow! Be careful there Cat Fever. "Wood is too long for the stove". That's how I broke out the glass on one of the doors on my Lopi. I had "eyeballed" the cuts on one pine tree - rather than measuring/marking for each cut. I kept telling the wife - "the stove looks better with one door glass being replaced with diamond plate". I don't think she ever bought that line.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I busted the glass in my shop stove. Too much heat, and really miss seeing the flames. But I like to burn anything that burns, like my old windsheild wipers, so I can't risk spending the money to get new glass, only to bust it again. Should look into seeing if I can make a removeable panel to put behind the glass when I want to be wreckless. That's the thing about old wiper blades. They rot but still burn. Moisture content is always perfect.

 

[Jstpssng]

I broke my stove glass out at the last of last year's heating season... it cost me $135 to replace it. Do you really get enough heat from burning trash to justify that kind of damage?

 

[shooterdon]

I burn a bit of trash in my insert with glass door. I use hardly any kindling to start my fire as I have enough "junk" to burn. So far never an issue...but you need to exercise prudence and common sense. Once the fire is going, I only put wood in, or the credit card statements I want to destroy.

 

[denchen]

Some woods do burn much better than others. This side of the pond we have poplar, that is a bad burner. Years ago it was used to make the brake pads for the old steam traction engines. I understand the Dutch traditionally used it to make clogs. Your side of the pond you have cottonwoods aspens and balsam poplar that are all part of the same family. What they burn like I have no idea as they are not common here. Pine is full of oil and burns well.