Firewood/Fireplace

In My Humble Opinion
1

I got into a discussion today at work about firewood and the virtues or lack thereof of a wood burning fireplace.

I had a face cord of wood delivered today and it was $115 dumped, $125 stacked. It was from someone I’ve used for years and is very good quality, well aged, and mostly honey locust which is a very hot burning wood which I like. I live in a suburban area and this seems to be a decent price for top quality wood. Others in my neighborhood use the same guy.

Some people at work claimed that $65 was more the norm. But they didn’t know anything about the wood and admitted that some was more “scrappy.” A couple of others expressed their disgust that someone would haul filthy logs into their home and burn them producing even more filth in their home.

So, what do you pay for a face cord (4’x8’x1 stick deep)? Do you care about the type of wood? Are you offended by a wood fire?

It isn’t my main heat source, more entertainment and a bit of warmth. I probably have a fire in the fireplace at least 2 times per week through the winter (more at the holidays where I may go a few days straight).

2

We lived in a house with a wood-burning stove for years. This was southern Oregon, where firewood was plentiful and that was about the going price for a hardwood like oak or madrone. I found wood heat to be very nice and “homey” feeling in the room the woodstove was in, but it was a pain in the ass to actually use. Lots of splinters and bits of wood in the carpet, cleaning out ash ever couple weeks, and of course stocking the thing every hour or two. . . it got old really fast.

It was a big house, and it was usually cheaper to run the furnace to heat the whole house. Eventually I had it burning for when company came just sorta for the ambiance, but that was it.

My parents still use wood heat, and pay ~$250 per month just for the wood. They have a small house, and it shouldn’t take that much to heat it. So I don’t think it makes sense economically, at least for them. I know I wouldn’t use one again unless I had no choice.

3

Yes. I don’t care how much filth you have in your home, but until you can figure out a way to keep it from blowing into my home, I don’t want your house within ten miles of my house. I like to get fresh air when I open my windows, not your shitty smoke.

But I can see your side of it. I’ve discovered that if I dump my garbage on my front lawn, eventually the wind or animals will scatter it around the neighborhood, and I can save 30-odd bucks a month by not having garbage service.

And if any of my snooty neighbors say they don’t like it, I just look at them and say, “What part of saving $400 a year do you not understand? What’s more, Daniel Boone didn’t have garbage service, and he wrote the Constitution. Pussy.”

4

Huh? Don’t you have and your neighbors have chimneys that vent the hot and rising smoke at a level above all windows and ground entrances? Because unless you live on a steep hill or are packed in like sardines I don’t see how this is possible. Or is this a global warming thing?

5

Here is some information of which you may not be aware.

  1. Not all houses are the same height. I happen to live in a three-story home. There happen to be older, one-story, wood-burning homes within a few hundred feet of me, and none of them have chimneys as tall as my house, or even as tall as my second-story windows.

  2. It wouldn’t matter if all houses were the same height. The air outside a chimney is generally colder than the air inside it. Once the smoke hits that air, it begins to cool. It does not rise forever, into outer space, even ignoring any wind that gives it a sideways component. The soot and particulate matter will come down somewhere. Maybe not next door, but very possibly a few houses down. That’s why a coal-burning power plant needs more pollution controls than just a tall chimney.

6

My parents live in a far suburban city. The homes in their area, if they burn wood, do it just for ambiance or whatever, no one needs it for heat. Mom can tell when someone’s got a fireplace going because she gets an asthma attack and can’t leave the house. Even opening a door for too long can exacerbate it. I’m pretty sure she’s not alone. For that kind of reason, I don’t use my fireplace. I don’t think it’s that rare a thing and I don’t want to make a neighbor as sick as she gets just because I think burning stuff is fun.

7

I don’t know what the conversion factor is for cord -> pickup bed, but I’ll guess it’s about 0.5 (maybe half a cord fits in a pickup).

I paid $65 for 1.5 “bedfulls” of wood. Mostly oak, and already split. Sparing you the math, I’d guess it’s about $87/cord. I burn it mainly for the ambiance on cold days, although I do like the heat as well. Obviously I’m not offended by a wood fire, and I’m unaware of it bothering any neighbors. We burn about half of it in the house fireplace, and the other half gets used when we’re camping. Although the RV’s climate-controlled, we like sitting around the campfire in the evenings before turning in.

8

For quality aged wood, I pay almost the exact same price you do for a face cord. Maybe a couple dollars more.

9

Don’t currently have a fireplace (and I miss it) but I did have one at my last house. I paid $120 for a full cord, delivered but not stacked. Mainly oak and walnut, cut to my specifications.

It wasn’t my main heat source, but on days off, I’d have a nice fire going. With the blower it heated the main area of my small house quite nicely.

I like the smell, and like the smell of a woodburning fire coming from a neighbor’s chimney.

Like most of my neighbors, I have a large (half acre) yard with a lot of trees. Many people around here have a legal burn pit outdoors. Very handy for burning up the tons of downed twigs and branches and general yard waste. Nobody complains and this is common practice. Mind you I don’t live in a manicured subdivision - I have several neighbors with chickens, it’s a sort of urban hillbilly township. :slight_smile:

10

We installed a high-efficiency wood burning fireplace insert when we moved into our current house about 10 years ago. We love it. It heats the entire house. Like the OP, we don’t use it as our primary source of heat, but it’s not unusual to have a fire going all weekend.

As wonderful a modern innovation as central heating is, you set your thermostat as low as you can stand it to save money, throw a sweater on, but you’re still always a little bit cold.

The fireplace keeps us toasty warm on the coldest nights. Plus there’s just something really relaxing and meditative about staring into a fire. It makes winter a LOT more tolerable.

I hope it doesn’t bother our neighbors. If I go outside while the fireplace is going I can’t detect more than an occasional faint whiff of woodsmoke. Our fireplace has a secondary combustion chamber thingy, so hopefully that minimizes the smoke released. Anyway, we live in an area where several people in the neighborhood have fires going. I’ve always liked the smell of woodsmoke and it didn’t occur to me it would be a problem for others. Hope it’s not, fingers crossed.

Cost-wise, I used to buy wood at about $60 per face cord. I calculated once that at that cost per cord, it cost just a little less to heat the house with wood vs. natural gas.

Then, after a storm that knocked down many trees in our neighborhood, I realized hey, trees are made of firewood! And it’s free if you’re willing to work for it! So I haven’t paid for firewood for 3 or 4 years now. I get free firewood through Craigslist, from several trees that have fallen on our property, word of mouth, neighbors who cut down trees, etc. It’s a lot of work but it’s great exercise, and chopping wood is very therapeutic if you’re in a bad mood.

We went through a lot of wood last winter though, and this year I only chopped up enough for this winter, plus I’m not getting any younger. So I’ll probably have to go back to buying it again for next winter. Or invest in a wood splitter. Hope it’s not up to $115 per face cord in my area these days, yikes.

11

The OP’s price seems right for good wood. Around here you can buy wood pretty cheap, but it is mixed source with pine, etc.

We use our fireplace a couple times a year, like xmas eve or power failure situations. We have a wood shed with wood I’ve stacked when trees fall and need addressed.

ETA: I rarely split the wood I stack for the fireplace. Does it really matter?

12

Biggest problem I’ve seen with firewood deliverers is cheating. Many years back I happened to be at a friend’s house when firewood was delivered. They cross stacked it in such a way as to take up the maximum possible space without filling it, and still shorted him on the size. I had to step in and say “A cord of wood is 4’x4’x8’ stacked and filled, not 3’x3’x6’ and full of air. Stack it right and fill this space.” They weren’t happy, but they didn’t argue.

Thing I miss most about being in an apartment is that I don’t have my fireplace anymore. It will be a requirement for my next house/townhouse. I love that smell, it brings good memories.

13

If you have tinder to get the bigger pieces burning, then don’t worry. Some people “cheat” and just bury one dura-flame log under 3-4 larger pieces of wood anyway…and once its going, you can shovel in the bigger logs as you please.

Did you mean should you try to split wood? Large sections of trunk won’t even fit in your fireplace w/o splitting.

Did you mean does the type of wood that you try split matter?

Well… lets just say that if you try to split Elm, You’ll Know. :rolleyes:

14

If the logs are 6-7" in diameter or smaller, I usually don’t bother splitting unless it’s wet and I want it to season faster. If the log’s any larger, between that and 12" diameter say, it’s not going to burn too fast unless it’s split. Obviously any larger than that and it just ain’t gonna fit until it’s split.

15

From last year. I thought the SO paid $200 for a full cord of wood, dumped, and including chunks specifically for chopping into kindling. I’m not sure what kind of wood it is, but I’m guessing cedar, alder, and birch. It seems to burn cleanly and hot, and makes nice coals. No sap or anything.

16

I hear you there-- we had an enormous Elm tree cut down on our property. It was impossible to split by hand, even with a maul & sledgehammer. So I hired a guy with a woodsplitter for an afternoon, and even his ~20 ton hydraulic splitter was straining-- it’s so fibrous the wood never splits, the wedge would just slooowly push its way through the logs. Even with the splitter we barely got half of the Elm split and the guy recommended I just let it season for another year. This year I was finally able to split the remaining Elm by hand, but only because it’s half dry-rotted.

17

I only save wood that will fit in my fireplace. This winter I’ll be burning wood I put in the woodshed 3 years ago. Bigger wood I give to my neighbor. He has a hydraulic splitter and burns wood for 50% of his heating needs.

18

I find wood heat more comfortable than the alternatives. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a drier heat, or what it is. I know that if I build the house I want to build, it’ll have a wood stove or fireplace in it.

19

I pay about the same, perhaps a little more for delivery, but I’m right downtown in a city.

20

I live rural and in the middle of 35 wooded acres (Oregon). I heat with wood. I have arrangements with a few folks who will come thin my forest, buck up the wood and take half for payment. Friends with a mondo wood splitter come help me split it each year for the price of a fine dinner, which I am more than happy to prepare. I keep a 3-year supply ahead and with a high-efficiency wood burner that puts out little to no particulate or smoke with well-seasoned wood. It’s my primary source of heat, and it does a fine job of heating the whole house.

I do have a good electric heat pump as well, but I don’t use it much. Put it this way: When the old one died, I didn’t even realize it until spring. I was feeling lazy and waiting for the heat pump to kick on. It never did.

Last time I checked, a true cord of seasoned oak or madrone went for around $300. Maple will bring $250, Doug fir $200. I’m glad I grow my own.

I love wood heat and don’t have any problem with the “mess.” I just clean it up as I go. That’s what brooms and vacuums are for. :slight_smile: