Subject says it all, I suppose. As noted in Romansperson’s “new tree” thread, we’re doing some unplanned landscaping due to our Leyland Cypress deciding to lie down on the job (and on a white pine). I know it’s not a good idea to burn things like pine trees, but what about cypress? Should I go to Home Depot and buy a chainsaw and slice it up and save it for the fireplace? or should I let the landscapers take it away because it’ll gum up the chimney as badly as a pine tree would?
I’m gonna say “No”, as it is a softwood. When buring wood in a fireplace/stove, you need to shoot for seasoned hardwoods.
It’s probably somwhere around ‘ok’ for firewood - somewhere in the middle. I would say this qualifies it as pretty good kindling wood. Make sure it is ‘seasoned’ (well dried) to avoid smokey/dirty burning.
Unlike establsihed and well know hardwoods like oak, you should assume that Cypress will snap and spark more, and use caution knowing that more embers could jump out.
This makes it sound as if the wood is quite tarry:
The dry heart of the tree is extremely flammable and if it catches fire will burn like a torch.
This note at Wikipedia also raises a red flag for me:
Thanks for the info! I’d done some googling but didn’t find those sites.
Just as well - we rarely use our fireplace anyway!