What Is The Best Way To Store Firewood During Winter?

Nothing is more beautiful on a cold winter night than a glowing, warm, and rustling fire in the stove or fireplace. Also, wood heat is more affordable than most electric or gas furnaces. It can be more useful for cooking and home heating. The question then becomes: what is the best way to store firewood during winter?

Wrong Storage Leads to Bad Results

Regardless the amount of firewood you have on hand, it’s useless if it is stored wrong. Incorrectly stored wood is wet and damp, leading to smoldering and smoking instead of burning. This reduces the effectiveness of your wood stove, necessitating more fuel to do the same work.

Wood stored inaccurately becomes the home for snakes, insects, rodents, and termites that can create severe damage to your house if you bring firewood in to burn. Rot and decay of improperly stored wood lead to mold, decomposition, and bad smells, making the wood worthless for burning.

Truthfully, if your firewood is stored wrongly, you’ve wasted it. The wood not only can’t be used, but the money, effort, and time you used to collect, prep, and store the wood in the first place have been wasted.

Accurately Storing Firewood

Luckily, it is easy to store firewood accurately, so it is well seasoned and ready to use each winter. Regardless if you’re starting to build a woodpile in the spring or don't begin until late fall, the values of rightly storing wood are the same.

Split Wood Effectively

Before stacking and storing wood, it must be correctly split. Remember the built of your stove, furnace, or fireplace. Cut wood to the correct lengths and width for easy use. Triangular wedges are simplest to stack and will have more surface area so the wood can dry faster.

Dry Wood Completely
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Drier wood lasts longer and burns better. Store wood in an open space with accurate ventilation on every side. If possible, store newly cut wood in a sunny, windy location where it will dry faster, but is shielded from the snow and rain.

Stack and store your wood near your home, easily accessible even in bad weather. If you have questions about which trees would work best for firewood, contact a Rochester arborist.

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