Firewood buyer needs advice....

[gdh]

Personally I'd buy locally, most the big online companies are very expensive.  Kiln dried is more energy efficient and will save on chimney sweeping but anything under 25% will burn fine, it's just a matter of finding a reliable supplier.

 

Ash and oak are nice to burn but nearly all hardwoods are similar as long as they're properly dried so they're not a necessity. 

[Woodworks]

2 minutes ago, gdh said:

 it's just a matter of finding a reliable supplier.

 

 

But that is the key. Not easy this late in the season even from good suppliers. Cant really blame the OP for looking at kiln dried as it's  a lottery out there

[Superdon]

35 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

But that is the key. Not easy this late in the season even from good suppliers. Cant really blame the OP for looking at kiln dried as it's  a lottery out there

That was why I was looking at the crates, I didn't reqlly want to gamble especially on my first load.

 

Having said that, logs2yourdoor are fairly local (Shrewsbury), British timber, decent ish price, kiln dried hardwood. Just can't see too many reviews about them.

[ash_smith123]

The “loose cubic metre” that is quoted on the imported national companies websites are completely wrong. 

We bought a couple of pallets off a few of them years ago to find out what they equates to and they are all Massively optimistic! One quoted 3.6 loose cubic metres and we got 1.6/1.7 out of it. I also emailed them all to tell them, obviously fell on deaf ears! 

[SbTVF]

The “loose cubic metre” that is quoted on the imported national companies websites are completely wrong. 
We bought a couple of pallets off a few of them years ago to find out what they equates to and they are all Massively optimistic! One quoted 3.6 loose cubic metres and we got 1.6/1.7 out of it. I also emailed them all to tell them, obviously fell on deaf ears! 

And a ‘2RM’ of 2m3 stacked crate is the external dimensions of the crate not the volume of the logs. Measured a crate a neighbour had delivered off the luxury log company and it was only 1.6m3 stacked!

[aesmith]

Ask the stove supplier for a local recommendation.  I've been told that wet wood is by far the commonest cause of problems with new stoves, so the supplier has every incentive to steer you towards a decent supplier.    At the same time, get your wood store sorted out so that you can take a delivery of a couple of cubes to stack ready for next year.   I'd consider kiln dried only as a stop gap.

 

FYI our 4kW stove is used pretty much every evening in winter and on cold days the rest of the year, and we use a bit less than 2 cu m per year.

[richardwale]

Agree with aesmith, buy some kiln dried to see out the cold weather and then store your own, it's very rewarding when you burn your own seasoned firewood and the glass is clear, the dogs in front if it and your house is toasty warm. Wish I could get away with only 2 cube a year though! 

[SbTVF]

Fully agree, build a decent store and don’t mess about with some tiny thing that will only store a months wood. Get it filled up in the next few months with part seasoned and you’ll do fine for next year!

[Superdon]

I have ordered the 1.5m3 of british kiln dried from logs2yourdoor. Should be here tomorrow

 

If its good stuff, I'll probably get a load of their barn dried in the summer ready for next winter. 

[Steven P]

Just to add my thoughts, when you first get a stove it is very rare (or never) to plan ahead a year or so to get a stack of wood, and dry it yourself ready for the day the stove is instaled... I'm with the OP here -  Kiln dried or dry wood for the first winter, and then start thinking ahead to get it cheaper and dry your own over the summer ready for next winter. Get next winters wood now to give it a good chance to dry... and get it covered up early at the end of the year (I saw as I look at a wet wood pile that was dry a couple of months ago).  I've never used any of these companies to get wood so I can't comment on them.

 

 

The obvious suppliers of cheap wood probably have their own customers now so it might be tricky to get into the free wood market to start with - but wood is wood, hard woods take longer to burn, soft woods and you need to fill the stove more often (and it will be more likely to go out if you do)... however people are snobby, they want oak, oak, oak - get a softwood and you have more chance of getting it free. Buy yourself a splitting axe and a hatchet, chances are some of the wood you get will need splitting.