How much do you pay for your stove wood?

[openspaceman]

7 hours ago, Rob_the_Sparky said:

I'm not that far North of Surrey so there is hope if you are happy with arisings...

At the moment I do a couple of days a month brash dragging and bring some of the arisings home in the back of the Vitara  but that may dry up. one of the people on here has been good enough to let me cut some from his heap also. I was more thinking of when I get too decrepit to cut and split them but thanks for the offer.

[djbobbins]

I have been in the current place with open fire, later replaced by a stove, for 12 years. I have only once properly paid for wood, which was three full loads of the wife’s MPV with the seats down, loaded to the gunwhales, softwood for £23 after someone had had some trees felled and sold the chunky arisings on eBay. Other than that my wood has been either completely free or a trailer and car load in exchange for a donation to Timon.

 

Most recently I got as much free ash as I could take away from a felling, only a mile or so away from home. Of course, all of these involve fetching, loading, sawing and splitting, but since my day job is at a desk, I sort of consider that like an alternative to going to the gym!

 

[spudulike]

Free wood here....I say free but I am a firm believer of the bartering system so tend to throw in a bit of help or a good servicing deal to offset one of the local guys dropping a bit of wood off for my log burner. Last lot was hornbeam....thanks Rob, before that lime....cheers Rich/Gareth and before that Acacia....thanks Andy.

I have in the past, gone out and cut up fallen boughs from the side of the road and fields with the owners permission but generally there are one or two customers wanting to get rid of some rings if you aren't too sniffy on wood types.

[aesmith]

Most comes from our own trees, but if we have to top up it's £45 per cu m collected, for dried split softwood 250mm lengths.  £85 for hardwood.

https://www.firewoodbylfs.co.uk/linnorie-firewood-products

[038AV]

I tend to stack all the cherry oak and beech to use next winter and burn ash straight away when I have it 

[Witterings]

We've only just had a stove installed so needed some seasoned wood and paid £185 for what I think (but not sure) was

4 cu m (is that about what a truck full would be????).

I'd love to find somewhere I could get some for free (or a bottle of wine / few packs of beer), would happily pick it up and cut / split it myself and leave it to season for next year.

It'd be the whole difference between using the burner at weekends only because it's nice or using it to substitute gas central heating and using it everyday of the week when it's cold.

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Measure your pile is the quickest way but I doubt it was 4m^3 for that price (or you got a bargain).  I only started ~4 years ago and also over estimated initially.  Also note that a loose pile will be larger than a neat stack (less air space).

 

Try contacting local tree surgeons or add yourself to the tip site linked here and ask for waste wood.  I did the former and only found tip site link later after I have a contact that is happy to provide more wood than I can split.  Some use all their waste, others have left overs they don't want.  Don't go asking for free hardwood though, if you want to pay very little then it is up to their good will what you get.  I'm lucky as my chap is often driving past my door anyway on the way back so no effort to dump it at mine and saves him collecting lots of wood he doesn't want.  I expected to have had to buy a trailer by now so think myself lucky.

 

You also need to think about where you will dry and store your logs.  It is part of the fun for me to make stuff for this.  Can be very simple or as complex as you want to make it  My first cut was some old wooden paving slab crates on their side with old pallet planks on top (just put, not held down) to keep the rain off.  It was all stuff rescued from bins, part of the fun to me is to re-use as much as possible.  Current effort is made from scrap fence posts and planks from pallets.  I get much more wood in (about 1m^3 per) and it looks better.

 

I use a Bosch mains electric saw (AKE40-19S IIRC), a Fiskars x27 (much better than the screw fix splitter I started with) plus a sledge hammer and a splitting wedge for the really awkward bits (Fiskars again).  Use a tree butt log as an anvil for cutting and splitting.  I sometimes wonder if it is worth the effort with the wedge, it often isn't TBH but some hard to split wood does burn well (e.g. Eucalyptus).  However, I will not be beaten by a log...good thing I don't try to make money doing it!

[Witterings]

^^^^^^^

Funny you should say that ... the thread and my post made me ring the guy to find out how much it was and it was Eqv to approx 4 Covers bags so about 2.25 cu m

I have a covered sideway that's used for BBQ / garden chairs etc and there's easily spare room to take his initial delivery pus quite a bit more in there and will keep the more seasoned / ready to use there but also want to build an outside store and initially looked up the cost of wood and you can't make one for as cheap as they sell them so have started looking for used pallets as well.

[openspaceman]

4 hours ago, Rob_the_Sparky said:

I sometimes wonder if it is worth the effort with the wedge

I decided long ago it's not; if three axe blows don't split it I saw it. The drawback is extra sawdust but I keep that under cover and put it in a bag at the base of the fire before I start it.

[Silverhooker]

I get mine for free and sell on the excess, about 12, cubes a year to neighbours. Mostly wind blown larch, sycamore and other odds and ends. I charge £85 a mixed load which I deliver and stack in their shed. Do it mostly for the exercise, and cos I just like it. Don’t know what I’ll do when I’m too old but by that time they might have perfected the light sabre !!!