Drying floor

[gdh]

Hi, I'm new around here and looking for some advice. We want to stockpile a few hundred tons of seasoned firewood and are having trouble getting it dry so we're looking at using underfloor heating to dry it from a biomass boiler.

The floors we're looking at are grain floors and I wondered if anyone had any advice on types, cost or just another idea completely?

 

Edit: We're looking at doing the same with woodchip.

[renewablejohn]

Store in mesh sided IBC containers. Chip can also be in IBC containers just leave in the plastic insert and chop the tops off. Woodchip needs to be below 20% MC before you store it in IBC containers and then it will keep indefinitely.

[s.varty]

Hi, I'm new around here and looking for some advice. We want to stockpile a few hundred tons of seasoned firewood and are having trouble getting it dry so we're looking at using underfloor heating to dry it from a biomass boiler.

The floors we're looking at are grain floors and I wondered if anyone had any advice on types, cost or just another idea completely?

 

Edit: We're looking at doing the same with woodchip.

 

If your logs are seasoned, why do you want to dry them?

[gdh]

Thanks for the reply. We looked at storing in containers and still are a bit but decided a drying floor would be less hassle for large amounts.

 

If your logs are seasoned, why do you want to dry them?

By seasoned I mean they have been stored in lengths for 12 months then we bring them in and cut them.

The problem is because we are selling more than we can store we have to cut some damp wood and we need a way to dry them, then even when they are dry and stored in a dry shed the moisture starts to get back in so we want to be able to swith a dryer on for a couple of hours at a time and keep the stack dry to avoid mould.

We will probably have a biomass boiler so underfloor heating (with air vent)seems like the best thing for us. We are just looking for advice on any reliable makes or if someone had tried this with a grain floor before.

[Rich2484]

Havnt tried with logs but it works very well on grain. Are you about the tunnel type with metal grills that have small openings that direct the air away from the doors??

 

These are good. Attached to a big fan will blast air through whatever is in there. But the draw back I can see for logs is the air will be allowed to travel too much so all air put in by fan will just go straight out the first tunnel and not get to the others. As these floors are designed for grain that is hard to push air through. If that makes sense??

[gdh]

We're looking at the drive on floors with mesh gaps (something like this FLR Crop Drying - Drive-on FloorsVentilated hardwood floors, softwood floors, grain drying floors, root crop storage) but as I have no knowledge of the different types I thought I would ask here.

As you say there might not be enough 'resistance' with logs for the air flow so I was was wondering if there are any floors around where you can block sections. This all is very vague ideas at the moment though.

[peaman]

hi we use this style of floors at home for drying grain but out of harvest period we have used them for drying boxes of potatoes and bulbs as long as we block any big air escape gaps we get good results if thats any help

[Busy Daddy]

We are looking into something similar at the moment

There is a large corn trailer that is for sale , that has had a false vented floor put in at some time

That gave us the idea for drying chip and logs , just have to make one now to see if it will work ok

[penfold]

I would think that a drying floor would be good for woodchip as long as it is turned regularly to avoid overheating, but as said probably not enough resistance from logs.

[gensetsteve]

Thanks for the reply. We looked at storing in containers and still are a bit but decided a drying floor would be less hassle for large amounts.

 

 

By seasoned I mean they have been stored in lengths for 12 months then we bring them in and cut them.

The problem is because we are selling more than we can store we have to cut some damp wood and we need a way to dry them, then even when they are dry and stored in a dry shed the moisture starts to get back in so we want to be able to swith a dryer on for a couple of hours at a time and keep the stack dry to avoid mould.

We will probably have a biomass boiler so underfloor heating (with air vent)seems like the best thing for us. We are just looking for advice on any reliable makes or if someone had tried this with a grain floor before.

 

What sort of lengths and widths