Woodworks

That's pretty depressing. Over on the other thread someone linked to a firm with the ready to burn logo on the page and claiming " All our logs are GUARANTEED DRY and have an average moisture content of 25% or less."

Woodsure are defiantly going for sub 20%. https://woodsure.co.uk/firewood-ready-burn/

Yes there will probably be ways around this. No it's not firewood officer the customer has ordered a 1m3 habitat pile

Are the boilers used for kilns Defra approved? Only one I have seen in action was belching out dirty smoke

That will be my fault. I thought we needed a catchy title to get as many as possible to fill in the questionnaire

The online survey is at the bottom of this page https://consult.defra.gov.uk/airquality/domestic-solid-fuel-regulations/

Completely agree but dont let common sense get in the way of bureaucracy

At least you have nailed your colours to your mast. Ban all air dried logs and leave it to the kiln dried suppliers. 16% is pretty much unachievable anywhere in an average UK winter.

Yes I know it sounds emotive but that will be the reality for many of us if the government get thier way as discussed here So basically we will have to sell logs sub 20% moisture content and that is pretty much impossible without artificial drying if you live in one of wetter regions of the country. Do you think this is a good plan and if not follow the links in the above thread to have your say.

If the average RH is above 90% logs wont dry to below 20%. It's not exactly 90% and varies a bit with temp but close enough. Here is a table for woods moisture content for any given RH https://www.woodworkerssource.com/shop/mois.html and secondly some weather data for the average humidity but bare in mind you could be in a dry area but if we have a damp spell and with wood being hydroscopic it will take up moisture again. This is live data but pretty much everywhere in SW is above the 90% RH mark. https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/ Also you can see my moisture reading on that log and you have seen how I dry them. Do you think there is much more we could without a kiln? Yes my point was the rules will allow loads of more than 2m3 for people to do their own drying. 2m3 of fresh cut beach and oak logs will weigh about a tonne and the load has to be more than 2m3 to fit the rules. Most pickups have load capacity of less than a tonne.

Old Protimeter. Comes with a calibration thingy but it's never needed adjusting

As above. I work on a tonne doing a couple of cube and a crate holds a bit over a cube so 45 sounds spot on.

If any of the Arbtalkers have the powers that be's ear please please please make the standard a bit higher than sub 20% Air dried hazel that was ready to go last winter and sat on the top of a crate in an open barn all through our best summer in 20 years. If this goes ahead as is our business is screwed

Yep filled it in. Two major points firstly as I am always banging on about 20% is too low for those of us in the wetter humid regions of the UK. Secondly the you can sell wet logs if larger quantities than 2m3. The snag with this is 2m3 of fresh wet logs is around 1 tonne so above the payload of most pickups.

Looks like there is a way around this if sell more than 2 cube at a time. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/734636/domestic-burning-consultation-document.pdf

If your right it's back to the furniture making......kin hell. Not going to go down the kilning route and cant guarantee below 20% in a Dartmoor winter regardless of how dry it is in the Autumn. Might of course be ways around this ie sell "part dried below 25% for you to season"

And the market is. Government offers subsidies for biomass as it will lower long term CO2 output presuming the wood is replanted. I dont think the argument about fuel used in shipping stands up. I saw figures showing that a container coming from China used less fuel per tonne to get it to Felixstowe than was used to get it from Felixstowe to Liverpool on a lorry! Dont get me wrong it all sounds bats to me but that's how the market is working at present.

If it's all you are going to be doing with the polly tunnel from now maybe put something over the ground with the crates on top. Been using old sheets of corugated. Stops the grass and takes the crate out of contact with the ground which stops the wooden ones rotting

Thing is it's easy for us to bitch about Drax and other large biomass consumers but how do we want to power this country? FF are the enemy of global warming so it's renewables. The general public appear sick of on land wind and solar. We dont want to go to the expense of insulating our older housing stock but want our homes toasty warm and the lights to stay on. Not suggesting large scale biomass is the answer but we have to except something

Is this not a general trait? Not used the two brands for as long as some on here but the Stihl's seem to have a bit more torque but run a bit slower. Husky's great for cutting within bar length and snedding while the Stihl's have that low end grunt for keeping going with the tip buried.

Wow! presuming thats with VAT but even so £80 ex vat a tonne delivered is one heck of a lot. Mind you if you work on the fact your price has doubled thats £20 price increase per cube for the raw material. Adding £20 per cube doesn't sound so bad but not easy I am sure. Try putting the prices up as if you are going to pack it in otherwise you have nothing to lose. Dont think anyone would chose logs if they want to get rich quick or have an easy life. Not surprised driving a van would be more profitable per hour as I doubt I earn more that a tenner an hour if all the hours worked are taken into account. Good luck and hope you can find a way to make it pay.

White liner on the truck floor. Makes it extra slippery for use with the Loadhandler.

Doing a delivery yesterday and was winding the logs out on the Loadhandler. Noticed a pong in the air and thought there must be something dead laying around in the wild garden. Then noticed a desiccated rat in the load of logs! Fortunately the customer was out and just chucked it back into the truck. Thats one of the downsides to tipping loads in instead of being hand sorted.

Oregon Yukons here. Last me years of part time use. Not too hot and tough enough for some hedge laying. Weakest point is the pockets which detach themselves at will. Met plenty of groundies using the same

Yep I think we will give it a go. Not experienced the price hike in wood yet as we bought in early but sounds like the next lot will be costing more. Any recommends for nice tidy numbers to round up to? Been at £100 for 1m3 plus vat at 5% which is all very tidy.