Steven P

Prices.. I always compare price to how much heat I'd expect to a bag of coal. If coal is cheaper for the heat then I leave the wood. However you do have to pay for someone to process the wood for you, the more processed it is when you receive it, the higher the price - get it straight of the back of a van in randon species, you store and split it is the cheapest Kiln dried / seasoned only makes a difference really for the seller - kiln dried and they can process more in a year in a smaller area. Seasoned and you need a large area to store the wood as it dries for a couple of years. Otherwise exactly the same. Certificates will add a cost. Storage - keep the rain off is key. Depends how much of your heating will be by the stove Iguess depends where you store the wood. If you have to mobe 1m3 everyu other week to your shed from warehouse then it might make more sense to store it in the shed. Mine is in the garage once dried - easy access

Split some just then - OK it will be for spring 2019 when all the other wood has been burnt

Firewood can be a dark art sometimes, what you buy, how much, moisture content, wood type and so on. There are some good answers here. I'll add a bit more to your picture of firewood. Typically it is sold by volume though by weight would be easy, if you buy wood at 20% moisture content and 25% moisture content you might get the same volume but the second lot will be heavier,,. yet you could get the same amount of heat from both (if they were both then dried to the same moisture content) If you have 1kg of dry oak, it will have pretty much the same energy as 1kg of dry pine. However the pine will be a larger lump of wood - it is less dense. 2 pieces of wood with the same dimensions, the denser (typically hardwood) will burn for longer than the less dense (lighter softwood). So burning softwood you have to add more fuel more quickly than hardwood to get the same heat output. Less dense wood (softwoods) will burn quicker and release the heat quicker (in my experience) - so if you want a hot fire to heat a room quickly use softwoods, for a sustained heat use hardwoods. And for these reasons people prefer hardwoods over softwoods. But since hardwoods are prefered by many.. they are sold at a premium. There are tables online with the energy contained in each wood. Ash is good, if I could I would burn hawthorn all day. Some wood spit but in a stove this is OK, the sparks are contained (older tables might say which woods spit). You won't always get a supplier specifying what the wood is. Fruit trees are generally good Now when it comes to volume, there is no standard. Buy coal and you get 50kg sacks - all legally controlled weights - firewood has a random quantities - m3, ton / builders bag, load, trailer, weight and so on making direct comparison harder. It is often sold as 'hardwood' or 'softwood', but again since some woods are denser than others one batch you might get more heat than the next, (then there is a mixed bag - a bit of both). I'll let others tell you the benefits and pitfalls of buying kiln dried, seasoned, dried or otherwise. You might have to do a bit of trial and error with your wood supplier because there are so many variables -but you will get one who is honest and delivers a consistent product at the right volume and price. Gumtree / ebay splits into 2 camps those that make a living from the firewood - more expensive - and those that have a tree cut up in the garden to get rid off (cheaper). Often the cheaper will describe the wood as 'a tree' and no more details (assume then its softwood)

I might be getting this a bit wrong, but what is there to stop any pressure build up escaping through the carb? Trying to remember but carb has a pipe into the fuel, a diaphragm pump thing which should allow pressure to pass and then a pipe into the air intake to the cylinder - nothing to block that route is there? Sothen can't you just leave te fuel caps as they are and reduce the risk of accidental spillage - either in the shed or in the van?

I'm reading this and trying to think of the incentive behind the idea. I reckon that they are picking on wood burning stoves because that is what is being installed these days - not open fires. If city centre flats were being fitted with open fires then the legislation would include them. Now here is a thought for the deeply cynical. If you can get those in the cities to only use kiln dried logs.. sold at a premium.. then the tax revenues will increase. You cannot tax a ton of wood that has no financial value (ie the free stuff).. but you can if it is sold as dry hard wood. Now you could take this a step further and say that kiln dried hardwood is a premium product, a luxury perhaps - especially since we all know that air drying overtime can get the same results ... no tax breaks for luxuries are there?

I'm reading this and trying to think of the incentive behind the idea. I reckon that its wood burning stoves because few people'in the cities' (in my mind high density housing - flats and so on) would be opening up a fire place and just having an open fire - they will be putting in a stove. So my thought is that wood burning stoves get hit because they are whats installed when the numbers of fireplaces increases 'in the cities'. Dry wood - wet wood..yeah, I would keep my wood supply, and a bucket of 'kiln dried' wood by the fire just in case... and burn my usual wood. 'I'm not obsessed - if electricity was cheaper than logs / coal then thats what I would do (and reclaim my garden from the log piles). And as for armies of wood goblins stripping the forests bare.. probably not going to happen - we need the luxury of space to store wood to burn, and more space to chop and split it - how many flats, apartments or maisonettes in the cities will have that space free?

Thanks, the trees are no picture 3. Not the end of the world then but perhaps not the best

My neighbour had her pear trees pruned about 2 years ago (might have been 3 years). Last year there was lots of new growth - no blossom or fruit (but I guess thats usual if it was pruned the year before). The trees had been neglected for a few years. So on Monday one of the trees was pruned again back to where it was 2 years ago - I thought this was odd - and hence my question - how often should you prune a lt of branches from a fruit tree and is ir normal to do it again so soon after the astone?

There has to be a cost - the council arn't going to let you close the road to make money without taking a cut. Perhaps call the local police and say your plan is to do the work without closing the road and take their advice whether you need to close the road or not.

For the man in bed - I guess he answered the door and was awake - how long does it take to throw a t shirt and trousers on and show you where to go? Yup not sure I would be too happy to be told to wait in the van while the door was shut in my face

Quite simple in this case though, I guess you will have to chat to the neighbour about access to the tree, and while you are there, simply ask what they want to do with the tree afterwards. Simple. Appreciating the legal arguments about who owns the tree, whether you can throw bits back or have to offer them back and so on, isn't it normal to ask the trees owner what to do with the tree?

Look at it from the neighbour / tree owner - and I don't know the previous conversations regarding the tree of whether the neighbours are friends. So he is sitting watching east enders one night and the neighbour pops over saying "I reckon your tree is dangerous" "and?" "would you be able to fix it or take it down or something" "it looks OK to me though" "tell you what how about we get expert advice and see\" (conversation could be as blunt as that or it could be over several beers in the garden shed or whatever) A week later "'evening neighbour, I got the experts report about the tree, it is dangerous and will cost you about a grand to remove it (or whatever it costs)" "?" "it will cost you about a grand to remove" "errrr, but it's you that wants the tree removed, I am happy if you want to do that but you'll have to pay" Just wondering if your views would be different if your neighbour pushed for some work to do that will land you with a big bill - it is possible the neighbour would pay for it of course... but they might have to save up the cash, I know I don't have loads spare today - but could save up for it to be done in 6 months.

Tbanks - I'll look out for them when they come out next

Are they any good?

Mine started when I tried to clean hot glass - it looked a bit dirty so wiped it with a damp cloth and then the glass went cloudy. Never thought about wet and dry paper but thats irrelevant now.. a crack from top to bottom is a bit much even for a DIY fix

OK In smaller numbers, you can make them out of untreated wood pallets, cost is only really nails

So get in there quick before the sow gets walked on... sounds like a 7 in the morning job then. Thanks. Do they work as well on the UKS typical wet snow?

Just curious if anyone has ever used a leaf blower as a snow blower? I reckon iy should work but not sure how well (and before I start waking the neighbours at 7 in the morning with a 2 stroke engine I thought I would ask if it works)

2 ways to fo with this, either whoever is in charge / supervising should coordinate it or do your own. In our work we go to clients sites and even for all their rules, risk assessments and method statements we still do our own - and that way we know for sure that we have assessed the risks. There mght be particular risk that you have that they might not (for example driving to site might take you an hour and you might need to consider a break before you set off home, where as the others might be local and 5 minutes away, they won't need to consider that as much)

or write to the council and one of them will let you know who owns the land. Land registary does charge though. just to be sure. I would be it council land

however you might consider that the Scouts (typically) charge their members a subscription fee which is very similar to a fee paid to a fitness group. How do you distinguish perhaps between a run like parkrun, a charity fundraising run such as race for life where all profits go to charity or a pure commercial event like the Liverpool Half marathon - would it just be on the charge to each participant? number of participants or what? I guess my point is that the line between charging and not charging is quite fuzzy and you can argue either way for many things - though yes, a can of worms and he will upset quite a few people however he organises the fees

I'll add a comment - might add another. In the last couple of years my boys have been toa group in the local woods - their fees pays the leaders wages.. but not much and the fees are a reasonable amount, The group isn't running at capacity every week so there isn't a lot spare to pay a commercial fee, however since the group started the car park is no longer a meeting place for men wanting to enjpy the company of other men in their cars on a saturday afternoon... and this has carried over to the car park being a nicer place for families to park all week/ If this group was to go then the afternoon dogging would return. Charging a fee sounds reasonable but there is another side to allowing regular groups to use the paks - parks improve by having a regular and consistent group presence - which probable outweigs any license fee they pay. Then there are dog walkers and so on, whose presence doesn't necessarily have an effect on other park users - would a lone park dog walker deter the druggie from having a quite hit and leaving their needles by the path? A military fitness group might. So their are sums to be done, costs and benefits to work out and my gut feeling is oddly that a fee should be a flat rate for a dog walker as for a group with 20 fee paying participants. Then my second comment would be how do you distinguosh between a buisines and a community group? For example in my youth my Scout troop would often end with a 5 a side game in the park - so should they pay the same as a fitness group with 20 people each paying £10 a session? A big park user is parkrun - 5km runs through the parks and for no cost to the runners, - if they are asked for a fee they withdraw from the park rather than ask their participants for a fee (See Little Stoke Parkrun) - and the loss is that 20 to 500 locals are less likely to get out of their beds on a Saturday morning and do some physical exercise. So how would you distinguish who to charge and who not to? Final comment is how do you enforce it - do you ask anyone with a dog in a park if they are commercial dog walker and for their license? I think he is asking for a whole world of trouble asking for park users to pay a fee . He might do better sticking up the parking charge. Regular park users like the dog walkers would pay the fee every day and occasional users such as me and my boys wouldn't mind too much, groups like parkrun or the local Scouts could still organise their events for free.

I split most of mine and stack them outside for the summer (last year into a circular stack with a roof on... also doubled up for the kids play house) to let the sun and wind do its work. No specific log store outside (inside yes, to keep the garage a bit tiduer) Then I take a guess when the last of the good weather is here they go into the garage - this year I miss judged it and have a pile of wet wood outside and nothing left inside... so the coal man is getting more business

Reading ir, I can see how it would easily cost more than his £150 to employ 2 people to go to site, chop the tree down and so on, but can't see how it would be £450. Mind I am also remembering he said he lived on a farm and in my mind I always thought farmers were pretty hand with power tools and so on so wondering why he would want someone else to do it and not someone in the farming community he lves in.

Good reading all of this, normally U give up after a page or 2. A couple of things, I got this pair of book:s http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Norwegian-Wood-Activity-Book-and-The-Log-Book-2-Books-Collection-Set-NEW-Pack-UK/152409566633?hash=item237c516da9:g:RiYAAOSw241YiD1H the log book had all tables and so on with weights, moisture content, and energy from different types of wood (my brother has it now). I'd agree, 1kg of wood has the same energy as 1kg of wood (with the same moisture contents), just one piece will be bigger than the other piece. Second comment - price - if your selling wood then you have to make a profit to pay for someones time to process the wood, should you pay a lesser rate if your employee is splitting softwoods for a day? So the costs are going to be similar - but I want to have a warm home and for me its all about how much heat do I get for my ££, so I am more likely to go for 'hardwood' when buying it. However for the last 2 years I have had a source of free wood, today I picked up some leylandi, some beach and some birch, it will all burn - I don't care which hard, or soft, but my wallet will