Free wood?

[grimey121uk]

Me and the mrs purchased house 2 months ago and the renovation is almost complete, just decorating and a few small jobs to complete.
After a lot of preparation to the fireplace and chimney the wood burning stove is getting installed on Monday:)

I was prepared to buy wood for it as its a lot cheaper than gas, I can get over a tonne for around £100 delivered which would fit in my shed nicely and would probably last us more than 12 months.

Just wondering if anyone on here has a wood burner and if so do you manage to get any free wood?

I was thinking of going around and asking local building firms if I could take their scrap wood as I would assume it cost them to get rid of it. I suppose I could just walk around some woodland and pick up any fallen branches or even take an axe and chop up any fallen trees.

[Specialone]

'Green' wood will need to be dried or it will smoke and spit like a b@st@rd.

Ask at wood yards, joinery firms etc, they will tons a year of kiln dried offcuts they need to dispose of.

[grimey121uk]

'Green' wood will need to be dried or it will smoke and spit like a b@st@rd.

Ask at wood yards, joinery firms etc, they will tons a year of kiln dried offcuts they need to dispose of.

Yeah I know it has to be dried, I was planning on stocking 1 side of the shed up with fresh/green wood for the year after to give it plenty of time to dry and another side of the shed with timber etc which would be ready to use now.

I will ask around the timber yards but to be honest i didn't expect them to toss any wood away, I just assumed they would collect all the crap and make it into mdf or wood chips

[maviczap]

Don't be tempted to burn any wood that's been treated

My wifes German uncle has a giant wood burner that they use all year, but they've got a small area of wood that they harvest from time to time.

All the wood is cut up and dried before they burn it, her uncle built a proper wood store outside

[Jdubya]

You could also check with local tree surgeons. Sometimes they don't just chip it all.

[yorkie_chris]

Yeah find the pikeyest of pikey tree surgeons, it only all gets fly tipped anyway so you might as well make use of it!

Buy a chainsaw and build some sawhorses.
Find a decent sized tree and chop a good slice of it to use as the anvil for splitting logs.


I find that now people know we have a stove and a saw, relatives and friends generally supply enough wood.

[grimey121uk]

Yeah find the pikeyest of pikey tree surgeons, it only all gets fly tipped anyway so you might as well make use of it!

Buy a chainsaw and build some sawhorses.
Find a decent sized tree and chop a good slice of it to use as the anvil for splitting logs.


I find that now people know we have a stove and a saw, relatives and friends generally supply enough wood.


I now have an excuse to go out and buy a chainsaw:)

Is it legal to chop up a fallen tree in a Forrest?

[yorkie_chris]

Depends who's land you're on.


And don't get rose tinted about that, you going to yomp it all to your car? Or buy a land rover :)

[454697819]

'Green' wood will need to be dried or it will smoke and spit like a b@st@rd.

Ask at wood yards, joinery firms etc, they will tons a year of kiln dried offcuts they need to dispose of.

yes but they get paid for it now. or they burn it to heat their workshops..

Best option is to buy unseasoned wood circa 70£ a tonne and season it over a year..

fire wood is expensive these days.. try mixing it with some coal as that burns longer

[Ed]

We burned our old roof timbers - scary how quick they went up. We have at last found a cheap local wood supplier near Shrewsbury, £10 to half fill the back of my Discovery. As for foraging - it's a PIA as fallen branches tend to be an awkward shape to carry, and as they're on the ground they're wet, so you have to keep them for ages until they dry out.

[yorkie_chris]

Before you get it installed, probably too late but anyway.

do not buy a cheap stove. Buy a good one. It will be double the price but well worth it because you'll be able to control the fire properly.

Cheap ones have more holes in than a crackheads alibi and leak lots of air, this means you'll have a roaring fire whether you want one or not, wood and coal burns really hot in no time at all.
This will make you p*ssed off with job. Buy a good one, chuck on 2 logs and 3 lumps of coal and it will be warm for 4-5 hours.

Buy a good stove!

[paiste]

Councils that are cutting down trees are always a good bet. If you send the wife they may even chop them up into useable sizes too. Whenever I've approached tree surgeons they want about £80 for a tree that they are felling. IMO councils usually just give them away.

[Ed]

Before you get it installed, probably too late but anyway.

do not buy a cheap stove. Buy a good one. It will be double the price but well worth it because you'll be able to control the fire properly.

Cheap ones have more holes in than a crackheads alibi and leak lots of air, this means you'll have a roaring fire whether you want one or not, wood and coal burns really hot in no time at all.
This will make you p*ssed off with job. Buy a good one, chuck on 2 logs and 3 lumps of coal and it will be warm for 4-5 hours.

Buy a good stove!

...and one with an airwash system for the glass, as it's nice to look at the flames rather than a sooty window.

[grimey121uk]

Before you get it installed, probably too late but anyway.

do not buy a cheap stove. Buy a good one. It will be double the price but well worth it because you'll be able to control the fire properly.

Cheap ones have more holes in than a crackheads alibi and leak lots of air, this means you'll have a roaring fire whether you want one or not, wood and coal burns really hot in no time at all.
This will make you p*ssed off with job. Buy a good one, chuck on 2 logs and 3 lumps of coal and it will be warm for 4-5 hours.

Buy a good stove!

I got a firefox 5, they seem to get good reviews and can be had for 400quid, I did want the firefox 8 but the mrs wouldn't let me as the fireplace guy said it would be way to hot

is there any noticeable difference between burning wood or coal?

[yorkie_chris]

Yes, they burn different, coal is a bit more energy dense and expensive. Good for lighting it with, start a fire with some newspaper/firelighter and kindling, this gets a few lumps of coal going that start a nice bed off for the logs.

[454697819]

coal burns much much longer and hotter, but to burn this you need a multi fuel stove (iirc)

[yorkie_chris]

Wood can burn as hot as anything, they smelted iron with charcoal before they figured out how to use coke. Just add sufficient air.

I have never figured out difference in a multifuel stove versus a "conventional" one, a hole in the ground is ultimate multifuel one going on that!! But yeah that firefox 5 is multifuel.

[Biker Biggles]

Theres no such thing as free wood.Even if you marry it you pay in the end;):D

[DMC]

A mate of mine goes collecting dead wood every couple of months, collects a van load each time which keeps him going. Collects from woods, country lanes etc

[xXBADGERXx]

A mate of mine goes collecting dead wood every couple of months, collects a van load each time which keeps him going. Collects from woods, country lanes etc

Sounds like a right Pikey with too much time on his hands :smt040

[grimey121uk]

Its installed, a few pics:)

Wood
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7039/6863969411_5c30264a86_z.jpg

Coal
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7197/6863970241_e325e8d59d_z.jpg

[Teejayexc]

Pleased with it, any other comments?

Only asking cos I'm thinking of having one installed.

[grimey121uk]

Yeah its great, wood is so cheap when compared with gas.

Its amazing how hot they are compared with gas fires, my mum/dad have a 4.5kw gas fire and it puts no where near as much heat into the room as the 5kw burner.

Wood is easy to light but coal seems to need more heat and air to get going but burns for longer

[Mrs DJ Fridge]

I now have an excuse to go out and buy a chainsaw:)

Is it legal to chop up a fallen tree in a Forrest?

No, somebody owns the forest, even if it looks 'wild' it will be owned by someone. I happen to know of a bit of woodland with a lovely fallen tree, looks abandoned, but the owner is keeping it that way as part of a fence.

[grimey121uk]

Well the house is coming along now and we should be moving in about a months time:)

I was speaking to one of the tradespeople and he was saying that burning a bag of coal every so often will help to prevent the build up of creosote in the chimney compared with just burning wood, any idea if this is true?

I would also appreciate any other advice/information on getting the chimney swept/cleaned..

regarding coal, I realised the coal that the mrs purchased for me was ecoal, other than the smoke is there any difference between coal and ecoal?

[maviczap]

I was speaking to one of the tradespeople and he was saying that burning a bag of coal every so often will help to prevent the build up of creosote in the chimney compared with just burning wood, any idea if this is true?


My sisters got a wood burner and I'm pretty sure that burning just wood does cause a build up of creosote, so not a bad idea to do this.

Ask Luckypants he's got a wood burner, but burns coal in his as well.

Quality of the wood, how dry it is and type of wood will also affect on what residue is deposited in the chimney

[Red Herring]

Well the house is coming along now and we should be moving in about a months time:)

I was speaking to one of the tradespeople and he was saying that burning a bag of coal every so often will help to prevent the build up of creosote in the chimney compared with just burning wood, any idea if this is true?

I would also appreciate any other advice/information on getting the chimney swept/cleaned..

regarding coal, I realised the coal that the mrs purchased for me was ecoal, other than the smoke is there any difference between coal and ecoal?

As long as you had the chimney properly lined you shouldn't have to many problems. The whole point of a wood burner is that most of the heat stays in the room rather than going up the chimney as it does with an open fire, but this means the gases going up the flu are cooler and more likely not to carry the deposits out the top. You can burn offcuts from a wood yard but only if you don't mind feeding the fire every 10 minutes! Timber is far to dry and just disappears. Try and buy your logs as big as possible, they are cheaper and easier to store that way and you can split/cut them to size as and when you need them. Obviously having somewhere dry and secure to keep it helps to....

[yorkie_chris]

The longer you can leave them the better. Just need a lean-to type thing out of the weather.
They dry much faster when split.

You need a chainsaw :)


I'm not sure about the whole creosote thing. We've never worried about it and not had a problem yet. Then again the POS stove we have, low stack temperature is not a concern!

[suzukigt380paul]

i assume this fire is for evenings and weekends(1 ton) and not your main source of heat,but like they say there isn't any cheap form of heat unless some one gives you the wood free and delivered,but if you are going to burn wood for say8 to 12hours a day for 6 months of the year then you are going to use up to 6 tons of wood (hard wood or double that if you use silver birch)a year and if you are going to cut and collect your own wood then you want at least a 60cc husqvarna plus safety gear etc so thats up to a grand,or you could buy a cheap saw from screwfix or argos and replace it every 18 months and not use any safety gear and wait till you cut something off,or you could buy it all in and cut up ready to use,and did some one say 70 to a 100 pounds a ton x6 thats about what i spend on oil to heat and supply hot water,

[JamesMio]

. <--- Just for future reference! ;0)

[startrek.steve]

Wot? no kn0b comments?

[Luckypants]

I was speaking to one of the tradespeople and he was saying that burning a bag of coal every so often will help to prevent the build up of creosote in the chimney compared with just burning wood, any idea if this is true?

I would also appreciate any other advice/information on getting the chimney swept/cleaned..

The burning of coal to prevent creosote build up is a bit of an old wive's tale IMO. Creosote forms when the wood burns cold, so not all the volatile compounds gasify and burn. The unburnt compounds are carried up the flue where they settle to form creosote and tar. The main cause of this is burning un-seasoned wood as most of the energy in the fire is used to turn the water in the fuel into steam, so it never gets hot enough to burn the compounds that create the creosote / tar. Burning coal means that there is no creosote in the flue gases and it 'may' dry out any creosote in the chimney, so it falls into the fire and burns... this does not work with a stove as it will land on the throat plate and burn in the flue....

Creosote build up is not too much of an issue if the flue has been lined. It becomes a problem when it seeps into the brickwork of old chimneys where it can catch fire and cause a damaging chimney fire, this is the danger with creosote build up. Burning well seasoned wood will avoid this. Note that burning dirty, cheap 'house' coal has the same effect and folks who only burn coal can still have chimney fires if they do not maintain the chimney. Having the chimney swept at the end of the burning season will also help and a good chimney sweep will tell you if the material removed is 'wet' (term for creosote) and advise accordingly. Having the chimney swept again before the burning season will remove any nests etc but also any creosote that has dried out over the summer.

regarding coal, I realised the coal that the mrs purchased for me was ecoal, other than the smoke is there any difference between coal and ecoal? Dunno what e-coal is, but as a rule the fire manufacturers will recommend the type of coal in the fire handbook. I would go for a mix of coal and smokeless fuel (anthracite coal is smokeless) on the fire. Depends on costs around you and what's available. Have a coal merchant deliver the fuels and mix them as they chuck it in the coal bunker...

My burner is multi-fuel and also a boiler stove, so I burn coal most of the winter as it heats the water and runs the central heating (also have oil...) as I work from home I'm in a lot, so burning wood is not practical, I'd get through tens of cubic meters of it - coal burns longer and provides a more even heat in the radiators. In the Spring/Autumn I burn wood in the evenings, when we only need heat for a couple of hours.

[Biker Biggles]

Wot? no kn0b comments?

Yes I made one but it was so funny no one got it:smt015

[Biker Biggles]

Theres no such thing as free wood.Even if you marry it you pay in the end;):D

Well I laughed so who cares?:shock:

[startrek.steve]

Theres no such thing as free wood.Even if you marry it you pay in the end;):D

Ah yes... :-)