What is a good way to dry wet firewood quickly?

Question

Hi, I live in a suburban home without much backyard space. Since my dad has a severe allergy to the petroleum fumes from our furnace, we depend on burning wood in the fireplace during the winter. The wood is seasoned, but due to a mishap, absorbed a huge amount of condensation and is very damp. Because this happened over the course of at least a month, its a good bet the wood is soaked all the way through. Winter air in Portland, Ore. is generally pretty humid. Does anyone have a surefire indoor method for drying the wood in 2 wks. to a month. Doesn't have to be bone dry just to a point where it is usable.

Answer 1

You can dry the next load of wood by keeping a low burning fire in the middle of your fireplace or wood stove and standing up several pieces of wood along the sides. The wood should be dry without actually burning. If you have a separate fireplace, you can stack the wood with air between each piece, say three pieces going left to right, then the next layer going perpendicular and so on. The fire would be low burning, and warm air will circulate around the stacked pieces.

Answer 2

How To Dry Firewood

Answer 3

You need a heat source and air circulation. The first issue is temperature. If the wood to be dried is in freezing temps, the water in it is solid ice and cannot wick through the wood to get out and evaporate. You need to get the temperature above freezing. Warming the air around the wood also increases that air's ability to absorb moisture. So if you can get a fire started, use that heat to dry the wet wood. If you have a wood stove, stack a small amount of wet wood near it and use a fan to push warmed air at the wet wood. Just be careful not to catch the drying wood on fire. If you must dry a large quantity of wood, look into building a holz hausen wood stack. Build a solar air warmer using clear plastic film. When the sun is shining, that gives you heat and air movement. Then direct the warmed air into the bottom center of the holz hausen.

Answer 4

Unfortunately there's no easy solution. I've lived in the northern Northeast almost all my life. You could bring it inside. You could bring SOME inside. Actually that's what I'd recommend. Bring in some - maybe 10 logs, let them dry inside.

Migrate the rest to a place where either they won't get soaked or you can put a tarp on them.

Wood doesn't dry quickly, and when it's wet, it burns poorly. I'd take a few - for maybe a couple of nights - bring them in and cover the rest.

Answer 5

If you get some fire starters,
( I use duraflame from WalMart: http://www.duraflame.com/aa_products/firestart01.php )
and lite one ( I use a half ) under the wood in the fireplace, the wood will dry and burn. Fire starters are made of wood chips, wax and lighter fluid. Once lit, they will burn under the wood for approximately 10 to 15 minutes or more, drying the wood as it lites the wood. I've lit dripping wet wood in my fireplace this way many times.
Good Luck, ;-)

Answer 6

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Truth is, I've been a carpenter for almost 36 years, and I haven't found anything like this for less than 10's of thousands of dollars.

Answer 7

place it in the garage and put some near the wood stove but not to close you don't want a fire outside the stove. the garage is dry enough and out of the weather. Keep enough in the house for a day or two before burning.

Answer 8

Bring the wood inside and use a dehumidifier in the same room. It should dry pretty quick.

Answer 9

we use drying floors (not cheap) and biomass boilers to force dry the logs and chips to get to the optimal moisture level.