Source
r/newzealand•
iamcoder83

Help me buy firewood because I don't know what I'm doing

We have a fireplace. We need wood. We used to get old pallets from husband's work which he would cut up and pop in the fireplace. He changed jobs so no more pallets.

I searched trademe but there are so many options and quantities! What's the difference between pine, hardwood, Ti Tree, gum, oak, macrocarpa etc.?

How much wood would be enough to last a good part of winter? How big is 1m2?

What's the going rate?

We're in Auckland so if you sell firewood or have a mate or a coworker who sells, let me know!

Posted May 25, 2015, 8:49 AM UTC

531
tuneznz•

http://tvnz.co.nz/fair-go/light-my-fire-video-6312603

7
iamcoder83OP•

This was useful, thanks! Didn't know how to spot dry wood.

2
gunter_orter•

Don't ever burn pallets in your home. They're treated with pesticides and fungicides and the older ones with methyl bromide.

6
nouncommittee•

Never burn treated wood. The fungicide is often just poisonous heavy metals that more enlightened governments ban.

Treated wood sometimes has a green tint from the copper.

3
SlowLearn3r•

Actually most pellets arent treated. They are made to have a limited life & as such are 'raw'.

6
Frunnty•

Good advice. Aside from the wood treatments you don't know what they've been used for, they could have all kinds of hazardous crap spilled on them over the years and you'd have way of telling.

2
Viniferafake•

If the IPPC stamp has HT on it, you can burn it

1
BelleOfTeBalls•

If you were happy with pallets any transport company will be happy to get rid of them for free.

In terms of wood, hardwood burns hotter and longer. Tea tree, macrocarpa etc are great for that. A mixed cube is a good option with a. Mix of fast burning pine to get the fire going and hardwood to keep it hot and steady over the night.

Last time I had a fire I went through about two cubes over winter but ymmv.

3
iamcoder83OP•

I won't say happy, more content. The pallets require a lot of effort with cutting/sawing to size and then there are a shitload of screws/nails everywhere and it's pretty dangerous with a little one running around.

I think we're going to go for a mix cube, something for quick heat and something to keep it going later on.

2
StabMasterArson•

I get a mix of pine and oregon for easy burning and then some gum to keep it going longer.

1
fastAwake•

We go through 6-8 metres of a mix of hard woods and pine, but we start the fire around now and it doesn't really go out until spring.

2
finger_blast•

I bought 1 cubic meter, I forget what type of wood, it was bits of tree, rather than pine blocks though, it lasted about 6 weeks.

So, just buy 1 cubic meter of whatever type of wood, then buy more as you need it.

If you're interested, I've got a heap of wood that needs to be chopped up, (I don't have a fireplace in my new house) if your husband has a trailer or a ute he can take it all, some's chopped, the rest needs to be chopped, I'll hold the wood while he chops it down enough to fit in a trailer, for transport back to your place to chop short enough for your fireplace.

I chopped these trees down about 3 months ago, so they're not ultra dry, but if you have a closed fireplace, you can generally use dry wood to get the fire going and they'll burn almost anything.

EDIT: It's probably a cubic meter's worth of wood, some thin (branches) some thick (tree trunks) I live in Massey.

3
iamcoder83OP•

Really? Free firewood? For sure! We don't have a chainsaw but we have some sort of electric thing that cuts the wood.

1
PM_ME_FISHING_QUOTA•

There's a huge difference in the amount of energy in the wood. Pine burns really fast (but is cheap, especially in pallets, which I scab from the side of the road for DIY projects), hardwoods burn slower. Gum burns really well and often gets mixed with woods that don't burn so well.

I like macrocarpa. I think I bought 3 square meters of it in the winter of 2013, plus some other stuff that I cut down from trees in my in-laws garden. Also bought some blocks of pine for kindling.

Central Landscapes and Timber in Albany will deliver if you buy a minimum amount (3 or 3.5 metres, I think). I'm sure there's lot of deals to be had too. It's important to make sure that it's dry: it takes several months to dry out and you need a nice dry area to store it.

We're planning to get a fireplace installed for winter 2016, and I will be in full scab mode over the summer so we have dry fuel that winter. Might even build a woodshed.

2
iamcoder83OP•

I always wondered why we had to refill the fireplace every 30 minutes! I've been at pubs or restaurants with fireplaces and I never see them put wood on that often.

Can we keep the wood outside under concrete stairs? Or does it have to be inside or in a garage where it doesn't get any moisture? We don't have a shed and our garage is full of shit we should probably burn first.

2
PM_ME_FISHING_QUOTA•

I used to stack it against the side of the house where there was some overhanging trees, and stack bark on top.

2
SlowLearn3r•

a bit of rain wont hurt it once its properly dry... under the stairs will be fine

What area are you in? We get 4 cord (16m2) every year, 2 of pine, 2 of mac or gum... we use it all but we have the fire going for five or six months basically straight, all day every day, we usually have about a sq mt left after that

2
iamcoder83OP•

We're on the north shore of Auckland. We work during the day so will only run the fireplace in the evenings for 2-3 hours and on Saturday and Sundays.

2
SlowLearn3r•

Probably get away with two cord, 8m2, or thereabouts...

2
Gyn_Nag•

Pine is the least dense kind of wood but it's generally fine for a fire. Anything else is a lot denser, burns longer, and catches less easily.

A cubic metre of wood will make a flattened conical pile almost a metre high and ~2.5-3m across. Possibly bigger as some suppliers are generous in their definition of a cubic metre (but probably not in Aucks).

I think pine used to be around $100m3? Might be more now.

Much more important:

  • The size of the pieces of wood: small ones are easier to fit in the fire an give you a denser cubic metre.

  • The dryness of the wood: this will affect how long you have to dry it and how well it burns. Fresh or wet wood should be cheaper, dry wood more expensive but you can burn straight away.

2
iamcoder83OP•

Yeah, size is definitely important! So many times we've cut wood and then it's 5cm too long. Our fireplace's inside looks tiny tho, I reckon we can only fit in 1-3 pieces in, depending on size.

2
ihuntbounties•

I don't think small pieces give you a denser cubic metre, it dries better in smaller pieces, but I know a few guys who sell it by the trailer load at markets and they cut smaller pieces to sell than they would for themselves because it looks like more on the trailer.

I have zero legitimate evidence if that's true though...

1
katiehates•

Yes they do. The smaller the pieces, the smaller the gaps around them when the cubic metre is measured :)

1
auditnation•

I got sum wood 4 u

jk I'm female idk

1
iamcoder83OP•

Pic of wood plz.

1
auditnation•

I'm shy

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iamcoder83OP•

No one will ever know, it will be our little secret!

1
auditnation•

my parents warned me of sentences like that^

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