Question Regarding Drying Wood

So I recently had three large oak trees felled by the city in my backyard that were encroaching on power lines. I’m working on processing the wood into firewood but it’s a big project. Most of the wood I’ve yet to process I’ve stacked on pallets to get them off the damp ground and allow air flow. Some of it however is far too heavy for me to move until I’ve chopped it into shorter pieces and split the shorter pieces and so it’s just been lying directly on the ground.

In the section of Lars Mytting’s book Norwegian Wood entitled “Wood That Never Dries” he writes “in deciduous trees for which the drying conditions are poor at the outset, the moisture content never falls to the level it does in timber that has been dried quickly… The rule is never to let timber lie wet in the forest…get it back home and chop, split, and stack it.” My question is this: How quickly does wood need to be removed from the ground if one wants it to dry properly? There must be a length of time that is acceptable to let wood lie on the ground if one can’t immediately move it for whatever reason. I just have no idea if that length of time is one hour or one week or one month or whatever. This is a fairly new area of interest for me and I’m feeling rather in over my head so any input is appreciated.

No worries.  Take your time.  Maybe he’s saying that because Norway is cold?

First thing that may happen in a year or two is insects etc may start to grow under the bark.  For firewood we always ignored it without issue.

There is no one size fits all answer here. Your best bet would be to try and get the wood spaced even just a little off the ground if it's going to take more than a month to get it up. Use some of the branches or scraps of whatever to get as much airflow as possible all the way around it. Leave it sitting with as little contact area as possible.

Since it is oak, you should have some strong branches around. Using one as a lever with a chunk of wood as a fulcrum, you should be able to pry the logs off the ground and onto other branches.

Or you could take a long prybar to the spot and raise the logs.

In any case, removing as much of the bark as you can will speed drying quite a bit.

I disagree. The tree was living.  It’s full of water.   Drying is a diffusion process. The time it takes to dry is proportional to the square of the distance the water has to travel to air.  In other words, until it is cut and split, it makes little difference what environment it’s in.

Tyler Hill wrote:My question is this: How quickly does wood need to be removed from the ground if one wants it to dry properly? There must be a length of time that is acceptable to let wood lie on the ground if one can’t immediately move it for whatever reason. I just have no idea if that length of time is one hour or one week or one month or whatever. This is a fairly new area of interest for me and I’m feeling rather in over my head so any input is appreciated.

I would say `do what you are able to do`.

Cut the wood when you can.

what other choice do you have?

Hi Tyler,
I echo those that say don't worry too much about it. I'm not an expert on wood drying, but I have lived enough years with wood heat, that I have some experience drying wood. The purpose for getting the wood up off the ground is twofold.

One, it is to stop it from rotting. When the wood is in contact with the ground (including moisture and all those microbes that like to eat rotting wood) it will eventually start rotting. Oak is a hardwood, so it will take a lot longer than say Pine. If possible, I would roll them so that the bark is touching the ground if possible. The bark adds extra protection over the bare wood. But honestly, it could probably sit for months without any appreciable rotting. Not a big deal with large oak pieces. Small pieces of softwoods would be different. The larger the piece, the longer it takes to break down, so the longer you have before its a big deal.

Second is to get it drying out better. As has been mentioned a large piece will not dry very well until its split anyway, so no big deal. Just know that the pieces you cut later may take a little longer to dry and to get all the sap out of them. Again, not really a big deal, if you remember which end of the pile was cut last, and use that stuff last.

Tyler Hill wrote:So I recently had three large oak trees felled by the city in my backyard that were encroaching on power lines. I’m working on processing the wood into firewood but it’s a big project. Most of the wood I’ve yet to process I’ve stacked on pallets to get them off the damp ground and allow air flow. Some of it however is far too heavy for me to move until I’ve chopped it into shorter pieces and split the shorter pieces and so it’s just been lying directly on the ground.

In the section of Lars Mytting’s book Norwegian Wood entitled “Wood That Never Dries” he writes “in deciduous trees for which the drying conditions are poor at the outset, the moisture content never falls to the level it does in timber that has been dried quickly… The rule is never to let timber lie wet in the forest…get it back home and chop, split, and stack it.” My question is this: How quickly does wood need to be removed from the ground if one wants it to dry properly? There must be a length of time that is acceptable to let wood lie on the ground if one can’t immediately move it for whatever reason. I just have no idea if that length of time is one hour or one week or one month or whatever. This is a fairly new area of interest for me and I’m feeling rather in over my head so any input is appreciated.

My two cents as someone who processes firewood and sells it...  I am assuming its in random lengths right now...? If so, the first thing I would do is buck it up into the lengths you want and the rounds can sit for a long time before they will rot.  Piling the rounds random and loosely (standing up like a tire rather than laying them flat on a pallet) will help with air flow-which will benefit the drying process... Also, my experience with oak is it splits better green and when its freezing temps outside... (but that may be my imagination ha ha). I would get it split asap though, Oak takes along time to season and the longer it dries, the better it'll burn... I'd personally try to get it done now, so it can sit out in the sun all Summer long and cook in the heat before you put it away...

Best regards
Steve

Oak is ring porous and is purported to be the slowest of woods to dry.  I have no experience burning it as it is locally rare and what few oaks I have I wont cut.  My advice like others here is to cut, split and stack as quickly as possible.  Once you are done take 5 pieces from top of pile and weight them and mark weight and date with sharpie.  Keep doing that until it the weights stop falling then you know that the wood has dried as much as it will in your climate. At that point its as good as its gonna get so go ahead and burn it.  

If you dont have a woodshed drive two posts into the ground , put sacrifice two small straight logs on the  ground to keep firewood off the ground.  Stack should run east-west so your wood faces south.  Try to find some scrap used tin roofing to keep rain off the stack.

And welcome to Permies!  

It varies a lot depending on the type (species) and density of the wood.  

There's no general hard rule because it depends on a lot of things.

Wood dries faster with more wind, sun, less rain on it, less humidity, less soil contact, warmer temperatures, and more exposed surface (cut and split).

Wood with enough moisture in it will rot, and it will rot faster the more moisture it has.  The speed of rotting depends on the species and density of the wood.  Wood will rot faster in contact with soil or where bugs/fungus can directly contact it.

So where I live, fresh cut tanoak that is lying on the ground will rot quite a lot in one year.  Tanoak even if it is split and stacked will rot within a few years if it's out in the rain and doesn't get quite enough sun/wind to keep it dry.  Madrone on the other hand is very rot resistant and will take several years to rot.  If left dead standing it can stay good as firewood for five or ten years, again depending on the conditions.

Many kinds of oak are more rot resistant.  One week is going to make very little difference.  A month is unlikely to make much difference, but again depends on all above factors.  In freezing temperatures you could probably leave it out for months.  On the ground in a warm wet climate some species might begin to rot noticeably within a month.

The quote from the book  "the moisture content never falls to the level it does in timber that has been dried quickly"  may be true when all else is equal.  However, the wettest wood, even somewhat rotten wood, can be dried enough to burn if you give it enough airflow/heat in a dry place.  I occasionally bring pieces of half rotten wood in and set them by the woodstove and eventually they're dry enough to burn well.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for being so generous with their time and thoughts with their responses.