How to Season Firewood

In grad school, I moved into a small treehouse cabin in Charlottesville, Virginia near my university. In the interest of saving money, I forewent lots of “luxury” living items that I was used to such as an oven, an indoor bathroom, and a source of heat I was not tasked with maintaining… As the daughter of a logger, I thought I already knew everything there was to know about the little woodstove in the cabin that I needed to keep burning.

That first chilly night, I brought up some wood provided to me by my landlords. I had prepared some kindling and had my lighter ready. I set up the firewood in the stove how my dad had taught me and how I had seen him do it plenty of times. I lit the bottom of the precise piling I had made, but poof – nothing but smoke! After a few minutes of the same smoke occurring and after my kindling had burnt up, it was time to call my dad.

“Is the wood green?” he asked. It looked pretty brown to me and that’s what I told him. He explained green meant unseasoned, meaning that the firewood was still retaining moisture. He asked how old the wood was, how large the pieces of firewood were, where they were placed outside, and how they were piled up. It turns out that it is never as simple as just taking any old log and burning it – he just always made it easy for us beforehand. It has to go through the process of “seasoning” – getting rid of all the extra moisture so it can catch fire.

Wood needs time for the moisture to evaporate out of it, but you can speed up the process by paying attention to the size of it, where you place it, and how you arrange it. Here’s what my dad taught me:

The more surface area you expose of the log, the faster it will season. You need to make it easy for the moisture to evaporate by cutting it into smaller pieces so the water can reach the surface quicker and have more exit options. I had a small stove and a small cabin, so I just used a kindling cracker and a sledge hammer to break up the larger pieces. If you run a bigger operation, it could be a good investment to look into a firewood processor to speed things up (and cut down on labor). Additionally, you can always make your younger sibling do it for you – see video below.
When storing the pieces you just chopped in halves, if possible, you want to store them off of the ground, in direct sunlight, and exposed to the wind. Wood on the ground not only reduces the exposed surface area, but is likely to rot, grow some fungi, or get eaten by termites or other little creatures. You need to set it on top of something. I used pallets that were provided to me by my landlord, but in a pinch you can just use long sticks. Pick your location wisely. The sunniest and windiest spots create the best airflow and heat, drawing out the water in the logs.
Once you have found a good spot off the ground, you can begin stacking your wood. I liked doing one row, about 4 ft tall. If you want to create multiple rows, separate them so that air can flow in between them. For some like myself, this is about optimizing the space to the best of your ability. For others, if space is no issue, you can make your row much shorter and have several of them. If it was going to rain or mildew in the mornings, I put a tarp just over the tops of the wood and removed it when the sun was out.

After it has been seasoned, move it to a more convenient location and use it as needed! I moved mine onto my porch and covered it with a large tarp. When I needed to replenish the stove, I just grabbed it directly outside my front door which saved me lots of cold walks in the snow.

Another useful dad tip: at night, mix seasoned wood with some green-ish wood. The fire will heat the green wood as it is burning and evaporate the moisture, but won’t burn until later so that your fire will last all night!

– Rae Reaves (Roy’s daughter)