Choosing the Best Kind of Wood for a Chimney

The tradition of burning wood in chimneys is centuries old. The wood and fireplace combination not only offers warmth in the chilling winters, but it also adds to the ambiance and beauty of a home interior and room. As of now, you have now lots of time to stock the best wood for winter purposes.

Remember that the wooden logs are not furniture and the more you spend towards buying the logs might not give you the best in return. Giving some time towards selecting the best wood also is fruitful towards other issues. You will get wood that does not give false and bad odour on burning, and certain wood burns more efficiently and cleanly than others. The chimney fires caused by the creosote accumulations often occur because of the burning of undesired and wrongly selected wood. You can prevent all these problems and the related issues and mishaps when you select the best wood for your fireplace and chimney.

Choose wood without moisture: the seasoned wood

A freshly cut wooden log may have up to 45% of its weight occupied by moisture, when not dried. This kind of wood is termed as “green wood” and does not burn easily. You may burn logs and logs of it and only get fumes and gases in turn, with the warmth and heat content being substantially low.

Hence when buying wood for fireplace and chimney purposes, you must only select the dry wood. This wood is prepared by keeping the fresh green wooden logs out in the sun and wind for long time periods. Ample of moisture gets removed this way, and the wood does not cause the occurrence of blinding gases on burning. The dry wood also gives more heat on a weight-to-weight ratio, when compared to the green wood. The wood should be kept in the sun for not less than six years, and the longer it is dried, the better.

Recognizing the seasoned wood

You can easily recognize dry wood, and will not require any special apparatus for the purpose. The seasoned wood is much darker in color and is also cracked at many places including the ends. This wood is quite easy to lift, as all of its moisture has been removed from the effects of wind and sun. When you collide two dry wood pieces, there will be a distinct sound of “clunk.” Some of the pieces of the two wooden logs will also get broken and will fall off.

Softwood versus Hardwood

The softwood trees grow slowly and are many-a-times evergreen (examples include Fir, Cedar, and Pine among others). On the other hand, the hardwood trees are obtained from the deciduous trees (examples include Maple, Birch, Hickory etc.). While the hardwood is not always denser than the softwood, the majority of them are. When it comes to using the wood for fireplace purpose, the hardwood tree wood is preferred. This is so because the hardwood trees are relatively denser and can produce twice amount of heat when compared to the softwoods.

Softwood, on the other hand, catches fire rather easily and also burns at a faster rate in comparison to the hardwood. That is why the best fireplace includes both hardwood and softwood. The hardwood forms the major part of the fire, and the softwood is used to start the fire.

Timing the fireplace

Now that we know the different fire bearing capacity of both hardwood and softwood, it is not difficult to decide which one to burn at what time. Hardwoods are right fireplace choice when you wish to have warmth in your home interiors in the coldest of months. The softwood fire has ample of warmth for a start, or end winter time periods (in the falls and springs).

Do not forget to store your wooden logs within the covered home porch or in some shed. This will keep rain water or snow to affect them adversely. A Chimney sweep Bidborough professional service will clean your fireplaces and chimneys and will give you a safe and clean wood burning area at reasonable costs.

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Adrice White

Adrice White is an experienced chimney sweep working in England. He takes an interest in writing articles on smokestack cleaning. He has been in this field for the last 10 years. You can avail more information about Chimney sweep Tunbridge Wells from his recent articles and blog posts.