How to purchase firewood

[trendyzworld]

Hello…

So we have a wood fireplace and are new to this process of buying firewood. So my questions are:

– what’s a good price to pay for a cord of wood?

– what is the best seasoned wood to buy?

– any suggestions on where to buy the wood from.

I’ve been doing the “free craigslist” pick-ups when I can but realize we will go thru wood regularly. We aren’t changing to a gas stove until next year. :-)

Your help is greatly appreciated. :-)

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[maplesyrup]

I used to buy it off of craigslist. “Good” prices are hard to say because it’s all supply and demand, but I remember paying $200-$300 a cord, delivered.

Maple and fruit woods (like apple or cherry) burn well, hot and slowly. Fir burns hot but comparatively faster.

Be careful when people advertise “seasoned.” I’ve had people show up with “seasoned” wood that was practically green and soaking wet.

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[wakeflood]

Agreed, maple, be wary of “seasoned”. Ask how long it’s been down and drying. If they say it’s “about a year”, or “mixed”, then you should probably assume it’s at least somewhat green and will give off a fair amount of water when burning. Actually, “about a year” is official code for “it was growing in my neighbor’s yard about two months ago, you got a problem with that?” ;-)

Also as noted, the fir you get is much more plentiful than the hardwoods/fruitwoods and is cheaper. It burns hot and fast and generally gives off more sooty, creosoty particulates than the seasoned hardwoods. All that sap, doncha’ know. Hence, make sure you have a clean flue and stack cuz a chimney fire is a nasty, scary, dangerous thing.

Good luck!

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[wakeflood]

And if you do end up buying fir, make sure you have a screen or doors that go right up next to the face of the fireplace. Fir will snap out coals at a prodigious rate and they’ll sneak out through cracks as small as an inch and land who knows where after ricocheting.

Good idea for any woodburning fireplace to be sure but especially the fir.

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[maplesyrup]

Oh that’s very true wakeflood. We have an ottoman that has 2 holes in it from where embers flew out over the fireplace screen. The gap was less than 4 inches wide.

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[etohick616]

i was in maple valley 10-18 and at the produce stand they had large tubs/skids of apple wood for sale for $60.00. the wood is silver colored so i think it might be seasoned. ps pears @79 and red delisious @59. tons of squash.

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[wakeflood]

Do you have an approximate location or road in Maple Valley you can post?

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[Marli]

If possible, it’s a good idea to try to buy locally-sourced wood. Transporting firewood across geographies is a prime vector for transporting invasive insects (think spruce budworm that is running rampant in eastern Washington forests, decimating hundreds of acres of Doug firs–they don’t munch on just spruce!).

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[trickycoolj]

I would bet it’s the giant produce stand on highway 169 from Renton to Maple Valley just before you get to the crossing with Highway 18 on the right side. Was out there last month a few times for a wedding and wanted to stop really bad but the wedding prep and festivities always finished too late.

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