As described elsewhere, seasoning of logs just refers to the drying of firewood. It is hard to season logs when they are in the limb, but once split, with all the open ends showing, firewood starts to dry quite quickly.

Reducing the moisture content of you logs is vitally important to make them burn better. When wood is wet, when you start burning them, they must use the energy contained in the timber to evaporate the water first. This can be a huge percentage of the energy. So you will notice in your fire hissing (turning water to steam) and a cool heat.

So to get the moisture out of the timber you must let both the wind and sun get at the cut ends. Logs lose most of their moisture out of the cut ends rather than the split sides. That is why firewood is stacked the way it is.

So back to the question of when you should start drying your logs for use next year. Well firstly, whilst it is still cool and low light (like just now in February) it is not going to dry very much anyway. However this changes quite quickly as we hit early spring. Early spring can have some of the best drying winds going. It is easy to see how drying a wind is by looking at concrete areas, roads and preferably ploughed fields. When these surfaces start drying early in the day, this is the signal that log seasoning is going to be most effective.

If you can arrange you log store such that it receives direct sunlight, then as the season progresses towards mid-summer, you will be benefiting from a double whammy of dry wind and hot sun.

So in summary, you should have your logs in store somewhere about mid spring to summer for the best effect.

If you haven’t already, look at this website for half dry timber which comes ready to burn even faster: logs for sale

We have had firewood that was cut and split in the late summer that has been seasoning under cover all winter. It is approaching “ready to burn” quality (under 23% moisture) and will be ready to launch within next 2 weeks. If you would like to book a pack of logs, visit us at TurfandStuff Logs.

We can report that our summer promotion, where our customers were able to reserve dry stock for delivery mid winter, was highly successful. Customers have been commenting that they have never received such dry wood at that time of the year.

If you sign up for our log newsletter at turfandstuff, we will let you know when that promotion has been launched (we will open it for double the length of time this year to give everyone the best possible chance of pre-ordering their dry winter logs).

I also wanted to make another comment on the feedback from our customers. (many who have been burning so called “dry” hardwood for years) Larch, our selected timber of choice, has a fantastic ability to dry. It means that we are able to supply large amounts of truly dry timber (down to 17% air dried). The result of this is that when you burn our logs, you get significantly more heat output, since less of the timber is required for evaporating water from the wood.

In some stoves and fires, this extra energy is noticed as “extra” heat. Your room will actually feel warmer. Yes it will burn a bit faster, but of course that is accounted for in the cheaper purchase price.

So we are now moving into the peak log processing season, and are sourcing our timber requirements from our local forests as I speak. Fortunately we have access to huge amounts of larch as it is often grown alongside the paper softwoods.

As part of this years development, we are about to upgrade our log processing machinery. We have been busy evaluating the best machines to give is high output whilst maintaining the best firewood quality with uniform and consistent split log dimensions.

I will keep you informed as the splitting campaign progresses.

Although we would always recommend the use of natural firewood logs, due to the overiding fact that we use a fraction of the energy to produce our logs compared to what briquette manufacturers use, it is true to say that the Briquette has a position in the firewood marketplace.

The top 3 advantages of Briquttes are as follows:

• Direct replacement for coal
• Direct replacement, and in fact improvement on, kiln dried timber
• Great option for once the stocks of seasoned logs have run out

Lets look at these advantages in more detail.

1. Replacement for coal:

This is probably the best use. In this case We are replacing a dirty, environmentally unfriendly product, with a significantly cleaner and sustainable, non-planet warming alternative. Burning coal releases previously locked up CO2 into the atmosphere. Burning briquettes only releases the CO2 absorbed by the tree when growing. As all the timber for our Briquettes is sourced from re-planted forests. The effect is neutral.

Briquettes will last as long as coal in your fire, needing less refuelling than logs (due to them being highly compressed) and leaving a fraction of the ash.

2. Repacement for kiln dried logs:

Their is a growth in kiln drying of logs ready for burning, this allows firewood companies to increase their dry firewood output. However this carries an energy cost. Even if they use wood waste to provide some of the energy, it is still a drain on the overall energy base. Briquettes, although also requiring the energy for drying, bring the advantages of low ash, lower refuelling rate and sealed packaging allowing storage anywhere.

3. Late season replacement for air seasoned logs:

It is the same for all firewood companies, we all run out of firewood as the season progresses. Air seasoned timber is by far the most environmentally friendly as every percent of water removed (for free by the sun and wind) improves the amount of energy the consumer will get when they burn the logs.

Unfortunately, firewood companies run out of space, money and splitting capacity long before they have enough logs to last the whole season. This is becoming more acute with the increase in number of wood burning stoves.

Some firewood companies will turn away new customers to make sure they have enough dry logs to last. Traditionally as these stocks of dry wood disappear, unscrupulous companies will start selling wetter wood as dry wood or start importing timber from Eastern Europe.

This is where we will place the briquettes, none of our customers will go cold, once our dry logs are finished, we have the locally sourced briquette option to keep them warm.

So in summary, although we would always prefer to see air dried firewood burnt, we can see that there are some situations where Verdo wood briquettes will be the best option.

If you would like to secure your late winter fuel from TurfandStuff, follow this link to Buy Wood Briquettes

If you are concerned about your firewood stocks running low, register in the box below for priority access to firewood.

Demand this year has been unprecedented. We have, by the middle of November, SOLD OUT of all fully-dry firewood options. All our spring and summer efforts have been rewarded in double quick time.

It seems that the high energy prices and ongoing financial turmoil are forcing people to re-open their chimneys and install wood burning stoves. The modern wood burning stove is amazingly cheap to install and run!

We do however have 3 options available to customers who love our logs. Our semi-seasoned logs are always available. We have access to literally thousands of tonnes, lying roadside for up to 6 months. Although when split they are quite wet, their maturity and species mean their moisture content will drop below 25% within about 6 weeks. This means you can still buy now and have firewood ready to burn by christmas.

The trick to winter drying of firewood (and we do dry wood all year round) is in the wood store or stack design. You have to realise that the wood WANTS to dry. The liquid in the centre of the logs is actually running out (you can see it as oozing of the sap). What you need to do is ensure that their is enough WIND or air movement to wick that moisture away.

Think of it as drying clothes. Would you dry clothes in an unheated garage? or would you dry them outside on a windy day? What I am suggesting is that don’t get hung up by protecting from rain, be much more concerned at letting both wind and sun get at your logs. Once the cellular moisture has moved out of the log, the logs will not re-wet back. I love this log storage picture, talk about simplicity:

For more info on log seasoning, visit this page on our parent site: Firewood Log Seasoning Guide

If you need firewood to burn right now, you might consider a new product we have launched on our site recently. These are Verdo Firewood Briquettes Although more expensive than logs, they are very low in moisture (under 10%) and therefore burn very efficiently. They last for ages in your stove or open fire and leave virtually no ash. Easy stored anywhere in your shed, garage or house. They have no drying requirement.

Finally, we will have a fresh batch of dry logs, available for delivery in January, ready to forward order soon. Register with our “Priority Customer” scheme below for advance warning:

Wood burning stoves have slowly risen in popularity due to their energy efficiency, aesthetic appearance and reduction in heating costs due to the availabilty of cheap firewood logs.

This rise in popularity is driven by the development of energy efficient wood burners and the rising cost of fuel in general – particularly heating oil. But, due to the huge variety of log burners out there, there are a couple of factors that the prospective buyer should think about so as to get the best wood burning stove for their needs.

These factors include:

1. Heat output: Make sure to check the amount heat output of your stove, and select something that is suitable for your heating needs – you aren’t going to need a huge heat output in a tiny room, unless you are planning on turning it into a sauna! Heat output is measured in kilowatt (kW) or British Thermal Units (Btu).

2. Carbon emission: Some wood burners are designed to be highly efficient, with very little carbon emission. This is achieved through catalytic converters, which reuse the smoke emitted from wood.

3. Size: wood burners come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Make sure to measure the section where you intend to place your burner, and ensure that it has enough clearance to eliminate the danger of possible fire hazards. Also bear in mind that to work efficiently, the stove will require a certain amount of space around them – check with the manufacturer.

4. Multi functionality: Some wood burners can not only heat, but also supply hot water through the addition of a ‘back boiler’. This is a great way to reduce your energy costs although there will be an initial outlay to plumb it into your central heating system.

To get the best out of your wood burner, make sure to follow these guidelines:

• Where possible, try and use seasoned wood since it is very energy efficient.

• Clean it regularly, by removing excess ashes. This will help to circulate oxygen and reduce carbon emissions.

• Insulate your house to help keep the heat inside your house – rather than warming birds’ feet on your roof!

• Only use the type of fuel it was designed for. Avoid burning coal in your burner, unless it was designed to handle both.

Wood burning stoves are an extremely cost efficient way to warm up your house.

Logs are heavy and large quantities of firewood are bulky you need logs delivered but the delivery price should be clear. At Turf and Stuff, it is easy, the delivery price is included in the price for the logs. In fact, the only products for which we charge an extra delivery cost are our railway sleepers, as they really are a bulky product! If buying firewood online you need to be sure that the supplier can deliver to your address, wherever they are based. There are companies that will only deliver locally, so logs from one company will only be logs Kent customers can have, whilst another supplier will deliver logs Devon direction but not go past the edges of Dorset! Turf and Stuff offer log delivery all over mainland UK, and the deliveries are all on pallets, with national delivery from Thurso to Landsend included in the price, and that includes all mainland, Scottish highland homes. Our drivers are intrepid types, but we would appreciate knowing if there is anything tricky about your delivery, including any eager, guard dogs you may have! If you need help planning your firewood or log usage, for example, the quantities that you may need, just ask us. We can schedule your deliveries to allow for seasoning time, and to meet your storage and usage needs over the autumn, winter and early spring months.

Storing your firewood

Your deliveries will arrive on pallets so you have the start of a storage facility and, depending on the moisture content of your logs, you may choose to store some inside and some outside for future use. The logs are in handy split sizes, but if you are using a smaller wood stove you may find that wood pellets are more suitable, the stove manufacturer should be able to recommend the best type of wood to use. A neat trick, if you have the time to set it up and space indoors, is to establish an internal, buffer storage in your house for some logs; this can be anywhere that is easily accessible. You will appreciate its existence when the stove or fire needs logs, and it is raining outside. If logs can get a few weeks in the house, it makes a huge difference to their burning properties.

Enjoy seeing your logs burn!

Once your logs and firewood are delivered, you can sit back and relax, knowing that your heating is environmentally sound and cost efficient. An open fire is the ultimate way to wind down at night, a natural way to reduce stress. Then, when the nights draw in, you can enjoy your fire in a number of ways; it is worth buying a toasting fork just to be able to toast marshmallows, tea cakes, or muffins. If you are cooking on a wood-burning range, look out for slow cooking recipes, you could put them on in the morning, and they will be filling your house with delicious smells when you arrive home in the evening. Enjoy your logs and firewood from Turf and Stuff and let us know any tips and suggestions that you would like to pass on to the many wood burning customers out there.

Depending on where you live, there will be fewer or greater numbers of timber suppliers. Some timber merchants do not bother to offer logs for sale, concentrating on timber for the DIY market only. You can buy firewood from your local garage, but it will be small quantities of kiln dried firewood at a very high price, suitable for the occasional camping trip. If you are using a wood-burning stove, then you need a significant quantity of logs at good prices. Your best choice is to find a supplier with semi seasoned logs for sale who is able to quote you a logs delivered price. There are some large garden centres who supply logs for sale, but they may also expect you to drive away with them, and unless you have a handy van or truck that may not be practical. If you are concerned that you do not have a need for a full pallet load of logs, why not team up with friends or neighbours and all benefit from the reduced price of buying in bulk?

Why Online Is Often Better Than In Store

If you want to ensure that you are paying a good price for your logs and firewood, online buying is the best way to check prices. It gives you access to a far greater range of log suppliers, from Lands End to John O’Groats, and you can make direct comparisons for the products in which you are interested. A good company will also have additional information explaining what they offer and why, plus the price. If you look hard enough, you will even find logs for sale online with free delivery. You can read testimonials from other customers and conduct further checks on a company in consumer forums to see if they are reputable or not; generally speaking, bad customer service gets reported! Often a company will advertise its special offers online and maybe even have a different pricing structure for online orders.

Online ordering is an easy process

If you want to buy logs or buy firewood from Turf and Stuff our online ordering process is as simple as possible, and we can assure you that it is also very secure. Should you have any queries you can always send us an email, and we will reply as quickly as we can, or you have a choice of two telephone numbers for sales and enquiries. Once you have decided to buy logs or one of the firewood products you then have a choice of four ways to pay. Most online ordering, including ours, allows customers to pay by debit or credit card through secure servers where your card details are not revealed to the supplier. Turf and Stuff offer you three additional ways to pay; using PayPal, by cheque, and by debit card over the telephone if you prefer communicating with a human being! The main point to remember when ordering online is to print a copy of your order for safe keeping, although most companies will email you confirmation of your order upon completion of the transaction. Keep an eye out for special offers when you order online with Turf and Stuff!

When you first cut logs they are green, that is they have a high concentration of water, and they will make useless firewood! If you have ever been camping and tried to build a fire which resulted in columns of smoke, unless you were deliberately sending out a distress signal, “get me out of these woods and into a nice, comfortable bed”, you were burning green wood! This is wood that is not sufficiently dry to use like firewood and unscrupulous suppliers will sell you poorly seasoned wood which will use up most of the heat trying to dry the logs out before you get any heat from burning. Seasoned firewood is wood that has been left to dry until it has a moisture content, as close to 20% as possible, as this is the ideal burning wood. If logs are bought in advance of the winter season, you need to store them to continue the drying out process and invest in a moisture meter which costs between £25 and £40 and which will give you a rough guide as to moisture content.

Storing semi seasoned firewood

Having received your logs in the late summer, when they are often cheaper as you are relieving the supplier of storage costs, you should store them appropriately to continue the seasoning process. Logs lose moisture through the ends, so storing them with ends facing the wind is the best idea. If you ensure the logs are protected from the rain, stacked with ends facing outwards and with air allowed to circulate through the storage area, then the logs will be seasoned by the time the first cold weather arrives. Wood burning stoves vary in the level of moisture content that works best for efficient burning, so it is an idea to experiment until you find the percentage that is the most effective. A technique for accurate measurement of seasoned wood can be found here on the turf and stuff website. Please note that Turf and Stuff declare their firewood moisture content daily, so there are no surprises and buyers can plan their own drying processes accurately.

Why use seasoned firewood?

When you go to buy logs one of the main differences you may find is semi seasoned logs for sale or kiln dried logs for sale. Kiln drying is a faster process than air drying but over-drying will result in brittle wood that can sometimes burn too quickly. It is also a great deal more expensive than semi seasoned wood and has an additional environmental cost, that of the drying process itself. To try and keep prices low and encourage more people to use wood as a sustainable fuel, Turf and Stuff only supply semi seasoned logs and firewood

There are a number of firewood companies that claim to supply cheap logs, but when you actually check prices, and add in delivery, you find that the cost has increased. The use of larch as our firewood source is a cost-effective way of passing value onto our customers. Larch is fast growing softwood and readily available, therefore, cheaper. The other restriction on many offers of cheap logs for sale and the cheapest logs in the UK claims is the delivery cost. The logs Scotland customers want cost twice that of the logs Surrey clients receive because the trees happen to be growing down south for those particular log suppliers! Whilst it is logical that delivery distances play a part in delivery prices, there are certain suppliers who must drive their logs halfway round the globe to justify the prices they charge for logs delivered to a house in Aberdeen or Edinburgh!

Why is wood cost effective?

For the person, used to heating their house with gas, electricity, or even oil, wood burning stoves as a source of central heating seem to be something only those in the country do because they have no gas pipes nearby. It would surprise these people to know just how far wood burning technology has come over the past few years. With the continual rise in fossil fuel prices and the recession biting deeper, it may pay those skeptics to see exactly how little it costs to heat a home with wood as your fuel. If you choose well seasoned wood, you can eliminate most smoke, and create an intense heat capable of bringing your water to boiling point, supplying your bath or shower very efficiently. Wood pellet stoves can last for days without being topped up; have adjustable thermostats, timers and automatic settings just like a traditional gas boiler. If you choose a wood-burning range, you can also cook on it whilst it heats the water that runs through your radiators and fills your bath. If the weather becomes really nasty, and you are cut off by snowfall, and there is no power, a wood burner will keep going, and at least your house will be warm. More and more people are considering wood-fuelled heating, and there are other benefits, such as only paying 5% Vat because the government wants to encourage carbon-neutral heating products.

Guide to Prices

When you buy logs, do not buy them by weight, as unscrupulous suppliers will sell you logs that are unseasoned and heavy with water. You should buy firewood by capacity in cubic metres also ask how seasoned or unseasoned the logs are by percentage of water. Wood pellets can be bought by weight, and it is a good idea to check with your wood burner manufacturer what the capacity of your stove is, so that you can estimate your wood consumption per month or quarter. How many sacks or pallets of logs you buy will depend on your available storage as they will need a firewood store that is dry. As a guide, 2.0 cubic meters of semi seasoned split logs should cost around £139 including VAT (at 5%) and delivery. Wood pellets are supplied in 10kg sacks and a pallet of 96 sacks should cost in the region of £248 including delivery. Please note that pellets for horse bedding attract a VAT rate of 20%, the low-rate VAT is only for wood burning logs that are heating the home.

We are delighted to report that our firewood stockpiling programme is proceeding very well. We have been able to buy a fantastic stand of local larch just ready for our production.

The stand has been felled and mostly delivered to site. The green moisture content has dropped from 40% down to 30% already. The earliest split stock, stored in our re-usable, breathable bulk bags is progressing down below 25%.

The unusual combination of strong winds and dry conditions should allow some of our production to dry below 20%, this is equivalent to kiln dried but with none of the ecological issues from using extra fuel to produce dry wood.

As the firewood hits 20%, we will re-package into our delivery packaging and seal with pallet wrap, ready for autumn and winter delivery.