Wood Buring Fireplace

[bokelley]

So this is the fist time DH and I have ever had one. We are having the chimney inspected on the 20th. Now we need to get wood. Here are some questions I have.

1.) Where do we store the wood at? Near the house?
2.) How much wood do we need?
3.)What does it cost?
4.) What the heck is seasoned or unseasoned wood?
5.) What is all the equipment I need to buy?
6.) How do you build a fire?? Not kidding I really have no idea...

[poky]

1. You can, but you definitely want it at least...I think it's 6 inches away from any walls, maybe more? Do not put it directly against a wall.
2. That depends on what you want to do with it. If you're using it for heat all winter, you'll need a lot (but I can't tell you how much; it'll vary by how big/efficient your stove is, and how hot you want the house and how cold it is outside and how much insulation your house has).
3. No idea, sorry; will vary a lot by location, and possibly by time of year, I'd imagine.
4. Seasoned wood has dried out, usually at least a year, I think. It'll burn better/more completely/more efficiently. Unseasoned will be cheaper, but you probably would want to wait to burn it till next year. If you have room to store it, it might be worth doing.
5. You'll definitely want a decent set of fireplace tools (poker/tongs/brush/shovel), probably some sort of basket/bucket/stand for wood to keep nearby so you don't have to go outside every time you want to add a piece, and possibly fire gloves, and an ash bucket for when you clean out the stove. We also have one of these: http://www.woodmanspartsplus.com/485...Large-802.html, which does help heat the room the stove's in a little better.

You might also price-compare using a pellet basket in the stove (like this: http://www.burnwoodpellets.com/) - if wood pellets aren't horribly expensive where you are (home depot sells them by the 20lb bag, by the pallet if you want), they burn a LOT more cleanly and efficiently than logs do, and my understanding is that they're made by compressing otherwise-wasted sawdust (though I could be wrong on that). We found that a full basket would last us a couple hours before needing to be topped off. If you go that route, you'll want a tub to hold a couple bags worth of pellets in near the stove, plus a big metal ice scoop to scoop the pellets into the basket with.

6. Uh...I have no idea how to explain it; I've been building fires since I was a kid, and don't really think about how I do it. I'm sure there are tutorials online to get you started; you'll get a feel for it after a while.

Oh, and I just noticed you said fireplace and not stove; is it an insert, or just an open hearth? If it's an open fireplace, you'll also need a screen to keep sparks from setting the floor on fire. And you won't have any place to put the ecofan.

[ladymoreta]

DH is working tonight, and he's in charge of fire-building around here, but I'll attempt to answer what I can.

1.) Where do we store the wood at? Near the house?
We store it on the side of the house in the back yard, so it's out of the way. When you build a fire, only bring in the amount you are going to put directly into the fireplace. Spiders like to live in the wood, and if you bring in extra pieces and let them sit, the spiders can get out and into your home. DH sets extra logs next to the door so he can just reach outside when it's time to add to the fire.

You can, but you definitely want it at least...I think it's 6 inches away from any walls, maybe more? Do not put it directly against a wall.

Agree with this! Ours is beside the house, but up against the fence, not the house.

We have a metal frame that the wood goes in, and it keeps it up off the ground so hopefully it doesn't rot.

2.) How much wood do we need?
DH's parents brought us a rick of firewood last year, and we didn't come close to using it all. My parents have a wood burning stove that they use as their primary heater for their house, so I think they go through at least one rick of firewood a year. Probably more. It really depends on how often you use it.

3.)What does it cost?
Unfortunately, I don't know since DH's parents bought it. It is more expensive to buy the small packages of wood at the grocery store, so if you're going to build more than 2-3 a year, I'd buy it by the rick or half-rick. You'll also want some kindling wood or starter logs.

4.) What the heck is seasoned or unseasoned wood?
No clue

5.) What is all the equipment I need to buy?
Start with a fireplace tool set. They come with everything you'll need - a little broom and dustpan, a poker, and tongs (not sure what they're really called). Besides those, some newspaper, kindling wood, and firewood.

6.) How do you build a fire?? Not kidding I really have no idea...
Depends on the type of fireplace. If you have a gas starter, you can probably skip the newspaper, but I'll go with a general description of starting from scratch.

Before you start, be sure to open the flue. There should be a little lever if you look up into the chimney.

a. Put down some crinkled up newspaper, about 3-4 pages
b. Put some kindling wood on top of that. Kindling can be wood chips or sticks. I'm not completely sure, but I think you can skip the newspaper and kindling if you use starter logs. You might still need a little kindling.
c. Put 1-2 small logs on top of the kindling wood.
d. Light the newspaper. It should ignite the kindling wood. If it doesn't, add more newspaper.
e. As the kindling ignites, use the poker as necessary to shift it over close to the firewood.
f. As the kindling burns, the small logs should begin to ignite. Add more kindling if needed.
g. Once the small logs get burning well, you can add a larger log on top of them. Just kind of chunck it in on top of it, and you can use the poker or tongs to adjust it so that it's stable.
h. Occasionally, use the poker to stab at the logs and expose more area of the log to burn. Sometimes it helps to rotate them if you can so that a the bottom part (which is hotter) is on the top before you put a larger log on top. It seems like it starts the larger log burning faster.

[scrub-jay]

Just something to think about re: ash removal. My family friends had a rental that came very close to burning down due to this. You should not remove ash into an open bucket -- in their case, their tenants took the ash out, put some water on it and left it away from the house. What they didn't know was that the water did not completely extinguish the ash and when a wind storm showed up -- stirred up the ashes and set the dry leaves on fire. Most of the yard was destroyed, but the house (luckily) was spared. I've heard horror stories from those who left an open bucket on the wood porch.

The following article has more information:

http://hearth.com/econtent/index.php...er_ash_removal

[bokelley]

So after the spiders, snakes, and catching the house on fire. I will be good to go right LOL!!!

This is why I said I wanted an electric fireplace. Push button on, flames shoot out!!! I am going to have my work cut out for me. Once we get the fireplace all going, I will post a pic of it!