If my wood is leaking sap is it not ready for the wood burner?

[Littleredsquirrel]

Its some sort of softwood judging from the bark but I don't know which type. Probably Douglas fir. I've just brought in a load of logs and put a couple on top of the blazing woodburner to dry them out a bit more before they go in. One has started oozing sap due to the heat. Can it still go in or does that indicate its not ready?

I'm pretty sure that means it is still not ready, and will spit and smoke if you try to burn it. I think 6 months is usually enough after cutting for softwoods to season, but it may vary.

We were told that wood needed to season for a minimum of 27 weeks before putting it on the fire or in a stove.

It will have been seasoned for about a year since that was the last time we did any felling. Its possible it was in the middle of the stack though ad didn't get as much air as it should have.

If you're using your own wood that you've felled, it's well worth investing in a moisture meter to check how well seasoned wood is before you burn it. Should be under 20%, the lower the better.

Bear in mind that softwoods do tend to create more deposits on your chimney so may need sweeping more often.

Good tip thank you!

Wow I went for it and put the log on. It's blazing away and pumping out amazing heat. I just burned my finger opening the door!

Squirrel can I just wade in to say once again that I am jealous of your wood!

Heehee! Hi Funny, done the emergency shop yet?! I also bought a really cool log splitter stake this week which is going to be perfect in case of zombie attack.

We had a chimney fire last year which was really frightening and caused a lot of damage. Although we hadn't burned anything unusual, the chimney sweep told us never to burn pine as it contains a lot of tar (creosote) which clings to the inside of the chimney and can ignite and cause a fire. I would be cautious of burning Douglas Fir. The sweep also recommended a product called a chimney log (Amazon) which you burn for a couple of hours and it breaks up the tar deposits in the chimney.

What did the chimney sweep reckon had caused the fire? My friend had one a few years ago when I was visiting and my son and I could have been killed

That's interesting girlsbrigade. I had heard that elsewhere but then I have friends in canada who burn nothing but softwood since they have relatively few deciduous trees and so don't tend to burn hardwood at all. They laughed and said if they didn't burn softwood the whole country would have perished from the cold years ago.

we burn mixed wood.some soft, some hard, some building timber- what ever we get hold off. all of it we season for a year or more. but still some of the more resinous soft woods ooze a bit. A moisture meter is useful if your seasoning wood yourself.
( and if your buying wood and want to check you not being diddled) . To check, split a piece open and meter the newly exposed inner surface.

Just read an interesting article which says that the risk of chimney fires is not due to burning softwood but is due to burning wood that is now properly seasoned. The moisture from the wood mixes with the smoke and tar and condenses on the inside of the chimney liner, becomes blocked and then a fire is caused.

We need to get our chimney swept.

when was your chimney last swept?

Squirrel in answer to your question - no

on my last post I should have typed "not" properly seasoned not "now" properly seasoned.

When we moved in UniS, three years ago ! I have already called and arranged for someone to come out and do it.

once you find a sweep its easier to get into a yearly sweep routine, many sweeps will send you a reminder card a few months before your annual sweep is due.
I get ours swept each spring, so its done n dusted before I stop burning every night.

The chimney sweep said that pine logs contain lots of tar which clings to the inside of the chimney. He is ex fire brigade. The tar can ignite when you light a fire, which is what happened to us. The room filled with smoke very quickly and was frightening. I got a jug of water and doused out the flames but the roar of flames was still happening inside the chimney. DH went outside and flames were leaping out of the stack outside. At that point we rang 999 as we were scared and had no idea what might happen next. By the time they came the fire had gone out but the room was full of smoke still. The chimney pot was in pieces and the cowl had melted. They used an infra red camera etc to check the loft and all the rooms. They were very kind. Just to add, we regularly sweep our chimney at least once a year, but we think we had bought some rogue logs.

The first time we did our chimney we didn't realize how much soot was up there, it was an OMG theres soot everywhere moment, and a my god it really does get everywhere

If you have a chimney fire and haven't had your chimney swept for more than a year then you may have problems with the insurance. Get it done! My predecessors burnt inadequately seasoned sycamore and never got the chimney swept... when I moved in and got the chimney sweep round he said there was lots of tar up there. Bloody dangerous.