Should I stock up on firewood before winter, and how early should I order it?
Yes — order firewood in spring or early summer, not fall. Truly seasoned wood is hard to find once cold weather hits and everyone's buying at once. More importantly, if you buy green or partly seasoned wood, it needs months to dry, so ordering early gives it the whole summer to season down to a clean-burning moisture level.
The timing is about drying, not price
Firewood you buy in October is either genuinely seasoned — scarce and priced accordingly — or it's green wood a seller is calling seasoned. Freshly split hardwood can hold a lot of water; it needs roughly six months to a year, split and stacked in sun and wind, to drop to the 20% moisture or below where it burns clean and hot. Order in spring and you own that entire drying window yourself. Order in fall and you're betting on someone else having done the seasoning honestly. Up here, the safe play is to buy green in spring, cheaper and easier to find, and let a mountain summer do the work.
How much, and how to store it
Plan by the cord — a full cord is a tightly stacked pile four feet high, four feet deep, and eight feet long. How many cords you need depends on how much of your heat comes from wood: a stove worked hard all winter goes through far more than an occasional-evening fireplace. Stack it off the ground, split faces exposed to air, top covered but sides open so wind moves through the pile. Wet, poorly stored wood is the number-one cause of the smoky, hard-to-light fires and creosote buildup we get called out on. Good stacking is half of good burning.
Why dry wood matters more than people think
Green wood doesn't just light poorly — it wastes its own energy boiling off water instead of throwing heat into the room, and it packs the chimney with creosote, the tarry buildup behind most chimney fires. An EPA-certified stove or insert is especially particular: it's engineered for dry fuel and runs dirty and inefficient on anything wet. If you're counting on wood as your Helene-style backup heat, dry, well-stored fuel is the whole game — cold, smoky wood is no comfort when the power's out. Want your chimney and flue checked before burning season starts? Call (828) 545-0525.
Related questions
- Do wood pellets sell out in winter — should I buy early?
- How long does it take to season firewood?
- What is a cord of firewood, and how many cords do I need for a winter?
- How should firewood be stacked and stored?
- How can I tell if firewood is dry enough to burn?
- How do I know if my house has natural gas or propane?
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