# Pine in the fireplace



## L0ser0 (Jan 5, 2014)

Greetings wood fanatics!
New to this forum, and I think it’s pretty awesome.

That being said, I live in Suffolk, VA (South West VA). There is quite a lot of pine in my area. I have always been told NOT to burn pine and the like (softwood) in my fireplace. I never really understood why, something about the sap? I found a thread from a day or two ago asking how many people do just that, and there were quite a few people.
This leads me to my question, is it safe to burn pine in my fireplace? Why would everyone tell me no, but when I see all you experts doing it?
Any clarification would be phenomenal.
Thanks!


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## PapaDave (Jan 5, 2014)

Old wives tale. Pine is fine, as long as it's dry........just like any other firewood.
It will burn relatively fast.
Most people that hang onto this idea of pine being bad, don't want to spend the time and energy to get their wood dry, so for them it's a good idea to not burn it.
We burn it quite well, and so do tons of people who have nothing but pine available. 
Burn on....but get it dry first.


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## L0ser0 (Jan 5, 2014)

PapaDave said:


> Old wives tale. Pine is fine, as long as it's dry........just like any other firewood.
> It will burn relatively fast.
> Most people that hang onto this idea of pine being bad, don't want to spend the time and energy to get their wood dry, so for them it's a good idea to not burn it.
> We burn it quite well, and so do tons of people who have nothing but pine available.
> Burn on....but get it dry first.


 
thanks for the response. I am completely new to this. You say make sure its dry... as in, split, chop, stack, cover, for about a year?


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## BrianN (Jan 5, 2014)

Yes, pine is fine for a fire place. Actually it is great. I don't know where the rumor started as to where pine was not good for burning.
We use it all year (October to May) to heat our house. I have never had a problem with it.
Our pine, we can literally go out, fill the truck up and come home and burn it. Our pine is beetle kill, standing dead for about 5 years. We do however, stack it and let it season.
Burn it, and enjoy it.


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## Fred Wright (Jan 5, 2014)

Hey, I grew up next door in Chesapeake. 

Yep, c-s&s and top covered for a year or so, pine will be fine. I'd suggest a spark screen if you don't already have one.

The thing with pine - and another much maligned wood, sweet gum - it has some resin content. Burning it before it's fully cured is where the creosote horror tales originate. When fully cured it burns nice and hot. Burns up faster than your conventional hardwoods, though.


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## L0ser0 (Jan 5, 2014)

Fred Wright said:


> Hey, I grew up next door in Chesapeake.
> 
> Yep, c-s&s and top covered for a year or so, pine will be fine. I'd suggest a spark screen if you don't already have one.
> 
> The thing with pine - and another much maligned wood, sweet gum - it has some resin content. Burning it before it's fully cured is where the creosote horror tales originate. When fully cured it burns nice and hot. Burns up faster than your conventional hardwoods, though.


I too grew up in Chesapeake, the Western Branch area. Where about did you live?


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## CenterTree (Jan 5, 2014)

It is the moisture that gives trouble in the stove (and flu).   As in creosote formation. 

Pine gets a bad rap due to the sap that is extra sticky.    A lot of people think the pine resin is bad.   Actually the resin has good heating value, but does cause pine to burn faster than hardwoods. 

Sap and resin are different.

http://www.differencebetween.net/science/nature/difference-between-sap-and-resin/


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## CenterTree (Jan 5, 2014)

"  _The notion that pine is dangerous to burn, or creates more creosote is an old wives' tale. If seasoned properly, it will not create any more creosote than other types of wood. It does, however, burn hotter and faster than denser hardwoods due to its high resin content, meaning that you'll churn through it faster._"

http://www.wikihow.com/Season-Firewood


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## PapaDave (Jan 5, 2014)

Center Tree, that's one of the best I've seen.
The only thing I take issue with is waiting for 15 minutes for the wood to burn.
If you have to wait that long, it may be dry enough to burn,eventually, but it's not really dry enough.
Dry wood should take off within a minute or so....maybe less.


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## Backwoods Savage (Jan 5, 2014)

L0ser0 said:


> Greetings wood fanatics!
> New to this forum, and I think it’s pretty awesome.
> 
> That being said, I live in Suffolk, VA (South West VA). There is quite a lot of pine in my area. I have always been told NOT to burn pine and the like (softwood) in my fireplace. I never really understood why, something about the sap? I found a thread from a day or two ago asking how many people do just that, and there were quite a few people.
> ...



Welcome to the forum L0ser0.


If pine is not okay, I'm in deep trouble because this is what we're working on now. Total number of pine trees cut was something like 24. Pictured are just a few of them.


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## windchaser (Jan 5, 2014)

Seasoned pine is easy to burn and get's hot in a hurry.....if you come home to a cold stove pine is a great way to quickly get up to temperature before you switch over to a hardwood.  It also makes awesome kindling.  I have had pine in my woodpile for a long time and like cedar, it's always welcome in my wood stove.


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## tominva (Mar 7, 2014)

L0ser0 said:


> I too grew up in Chesapeake, the Western Branch area. Where about did you live?


 
 Hey L0ser0, I am in Suffolk,Va. also. Did you get a permit from the city to install your stove? I went and picked up a permit but they gave me very little info to go aong  with it. Over the counter, they said that the stove would have to be installed meeting the manufacturers specifications.
Tom Davis


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## L0ser0 (Mar 7, 2014)

tominva said:


> Hey L0ser0, I am in Suffolk,Va. also. Did you get a permit from the city to install your stove? I went and picked up a permit but they gave me very little info to go aong  with it. Over the counter, they said that the stove would have to be installed meeting the manufacturers specifications.
> Tom Davis


Actually, we purchased the house and it was already installed. I would think that if you contacted the manufacturer, they could probably answer some of your questions. 

Where abouts in Suffolk? We are near Wilroy, in South Suffolk.


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## blacktail (Mar 7, 2014)

L0ser0 said:


> I have always been told NOT to burn pine and the like (softwood) in my fireplace.



I went on a Travis Industries factory tour last fall. They had a large stack of Douglas Fir for their burning needs at the facility. If softwoods were a no-no I'm sure Travis Industries wouldn't be burning them.


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## Tom Wallace (Mar 7, 2014)

Pine is fine, but make sure it's seasoned (like any wood). I've seen someone else here suggest that the reason people think pine is dangerous is because it burns hotter and faster than hardwoods, which can result in creosote igniting in the chimney. So, someone may burn oak for years, never clean their chimney, then throw in some pine, which ignites the creosote build up, and they come to the conclusion that pine causes chimney fires. What really causes chimney fires is creosote build up. The solution is to season your wood and clean your chimney as needed. Invest in a moisture meter (I use this one), measure your wood's moisture by splitting an existing split and measure the interior grain. Do not just measure the end of a split piece as that will be much drier than the interior of the wood and gives misleading results.


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## HeatsTwice (Mar 7, 2014)

I get all the pine I want from tree surgeons. They dump once a month. I'm sitting on 20 cords of it. Got another 15 cords of hardwoods though, gotten the same way. 

Thankfully, people her in California subscribe to the "don't burn pine" myth.

 All of my wood comes downed, bucked, delivered, free. All I have to do is split, stack and season.

I do sweep my chimney twice a year though and get about 1/2 a coffee can of fly ash when I do.


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## Sinngetreu (Mar 7, 2014)

blacktail said:


> I went on a Travis Industries factory tour last fall. They had a large stack of Douglas Fir for their burning needs at the facility. If softwoods were a no-no I'm sure Travis Industries wouldn't be burning them.
> 
> View attachment 129155


 
This is one of those posts that I wish I could like more than once! I'd hit that button like Rocky on a speed bag!


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## Hoozie (Mar 7, 2014)

HeatsTwice said:


> All of my wood comes downed, bucked, delivered, free. All I have to do is split, stack and season.


 Hmm... looks like Santa Rosa is.... too far from here


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## WES999 (Mar 8, 2014)

I went on line and found some pine
threw it in the stove and it burned fine

I burn pine, it is easy to find for free in the northeast as it seems most people here don't want it ( more for me)


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## red oak (Mar 8, 2014)

Welcome to the forum L0ser0!  I'm a bit north of you in Shenandoah County.  I'm guessing in your area you have mostly pine, oak, and some maple, as that's what we have here mostly.  So many people here won't burn pine at all, and I've even had my wife and FIL question me about it.  But as others have said, it's fine to burn as long as it's dry.  In our climate, I think if it were split and stacked now, it would be ready for next winter if it was top-covered and in a place that had good air flow.


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