New source for scrounging wood???

[woodjack]

Maybe it's been said here before, but I don't remember ever seeing it.

I own apartment rental units that I'm currently renovating. New red oak flooring is being installed. The other day I noticed one of my workers gathering up a bunch of pieces of the flooring and asked what he's doing with them. He tells me they were small or damaged pieces he's going to throw away.

Well, now I have a big hefty filled with solid, dry, red oak. It's not the mother load, but it's something.

We always talk about hooking up with tree cutters to gather the remains. What about flooring companies that throw away seasoned oak everyday.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I wouldn't. No doubt that flooring has been treated and I would not want to burn that in the stove.

 

[snydley]

I wouldn't. No doubt that flooring has been treated and I would not want to burn that in the stove.

I don't know if you can assume that. If it's actual hardwood slats with no varnish, stain, etc. on them I would think that would be ok. Since it's interior flooring I don't imagine the flooring company is going to spend the extra money to treat it with something, like pressure treated wood for example. If it's laminated "floating" floor material, that's different. That's loaded with glue and who knows what else. The only sure way to know is to ask the manufacturer.
Snyde

 

[elmoleaf]

Hardwood 3/4" unfinished oak flooring is perfectly ok to burn. It's just untreated milled wood.

 

[myzamboni]

Hardwood 3/4" unfinished oak flooring is perfectly ok to burn. It's just untreated milled wood.

Yep, I love this stuff. it is great to put on the kindling when you are first starting the stove.

 

[fossil]

Some hardwood flooring comes with a factory-applied finish, most doesn't...it's put down and then finished in place. It's nice kiln-dried hardwood with probably about a 7% or so MC. Rick

 

[woodjack]

I'm considering ripping up my new wood flooring and throwing it in the wood pile . . . . but at 2.00/sq ft plus tax and delivery - I'm guessing that would be a pretty expensive cord of wood.

4 x 4 x 8 / $225 = 56.9 cents per sf (going rate for firewood)

I never realized that firewood was that expensive.

It makes me wonder. Instead of buying those expensive tiny bundles of firewood they sell at supermarkets and Home Depot, it may be cheaper to walk over to the flooring dept and buy a twenty sf bundle of bone dry red oak flooring.

 

[begreen]

I love getting hardwood flooring scraps. Make good friends with that installer and you will have some nice free warmth. Just remember that it is very dry at ~ 8-10%. It fires up hot and fast if put loosely in the stove.

 

[fossil]

It would take something on the order of 2000 sq ft of your flooring to make a cord of wood. What you roughly figured (4x4x8/$225=56.9 cents) is the cost per cubic foot, without taking into account the fact that a cord of wood is something around 20% airspace. Rick

 

[woodjack]

Now, that's an expensive cord of wood.

 

[woodjack]

Just remember that it is very dry at ~ 8-10%. It fires up hot and fast if put loosely in the stove.

That's a good tip. Thanks.
How about tying up a bundle with thin wire - make your own logs. Do you think it would still burn to hot and fast?

 

[Jake]

I burn LOTSA hardwood flooring scraps as we own a mill. I also burn 4/4 Kiln dried scraps. Sometimes i'll take a coupla 3" wood screws and make some "logs" but most of the time, I fill the stove and walk away.

My favorite species to burn are the exotics , cause theyre way way more dense (btu's)