Question 1

Hardwood or Softwood?

Accepted Answer

Hardwood logs are much more dense than softwood logs – so you’ll find hardwood burns hotter and for longer than softwood does.

Hardwood trees have a different internal structure to softwoods which gives them more inherent strength, however, there is actually a huge variation in the density of different softwoods and hardwoods making some softwoods heavier than some hardwoods!

Generally, hardwood logs make for better firewood as they spit less and burn for a long time. The best time to add them is when your fire is established as they will sustain the burn.

Softwood is perfect for building a fire and getting it going quickly. If you have a multi-fuel or wood burning stove you can expect to get more burn time as newer stoves are more energy efficient. Softwood does offer cost saving compared to hardwood but if you don't want to be adding logs to your fire so frequently, we'd recommend a mixture of hard and softwoods.

Question 2

How big are the logs?

Accepted Answer

Unless you have ordered a bespoke size, our logs are cut and split between 9 and 10 inches in length – making them suitable for most conventional wood burning stoves, open fires, chimineas, fire pits and wood fired ovens.
Firewood is cut from a natural product with tree diameters varying greatly. This means getting log thicknesses to remain consistent across all supply is virtually impossible. Whilst log length should always remain consistent between 9 and 10 inches in length, you should expect firewood thickness to vary across deliveries. You’ll find some logs are thicker and chunkier than others and you’ll find no two log deliveries are ever exactly the same.

Question 3

Are the small bits of wood in my order normal?

Accepted Answer

It’s perfectly normal to expect a reasonable amount of wood debris and thin bits of wood in your order. These small bits do not affect the volume of logs you receive though! You can think of these bits as ‘free kindling’ because some will always find their way into the voids and cavities between your loose-filled logs.
As much as we try to minimise these small bits of wood debris making their way through by cleaning during processing and loading, having none at all is unavoidable. This is because we’re working with raw material and automated firewood processing methods which make our firewood production more efficient and productive which in turn helps to keep our prices low.

Question 4

Bulk bags or Loose loads?

Accepted Answer

Loose Loads

Loose  loads are better value. When buying firewood logs in bulk bags, you are not only paying for the logs but also for the packaging. Loose loads are delivered directly to your location without any unnecessary packaging, resulting in lower costs per log. Loose loads also require less handling/packing and so reduce costs.

Bulk Bags

Bulk bags mean that you will have no mess on your driveway especially where you have small pea shingle (bark, slithers). If you have a shortage of space, our logs are well contained within their bag and can be covered where they are delivered.

Question 5

Why do you sell by volume rather than weight?

Accepted Answer

We only sell our firewood by volume / cubic metre rather than by weight. The reason for this is simple: the drier the wood, the less it weighs and the better it burns. Our logs have a low moisture content, which means they weigh less than unseasoned or part-seasoned logs of the same volume. If you were to buy firewood by weight, you would end up paying for water content rather than the actual wood!

Question 6

Why is the stacked volume different to loose volume ordered?

Accepted Answer

The logs inside the bag or loose load have been loosely loaded so expect the volume of your purchase to reduce if you make a nice stack of your firewood.

If you take a pile of loose logs and stack them tightly and neatly in your log store, the pile of stacked logs takes up less space than the loose pile. In fact it takes up considerably less space. Independent industry experts state that one cubic metre of loose logs, when stacked, will take up a volume of approximately 0.6 cubic metres.

Question 7

Why do you sell loose volumes and not stacked volumes?

Accepted Answer

After we’ve cut and split the wood into logs, they go loose into either one of our drying cages or on our drying floor until they’re properly dried. Each drying cage is designed to allow maximum ventilation and the gaps between the loose fill logs allow the air to circulate to aid the drying process. When we’ve tested the moisture content of a sample of the logs in each cage and they’re ready to be delivered, we then tip them into either the bag filling hopper or into the back of one our tipping trailer as a loose pile of logs.  The whole processing, drying, bagging and delivery process is therefore based on quantities of loose fill logs.

Frequently asked questions