How much does a cord of wood weigh?

ZmOz

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I'm building a brick wood burning heater to heat my pool and hot tub. I've never used wood to heat anything major, so I've never had to buy a large amount of it. I found a place selling 2x4 doug fir mill ends and log ends for 1 cent per pound. Is that a good deal? I know wood is normally sold by volume, not weight. How much does a pickup load of wood weigh? Would I be able to fill up the 8' bed on my truck without overloading it? (about 2500lbs max)
 

Bondo

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

I'd think you'd be hard pressed to fit a Ton of Softwood into a standard sized pickup bed,........<br />Especially short ends,+ pieces,......Not without some Sides on it.......<br /><br />I guess it would also depend on how Dry it is........
 

Laddies

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

ZmOz, we have burned alot of wood but can't relly answer your quistion as it would depend on the type of wood and the moisture content. I can tell you it will take a lot of slab wood to heat anything, it will keep you warm carrying it more than the heat you will get out of fir, see if you can find a mill with maple or oak and you will have better luck--Bob
 

Bondo

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

He lives in Oregon,..........<br /><br />There Isn't Any Hardwood on the West Coast.............. ;)
 

ZmOz

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

Originally posted by Bondo:<br /> I'd think you'd be hard pressed to fit a Ton of Softwood into a standard sized pickup bed,........
So in other words, I should be able to easily fill my entire fullsize truck for under $20? That's all I'm looking for...a pickup load.<br /><br />I know it will burn kind of fast, but I don't think I could find oak for anywhere near 1 cent/lb. Plus I like playing with fire, so it's not a problem to go out and add wood. :D
 

ZmOz

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

Originally posted by Bondo:<br />There Isn't Any Hardwood on the West Coast.............. ;)
Actually I see quite a bit of hardwood in the classifieds, but it's all around $160+ per cord.
 

Barbee Q

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

If your buying it from a lumber mill, right... they have scales to weigh you as you come in.. When you get loaded they weigh you going out.. You have to remember that wood is treated and it is not the best to be using all the time to create heat. It will build up in your pipes and start a flew fire.. So you really need to mix the wood. Small pieces of oak, prune wood, and Almond would work really good for what you want to do... Go in with a neighbor on a load.. Put an ad in paper.. Cash paid for wood.. put down the size and type of wood wanted and you will get all the calls you can handle.. This is how a guy in Phalomath, Or got started.. Use your pick-up to hall it yourself, you should pay about $50.00 a load and nothing more..
 

springhead

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

A cord that wood is 4000 - 5000 lbs.<br />Species Green Seasoned <br />Hemlock 4800 4650 <br />Tamarack 4650 4450 <br />Red Pine 4500 4350 <br />Jack Pine 4250 4100 <br />Balsam 4250 4050 <br />White Pine 4200 4000 <br />Spruce 4000 3850 <br />Cedar 3150 3050 <br />White Oak 5850 5650 <br />Red Oak 5500 5350 <br />Hickory 5400 5200 <br />Yellow Birch 5350 5150 <br />Hard Maple 5100 4900 <br />Beech 5050 4850 <br />Elm 5000 4800 <br />Balsam Poplar 4900 4650 <br />White Birch 4800 4600 <br />Cottonwood 4650 4400 <br />Ash 4600 4450 <br />Soft Maple 4550 4350 <br />Aspen 4500 4300 <br />Basswood 3850 3650
 

ZmOz

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

Is it illegal to just pick up fallen lumber in the woods? There's a place I go camping about 30 miles from here where weyerhaeuser does alot of logging. There's areas that are clearcut with a bunch of trash logs laying all over. (good sized for burning though) Would I need a permit to pick up some of that?<br /><br />Might be a good excuse to build a log splitter. :D
 

fixin

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

Check with the local tree trimmers,they usually have a yard full of wood they'll give away for free(even deliver for free)
 

Bob_VT

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

You would have to contact the forrester of land owner to pick up deadfall or tops. Contact youe local State forrest service and ask.... here in VT you can get a permit for state lands. Here in VT pallet factories will fill your pick up with hardwood pieces for about $40.<br /><br />The biggest problem is pieces are fun at first.... then they are a pain in the butt. I used to fill shopping bags with pieces and toss them in a bag at a time and pieces tend to burn faster due to more surface area and small size.
 

JRJ

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

For a penny a pound you can try a pu load and then you'll know if its worth it :D Madrone and black oak are best in the west for heat. The nut woods are OK as BD said, and eucalyptus if you like the smell. Soft wood leaves lots of ash per BTU ;)
 

deputydawg

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

Growing up we burned wood for heat. Too poor to fix the gas furnace so the ONLY heat we had was wood. We often burned exactly what your talking about. Here is what I have found out.<br /><br />You will definately be able to get a good size truck load. It will burn fast and hot. For heating a 3 bedroom house it works great in the mornings to get that old wood floor warmed up quick. It will not give you a steady heat unless you close the damper way down, then but it is still hard to regulate. The ends and peices are usually the slabs cut off, and the tops of the trees where it gets too small for lumber. This is often cut off before it is treated, so no worries about soot. The pine will give off a sappy pine pitch that will coat the walls of your chimney, but get a good hot fire going every other time and it will burn it off.<br /><br />Wood your talkin about will work very well when mixed with good elm or whatever good wood you have.
 

one more cast

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

ZmOz,<br /> If you are heating coils of water then the soft wood will work fine because you will need all the flame you can get.I used mostly pine in my redneck pool heater. And as others have said you will never overload your truck with 2x4 and log ends even if it was hard wood.
 

lakelivin

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Re: How much does a cord of wood weigh?

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/forestry/g05450.htm <br /><br />Good article on using owood for heating. Includes weight per cord (80 cu. ft. of solid wood content) and Btu's of heat available per cord for different types of wood. <br /><br />ZmOz- maybe you can do some cyphering using the weight, cu. ft. stats, and price to convert to what you ultimatly want (I think), which is cost of wood in relation to btu's of heat provided. They do some cost comparisons of btu's per cord vs. other heat sources that might help you too model the calculations you need.
 
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