With cooler weather just around the corner, I always start thinking about heating the home efficiently. A modern wood fireplace doesn’t just provide warmth; it creates a cosy space to unwind while it’s cold and wet outside.
When I’m looking for firewood near me, I tend to order a firewood delivery from a trusted local supplier. This way I can avoid some heavy lifting and be assured that the firewood is dry and ready to burn!
When is the best time to order and stack away firewood for winter burning?
Order a load of firewood now while the firewood is dry and there are fine days to stack it in a covered area. Too often buying firewood is delayed until nearer winter, when (particularly in a wet season) it’s difficult to guarantee the firewood will be at optimum dryness ensuring a long burning fire can be enjoyed.
Hardwoods, particularly gum, can take a while to be seasoned (dried out) so purchasing a load of firewood when it's ready to burn will create the most successful fires.
What varieties of firewood are best for wood burning fireplaces?
A popular firewood option that many people choose for wood burning fireplaces in Auckland and Hamilton is the ECO Hot Mix Firewood. This blend of firewood is made up of around 2/3 softwood and 1/3 hardwood to help get your fire well established.
Softwood, typically pine, catches quickly and burns fast to create a strong base of embers. Once that base is formed, adding hardwood such as gum or macrocarpa allows for a longer, steadier burn with plenty of heat. Exclusive to Central Landscape Supplies, ECO Hot Mix Firewood is a blend that works really well for those wanting both easy lighting and lasting warmth.
Other hardwoods are sometimes available as firewood in Auckland and Hamilton, often native totara and ti-tree (manuka), but also wattle. These are all long burning with good heat in them. An excellent choice is Central Landscape Supplies’ Long Burning Hot Mix Firewood which is typically a blend of gum varieties with macrocarpa and pine.
Pine-only firewood tends to burn quickly, meaning you’ll go through more wood. However, options like pine offcuts offer the advantage of being very dry, making them easy to light and efficient to start a fire.
Tips and tricks for stacking firewood
As mentioned above, it’s best to stock up on dry firewood now before the temperatures drop. Store it under cover to keep it protected from rain, such as under the eaves of your home, in a carport, a purpose-built wood shelter, or in the garage. Good airflow is key to keeping your firewood dry, and exposure to sunlight will help maintain its quality.
Happily, there are plenty of obsessive firewood stack videos to watch on YouTube, but the rule of thumb is to stack by interlocking the pieces, often triangular, to ensure a cohesive stack, but still allowing for air circulation.
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It’s worth stacking the base a little out from a resting wall and ensuring the stack leans more towards the wall as it grows, to avoid it collapsing forward. For that reason, if the firewood stack is going on the ground, then elevating the stack by placing a couple of long pieces of framing timber or an old pallet or two on the ground first can help protect the firewood from moisture.
Covering an outdoor firewood stack with iron or plastic to keep the rain off will help, but best to place bricks or blocks on it to keep the roof in place.
How to start a great fire
Products like fire starters have their place as quick and effective in getting the flames going. Kindling is a great option for a more traditional method without chemicals.
Kindling is simply thinner pieces of wood (preferably pine to catch quickly) that are used (often with scrunched up newspaper or other paper refuse) to begin the fire.
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Burning these smaller pieces until a small, hot bed of embers lies in the base of the fireplace allows for adding a few slightly thicker pieces to get the fire going. Once a strong glowing base of embers is established pieces of hardwood can slowly be added.
Did you know? If you have a cabbage tree in the garden, collect and tie up bundles of fallen brown leaves. When dry, they catch quickly and make excellent homemade fire starters.
How to buy firewood – truck, trailer, bags
Central Landscape Supplies has many convenient ways to buy firewood, and most yards stock it. Their firewood is sold by the conventional measurement of a ‘thrown metre’ or in 60L bags at some yards. Several yards also stock kindling in a 21L box. Order online and click & collect in-store or get a load delivered.
Truckloads can be delivered on a day convenient for stacking or utilise Central Landscape Supplies’ free loan trailers and pick up a load yourself! If you only need firewood for occasional fires, then a few decent-sized bags of firewood are a good cost-effective option.
Order a load of firewood now – we deliver firewood Auckland and Hamilton-wide, with a local yard near you.
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