About the service
I arrive with my own hydraulic splitter, two chainsaws and a chipper, so you do not have to rent anything or borrow a neighbour's axe for the weekend. The work starts with bucking: I cut felled trunks and long poles into rounds of the length your stove or boiler really takes. I measure the firebox before the first cut, because a log two centimetres too long is a log you will be trimming by hand all winter. The usual sizes are thirty three, forty or fifty centimetres, but the saw is set to your heater, not to a habit.
Splitting is done on a hydraulic ram instead of swinging a maul, so knotty birch, elm butts and twisted fruitwood go through without a fight and without a wedge stuck in the grain. I sort as I split. Birch, oak, hornbeam and ash give the long, hot burn a boiler wants; alder and aspen burn clean and suit a bathhouse; pine and spruce catch easily but carry resin, so they are kept aside for kindling rather than mixed into the main stack. Freshly felled wood is close to half water, gives you roughly half the heat it should and glazes the flue with tar. Under a well aired rick it needs a full summer, and dense oak nearer two, so I will tell you plainly what you can burn this season and what has to wait.
Branches, tops and brush are not burned in a heap. They run through the chipper and come back as clean chips you can spread as mulch on beds and paths, or keep dry in sacks for smoking fish and meat when the species suits. Stacking is part of the job, not an extra line: the rick goes on bearers clear of the ground, the faces stay open to the wind, the ends are tied so nothing walks, and the top is capped against rain while the sides keep breathing. When the saws stop I rake the sawdust and offcuts, leave the yard swept, and the price is figured from the volume of finished stacked wood, agreed before I start.
What is included: bucking to your measured length; hydraulic splitting and sorting by species; chipping of branches and tops; building and capping the stack; clearing the site afterwards; an honest note on which species are ready to burn and which need another season.
Splitting is done on a hydraulic ram instead of swinging a maul, so knotty birch, elm butts and twisted fruitwood go through without a fight and without a wedge stuck in the grain. I sort as I split. Birch, oak, hornbeam and ash give the long, hot burn a boiler wants; alder and aspen burn clean and suit a bathhouse; pine and spruce catch easily but carry resin, so they are kept aside for kindling rather than mixed into the main stack. Freshly felled wood is close to half water, gives you roughly half the heat it should and glazes the flue with tar. Under a well aired rick it needs a full summer, and dense oak nearer two, so I will tell you plainly what you can burn this season and what has to wait.
Branches, tops and brush are not burned in a heap. They run through the chipper and come back as clean chips you can spread as mulch on beds and paths, or keep dry in sacks for smoking fish and meat when the species suits. Stacking is part of the job, not an extra line: the rick goes on bearers clear of the ground, the faces stay open to the wind, the ends are tied so nothing walks, and the top is capped against rain while the sides keep breathing. When the saws stop I rake the sawdust and offcuts, leave the yard swept, and the price is figured from the volume of finished stacked wood, agreed before I start.
What is included: bucking to your measured length; hydraulic splitting and sorting by species; chipping of branches and tops; building and capping the stack; clearing the site afterwards; an honest note on which species are ready to burn and which need another season.
