Keeping Firewood From Your Removed Tree: What to Know

When we take a tree down, one of the most common questions is: "Can I keep the wood?" The answer is almost always yes. A mature oak or pecan is hundreds of dollars of firewood sitting in your yard. But keeping it well takes a little planning, and there are a couple of cases where you should not keep it at all.

Not every tree makes good firewood

The best firewood comes from dense hardwoods. In North Texas, that means oaks (post oak, red oak, live oak), pecan, and hickory. They burn hot, burn long, and leave good coals. Cedar elm and ash are fine too: decent heat, easy to split.

Then there is the rest. Bradford pear, willow, cottonwood, and pine are light, fast-burning woods. They light easily and they are gone in an hour, throwing more smoke and less heat. Pine is also sappy, which means more creosote buildup in the chimney. If all you have is a Bradford pear coming down, the wood works for a quick outdoor fire. For the fireplace, it is barely worth the stacking effort.

None of this is complicated: heavy wood good, light wood weak. If you are not sure what you have, ask the crew. We will tell you straight.

Green wood does not burn. It smokes

Fresh-cut wood is roughly half water. Throw it in the fireplace and you get a hissing, smoking log that barely heats the room and coats your chimney in creosote. Firewood has to season: dry out until it is actually burnable.

In Texas, plan on six to twelve months. Split the rounds, stack them off the ground on pallets, cover just the top of the stack, and let the summer heat do the work. Oak is dense and sits at the longer end of that range. Lighter woods season faster. Wood is ready when the ends are cracked and checked, and two pieces ring hollow when you knock them together. If you have a moisture meter, look for around 20 percent or less.

The shortcut everyone asks about, burning it sooner, is not worth it. One winter of creosote-heavy green-wood fires costs more in chimney problems than a year of patience.

If the tree was diseased, the rules change

Here is the one case where keeping the wood is the wrong call. If a red oak died of oak wilt, do not move the firewood. The fungus survives in cut wood, and hauling it across town is how new pockets of the disease start. Burn that wood where it fell, or have it disposed of on-site. This applies to oaks we removed specifically because of oak wilt.

For other problems (storm damage, a dead Bradford pear, a tree that just outgrew its spot), there is no such restriction. Seasoned firewood is fine. When in doubt, ask us what the tree died of before you start splitting.

Tell the crew before they start

This is the part people get wrong. Decide what happens to the wood before the job starts, not when the trunk is already on the ground.

We can cut the trunk and big limbs to firewood length, roughly sixteen to eighteen inches, and stack it where you want it. Or we can haul everything away, which is the standard cleanup. What we cannot do well is change the plan halfway through. Cutting to length and stacking takes real crew time, so it is part of the job plan from the start. Tell us on the estimate visit: keep it or haul it.

Pick the stacking spot ahead of time too. A full tree's worth of rounds is heavy. Once the crew stacks it, you will not want to move it twice. See our tree removal page for how the whole job runs.

Stack it right or lose it to rot

A woodpile sitting on bare dirt rots from the bottom up. Get it off the ground: pallets, rails, anything that lets air move underneath. Keep the pile away from the house. Woodpiles attract termites and carpenter ants, and you do not want either one commuting from the pile to your framing. Twenty feet or more from the house is the standard.

Cover the top so rain sheets off, but leave the sides open. Airflow is what seasons wood. A tarp wrapped tight around the whole pile just makes a sauna, and the wood molds instead of drying. And stack bark-side up on the top row. The bark sheds water like shingles.

How much wood are we talking?

More than most people expect. A big oak can yield several cords. A cord is a stack four feet by four feet by eight feet. One large tree often seasons into enough firewood for two or three winters of regular fireplace use.

That is worth knowing when you plan the pile. A single row along the fence will not hold a whole tree. Have the space ready, or be ready to share the surplus. Good oak firewood never goes unwanted in a neighborhood.

If you would rather not deal with any of it, we haul it. Cleanup is part of every removal. See what affects removal cost and our stump grinding page if the stump is going too.

Common Questions