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Austin Wood-Burning Systems

Need a Woodburning Fireplace for Your Austin Home?

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Wolfman’s Certified Chimney Professionals Can Help!

A woodburning fire, with the amazing smell, flames dancing, and the crackling of wood creates a beautiful scene. If you want this kind of ambiance in your home, a woodburning fireplace system may be a great home improvement! If you live near Austin, the experienced chimney professionals at Wolfman will provide you with great results and less stress in the process. Why not give us a call to get started?

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Gas fireplaces are known for efficiency and convenience, so why go with wood?

  • Traditional ambiance. For the sound, smell, and traditional appearance of a wood fire, nothing beats a woodburning fireplace.
  • Renewable resource fuel. Wood grows much faster than natural gas or propane are formed, and if you have the ability, you can save money by cutting, splitting, and seasoning your own fuel.
  • Enjoyment in the work. There’s satisfaction to be found in operating your woodburning fireplace, including harvesting wood, building, and managing a fire, and similar activities.
  • Food cooking. Whether it’s a regular activity you share with family – hello smores and hotdogs – or when the power is out, a woodburning fireplace is the only way to go.
  • Improved home value. Overall, adding a woodburning fireplace to your home will boost its value significantly.
  • Reliable heat output. Running your fireplace allows you to use zone heating and turn down the thermostat, helping to lower your monthly utility bills.

Are there drawbacks?

When you work with Wolfman Chimney & Fireplace, we want to help you find the perfect fireplace system for YOU! For that reason, we’ll also note the disadvantages of a woodburning fireplace so that you have both sides of the coin.

  • More Work. Gas fireplaces can be flipped on and off, but woodburning systems require building a fire, refueling, and making sure the system is safely closed up.
  • More Mess. There’s also a bit more cleaning with woodburning fireplaces. This can include bits of wood and debris from the fuel, soot, and ash.
  • Less Efficiency. Depending on the type and features, woodburning fireplaces are typically less efficient than gas fireplaces, but they do have a smoother heating curve.

If you prefer a simple option without a lot of work, a gas fireplace may be a better option to consider.

Provided that the process is handled correctly, wood fireplaces are safe. You’ll need to have your system installed or built professionally, then remember to have annual inspections, sweepings as needed, and quick repairs.

You should also ensure the system is used properly. Use seasoned wood for fires and avoid treated, green, or wet wood, trash, plastic, lighter fluid, and similar compounds.

Starting a fire in your woodburning fireplace can seem difficult if you haven’t done it before, but it’s an easily-learned skill. With the right technique and materials, you’ll be good to go. Try different strategies such as teepee, log cabin, or top-down to see what’s easiest, but here are some basics:

  1. Clear your fireplace. Remove debris and some ash from your last fire, leaving a little ash behind as an insulator so you can get your fire going faster.
  2. Gather fire-starting items. Get firewood, kindling, matches or lighters, and similar items and keep them close beside you as you set up.
  3. Arrange materials appropriately. For top-down, you put big pieces on the bottom and kindling on top, but for other methods, kindling goes on the bottom.
  4. Light the kindling. No matter how you build you always light kindling first. Kindling includes paper, twigs, and small branches up to about the size of your wrist.
  5. Monitor and maintain. Given a few minutes – and maybe a little blowing on it – you should have a strong fire. Keep it fueled and monitor it to avoid accidents.

Never leave your fire unattended. Before leaving it alone for the night, extinguish all flames fully.

It may seem easy to get rid of trash by tossing it into a fire, but in your woodburning fireplace, you’ll want to avoid this practice. You should limit your fuel to properly-seasoned firewood. Trash, green wood, and similar items produce excess smoke and creosote in your flue, requiring more chimney cleaning appointments and possibly triggering a dangerous chimney fire.

When trees are cut, referred to as green wood or unseasoned, they have a lot of moisture in them, typically about 40-50%. However, when you burn your firewood, it needs to be between 15-25% to burn well. If you put unseasoned firewood in your fireplace, it will smoke and take a lot longer to generate heat. At the same time, the cool burn means that more creosote builds up, which can lead to chimney fires and other damage.

If you’re buying your firewood, you want to look for specific characteristics:

  • Pale or beige in color
  • Splits or cracks on the ends
  • Lighter weight
  • Sounds hollow when struck
  • Doesn’t smell of sap

To ensure that you’re getting seasoned firewood, another option to consider is buying a moisture meter. Running $20-40, these meters can be found in home improvement stores or online.

Whether you’re getting wood from a friend or cutting your own, seasoning your own firewood is relatively easy. Cut your wood to shorter lengths that will fit in your firebox, then split it to appropriate sizes for burning.

Once you’re done cutting and splitting, stack the wood off of the ground with the sides open to the air to help dry the logs. Finally, cover the top only of your stack so that rain doesn’t stop the process. A tarp or other covering should work well.

After your firewood looks like it’s been properly seasoned, typically at about the six-month mark, you can start using it. Keep only a small pile of wood that’s ready to use near your home, as these log piles can attract pests.

In most situations, your firewood will season in around six months, though thick pieces of dense wood can take longer, typically 1-2 years, especially if they’ve gotten wet in the process. Wood can become too seasoned when it’s too dry and burns very quickly and very hot. This creates fires that are difficult to control, and may damage your chimney system.

Beyond seasoned wood, what kind of wood should you burn in your fireplace? Hardwood, softwood, a specific species? Rather than burning better, different types of wood burn differently, and you’ll want to take that into consideration when selecting firewood.

Softwood, such as pine, spruce, juniper, and cedar, are lighter in weight and light more quickly and easily, partially due to the resin in these woods. They also put out less heat. For these reasons, burning softwood tends to build up creosote more quickly in your chimney, and may increase the frequency of chimney sweeping.

Hardwoods, including oak, ash, elm, hickory, and similar deciduous trees are heavier and denser. Once they’re burning, they’ll provide a strong, consistent fire, though they can be more difficult to start. You can adjust heat output by using different species, just do a search for firewood BTU for information. For high-BTU woods like Osage orange (hedge), mix in other woods to keep the fire from getting too hot.

Once you’ve had a chance to experiment, you’ll find certain woods that you prefer, and can select for those woods when shopping for firewood.

Your woodburning fireplace will produce creosote and soot. Having them inspected and swept once a year is usually a good practice to keep your system in excellent condition.

Give Wolfman a Call for Excellent Service

512-866-9917
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For experienced chimney professionals, homeowners near Austin trust Wolfman Chimney & Fireplace as their chimney experts. Our focus on staying up-to-date in industry news, keeping certifications updated, and continuing education is one of the reasons why we’re so popular, and it’s how we can deliver the highest quality of care to your system.

Whether you need a new woodburning fireplace, chimney inspections, repairs, chimney cleanings, or other services, our crew is the best because we only hire the best. Why not take a moment to chat with our friendly team at 512-866-9917 or request your appointment online right now? You’ll be glad that you trusted us with your fireplace and chimney needs, and we’ll look forward to talking to you soon.