Are you in the market for a new home? Across America, home buyers consistently report that they are looking for the same thing: a fireplace. Fireplaces can add a sense of coziness to any home, but homeowners may not realize that they need to get their fireplace cleaned before they start the first fire of the year. Fireplaces are a great addition to any home, but make sure that you know how to keep your heat loss to a minimum.
There are a few ways that you can reduce heat loss from a fireplace: first, you want to make sure that you open a window in your living room about one inch and close the door if you have one. You do want to make sure that you schedule a yearly fireplace cleaning, because chimney fires are one of the major causes of home fires. Ask your contractor to check the flue damper seal, and always remove ash after you burn your firewood. If you haven’t used your fireplace for several years, wait and ask your contractor if it is still safe to use on a regular basis.
Once your fireplace is operational again, you may be in the market for seasoned firewood. Check your local paper for listings: often, people who have excess firewood will offer a portion of a cord for sale. When you’re stacking your firewood, you will want to have ample space — experts recommend setting up firewood storage close to your home, if possible — and be prepared for some heavy lifting. A full cord of seasoned firewood weights more than 4,000 pounds. Seasoned firewood has a lower moisture content than wood that has just been cut from a tree: fresh wood is about 40% water, while firewood’s moisture content hovers somewhere around 25%.
If you own a truck, you can often go and pick up your own firewood, but firewood delivery services exist in many states across America. Once you have your wood stacked to your liking and are starting to use it in your fireplace, be careful when you take wood inside. Snakes and small forest critters love to nest in stacks of wood. Firewood for sale provides the perfect environment for chipmunks and skunks to nest: make sure that when you take wood that you are wearing gloves. Maintaining proper protection for your hands is essential when you take firewood from the pile: animals tend to shy away from people but may get startled if they startle you.
When you order firewood, you can ask for longer logs and surprise kids with their own log cabin. You will need at least 48 logs that are all roughly the same diameter. Constructing a permanent fort is a great fall project: make sure that you build on a flat surface and consider putting in a concrete floor for hours of play. Firewood is versatile, and the logs that you burn all winter could find a new life as part of a fort or log cabin for the kids. One of the best parts of the winter months is being creative: parents who make a backyard ice rink or log cabin may find that their children want to spend all day outside.
You can also heat your entire home with a wood stove. They come in a variety of styles, but wood stoves give off an incredibly relaxing heat and can act to minimize your firewood budget. It takes some practice to light the logs and then bank the fire, but stores that sell wood stoves often offer classes about the best way to create and control a fire. Wood heat is so pleasant and it’s great to come home to after a long day spent outdoors. Just take some time and get used to your fireplace or wood stove and you should get many years of enjoyment out of these luxury amenities in your new home.