Fire wood

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
Hi,

Wasn't really sure where to put this thread so if its wrong please feel free to move it Mods.

We now have a house with a fireplace and have bought a few boxes from Landi, my question is, where do folk get their logs from? I have seen wood stacked up in various places but surely you cannot just take it?

Where do folk get their wood from, we want nice slow burning wood, the Landi wood is ok but the fire burns out pretty fast.

And advice gratefully received.

Best wishes

Darcy

2
Can't give you a specific recommendation but if you visit your local Gemeinde they should be able to give you a contact, usually from the local forest.

It is usually sold by the Ster, which is 1 metre cubed, and then you should be asked whether you want it cut twice (giving 33cm lengths) or three times (25cm). We pay 190chf per Ster.

Hope that helps,

Broon.

3
Hi,

Thank you Broon, that is really helpful.

Darcy

4
Like Broon said. THe prices also vary according to wood type. Beech ( Buchs) is most expensive and burns best for heat, then comes Ash (Esche), also fine in my opinion, and cheapest would be Pine / Fir (Tannenholz) of some sort, which gives out less heat, and dirties your chimney faster. You could pay as low as CHF 100 for that, although my prices are 2 years out of date.

Delivery costs also. Sometimes you can find a retiree who tends a piece of forest to keep busy, and he might be offering wood for less than the going price. You can also ask if there are "tops" of trees available. Various branches cut to one of the aforementioned lengths , which also burn fine but are messier, because they probably hold more dirt from laying on the ground for a while. THey are also cheaper.

Good luck with that. I miss burning wood. It was one of my favorite activities.

5

You might be able to get it a bit cheaper if you cut the logs down in size yourself; I know our commune/gemeinde offers this option, but you have to have a chainsaw and know what you’re doing.

Also don’t forget to have the chinmey swept every year, either in the spring once you’ve stopped using your fireplace or in the autumn before you want to use it again.

6
[QUOT

Also don't forget to have the chinmey swept every year, either in the spring once you've stopped using your fireplace or in the autumn before you want to use it again.[/QUOTE]

This is very much dependent on type of chimney and how it is designed. Six years and without it being swept mine is still working perfectly well.

7
Nobody would burn spruce or any kind of pine in woodburner around here- only beech and ash. I am amazed aobut your price Broon... last time we paid 80CHF for 1 stère cut into 33cm lengths, delivered

8

This is very much dependent on type of chimney and how it is designed. Six years and without it being swept mine is still working perfectly well.[/QUOTE]

It may do, but in most places the regs are that they must be swept every year regardless. Our commune usually puts it out as a reminder in our monthly news bulletin.

9
Firewood does seem to be significantly cheaper in the forest/mountain cantons, probably partly because that's where it grows and partly because many people there still use it to heat their houses, hence order larger quantities more regularly.

Another place to check is the classified ad section of your local newspaper. In German you're looking for "Brennholz".

10
The regs are in CH that they have to be swept yearly- so I do you manage to avoid doing this for 6 years??? Fire insurance ECAP is compulsory and insist on all woodburners and fireplaces swept yearly too???

11
Must depend on the canton.

Tom

12
Interesting - which C/Kanton do not require a yearly sweep?

13
The ones where the Chimney Sweep is not related to the top honchos

14
Gas burners below a certain threshold (70 KW) are to be cleaned once every two years, other forms of heating either once a year or twice a year, depending on type of fuel and size of installation. (If twice a year, then at least one of those times is supposed to be during the heating season, i.e. you can't just check once in June and again in August.)

These rules are cantonally set, but seem to be pretty standard (I checked six different cantons, all featured identical wording) and I have an idea they were developed by some transcantonal body - more than likely the VKF (= Vereinigung Kantonaler Feuerversicherungen).

Of course things may be different in the Wild West Ticino; my Italian wasn't up to investigating that.

15
I also just bought wood at the Landi. But you've reminded me I should get to the commune to ask them about getting wood from them.

Rumor has it that wood from the commune owned woods are offered to residents quite cheaply. I'll investigate that tomorrow.

Stay warm!

16
Our town in Vaud (requires it every other year, and to be done by their certified cleaner. In fact we got an appointment for next week.

17
I guess that's Zurich prices for you! Have tried a couple of sources and that seemed like the typical amount. It is very good beech wood, well seasoned / dried. I could save 15chf cutting it up myself but have to say it seems money well spent!

Broon

18
I know you are buying from Landi already - but it is worth getting UNION bricks and also the long burning compressed giant pellets - per KG cheaper than wood. They are also garden friendly.

I use a mix - hardwood, giant pellets and the bricks - it seems work out cheapest

19
Those nice big piles of firewood you see along the walks and roads in the forest? They belong to people who bought them on auction - and are waiting to be collected by their owners. Do not touch them!

If your town has its own forest, then usually (here anyway), once a year a "Holzgant" is organised - where those wanting to buy meet up at a designated spot and go walkabout in the forest with the auctioneer and his assistant, and bid for various "Sters". Your name is logged, you get sent an account to pay by the Gemeinde, and you can take your time to go collect your wood. Prices here range between Sfr80 and Sfr90 per Ster (cu.m) - cheap - but hell of a job to cut and transport and then split!

Ask around, as someone here suggested, and you`re sure to find a local who does the chopping/delivering for pocket money, and is much cheaper than shop prices.

You can also ask at the Gemeinde about "cleaning a piece of forest" - where you can pick up all the fallen dry wood - they will give you a permit for a section (HOW you find it is something I`m too afraid to ask!)

Take along a hand trailer and load it with forest floor pickings - all the trimmings from the big logs, side branches, etc...... and then haul your trailer back home (no autos allowed in forest)

We buy from a local farmer whose son cuts firewood for his pocket money ...... Sfr120 per Ster.

How to measure a Ster of cut wood? Measure the size of the trailer it`s packed in ... if the trailer is 50cm deep, 120cm long, 80cm wide - it contains half a Ster .

Those big "rolls" of firewood one sees in the forest are a full Ster.

Sorry for all the details - but I was once a newby about firewood, and these are things I`ve learned the hard way .. and you sound like I used to sound...

20
Well we live in the same canton as Odile and lived for almost three years in our rented house without having the chimney swept once.

Nobody ever contacted us and said we had to do it and the landlord didn't specify it either.

We had both a fireplace and a wood burner..