Over my first winter in northern B.C., my husband and I burned five cords of wood. As a smaller person, I was never going to get through all the log splitting on brute strength. So, I learned how to split wood more efficiently. Here are five things to try before buying an electric log splitter.
1. Use a lighter axe. And heavier boots Most people split firewood with a maul or a splitting axe. Mauls tend to be heavier (6 to 9 lbs), blunter, and wedge- shaped, and they typically have longer handles. Splitting axes are lighter (3 to 6 lbs) and sharper, usually with shorter handles. I used to split wood with an 8-lb maul. It took so much strength to heft the maul over- head that I had little power left to swing. Eventually, I hurt my back using it. When I switched to a Fiskars splitting axe (less than half the weight), my strikes became much easier and more controlled. However, I did have to learn how to swing faster to be effective. This, combined with the axe’s wickedly sharp edge, compelled me to start wearing steel-toed boots.
2. Read the log. Learning to read a round can make the difference between a single- strike split and you hacking away indefinitely. As a target for my axe, I visualize a straight line across the end of the log that avoids any knots. I also aim for existing cracks—that’s where the wood naturally wants to split.
3. Work in cold temperatures.I’ve found that wood splits much more easily in freezing temperatures—the colder the better. The super-human feeling you get when a log explodes in one blow makes it worth braving -30°C.
4. Avoid wet wood. Make sure your wood is properly seasoned. Splitting wet wood is much harder. You can check by splitting a piece to see if the inside is dry to the touch.
5. Get a wedge. With large-diameter or knotty rounds, my splitting axe doesn’t always cut it. This is when I’ll bring out “The Persuader,” our aptly nicknamed splitting wedge. Just be sure to use a sledge (not the back of your axe) to hammer in the wedge.
Do you have any suggestions for alternatives to Wood Energy Technology Transfer inspection of woodstoves for areas where qualified WETT inspectors are very hard to get? What do insurance companies suggest for such regions?—Phil Dean, via email
There certainly aren’t any alternative certifications. “WETT is the only program in Canada,” says Zigi Gadomski, the president of Wood Energy Technicians British Columbia. But, since “it’s not a government certification or mandated by the government, an insurance company can use anyone they want.”
They can. But they probably won’t. “All companies that I know of will now only accept a WETT certification on units such as free-standing woodstoves, pellet stoves, and steel fireplace inserts,” says Bob Dixon of Mason Insurance Brokers in Welland, Ont. “It’s just a fact these days.” The folks at the Insurance Bureau of Canada agree.
But everyone gets the problem when it comes to cottages: “Understandably, the more remote a town or area is, the less likely that there might be WETT inspectors available,” says Dixon. Plus, COVID has messed up woodstove inspections the same way that it has messed up every other part of our lives. “I’ve heard that getting an inspection has been tougher due to backups and restrictions.”
We assume that you’re not willing to remove your woodstove. We also assume that you’d like fire insurance. Unfortunately, even if you wanted to, you probably can’t get a property policy that excludes fire losses caused by a wood-burning unit, says Bev Mitchell of Johnston Meier Insurance Agencies Group in Maple Ridge, B.C. “A regular market carrier is not likely to agree to that as an option. As a special risks underwriter, I see a lot of homes and cottages with woodstoves, and if the information provided on the unit indicates that a WETT inspection is required, we will give the client time to deal with the request,” she says. “In the interim, we will approach it with an extremely high deductible—for example, $100,000—to discourage the use of the unit.” But this interim arrangement only works if the woodstove is “auxiliary use only,” says Mitchell—you need a different, approved main heat source, such as a furnace or baseboard heating.
If it’s strictly remoteness, not inspector availability, that is the issue, consider forking over the cash to bring one to you. (And in case it expands the pool, keep in mind that some home inspectors also have their WETT certification.)
“I was once approached by a client who owned a private fishing lodge in a very remote area,” says Mitchell. “The main source of heat was a woodstove, and as the only alternative would be to self-insure, the client had to fly in a WETT inspector—at some expense.”
It’s not outside the realm of possibility that a company would insure you with no inspection. But is that really what you want? “WETT is the most extensive and correct form of inspection,” says Dixon. “This is not just all about the insurance company requirements. This is about the safety of your family and friends. To me, that is always more important.”
Got a question for Cottage Q&A? Send it to answers@cottagelife.com.
This article was originally published in the May 2022 issue of Cottage Life magazine.
The stone hearth at Tom Clark’s Bruce Beach, Ont., cottage has presided over four generations of family history—raucous card games, fishing tales, even the anxious war years before Tom’s time, when his father was overseas. “Those were the only summers at the cottage my father ever missed,” says Tom, a Texan whose own northern pilgrimage has also been disrupted, this time by COVID.
But the sands of time—or to be more exact, the chimney’s shifting foundation—haven’t been kind to the structure that Tom’s great-grandfather built in 1922.
Masonry chimnies like this one are beautiful but lose marks for their lack of insulation, inefficiency, and the fact that they require more maintenance. The best way forward may be replacing the whole structure. Or to preserve it, install a cast-iron EPA-certified insert, and add a stainless-steel flue liner. Photo by Erin Leydon.
Now it’s Bruce Beach’s own Leaning Tower.“It has moved seven inches in my lifetime,” Tom says. Not only that but the chimney is leaning on the cottage frame, so “the floor is stressed, the door is stressed, the ceiling, the roof, they’re all stressed.” Tom is stressed too. “We don’t want to reach the level of risk where it could fall on someone.”
That’s the thing about chimneys—they’re the quiet types that you never expect to act out. “People think of the chimney as a simple exhaust system, but it’s more than that,” says John Gulland, one of the originators of Canada’s Wood Energy Technical Training (WETT). Chimneys are among the hardest-working structures in the cottage—“the engine that drives the wood-heating system,” as Gulland puts it.
Chimneys whisk smoke up and away, shield the cottage from toxic combustion gases and dangerous heat, and supply the all-important draft for efficient burning. But they’re also exposed to extreme temperatures, corrosive condensation, stormy weather, and red squirrels. Before your chimney blows its top or keels over, plan an intervention. Show it some love.
Get to know your inner chimney
With a roar like a jet engine, fire shooting out over the roof, and combustion so intense that stovepipes glow red and shake, the classic cottage chimney fire “is incredibly scary when it happens,” says Jon Pegg, the fire marshal for the province of Ontario. And it happens often enough: almost 19 per cent of Ontario cottage fires between 2015 and 2019 involved woodstoves, fireplaces, chimneys, and a statistical category including hot ashes, embers, and sparks.
While smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and a cottage fire escape plan are must-haves, so is checking your chimney for creosote, the tarry remnant of incomplete combustion that fuels chimney fires, and soot, the flammable residue of unburned carbon (see “Worried about creosote? Here’s what to look for”). Because creosote bungs up a flue the way cholesterol clogs arteries, the fire code mandates an annual chimney checkup—“whoo-hoo,” you’re probably saying, “another seasonal rite of cottaging”—as well as after a chimney fire, and when a new woodstove, fireplace, or fireplace insert is installed.
Dryden Fire Service fire prevention officer Jadie Scaman says the fire code doesn’t specify who must do the inspection. Some insurers require occasional WETT inspections, but in practice many “annual inspections” are probably conducted by cottagers when they clean their chimneys. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to have a WETT-trained inspector or chimney sweep in to check the system. “These are technical issues, so hiring a WETT-certified technician is the best bet,” Scaman says.
To keep your insurer happy (and meet the fire code) you should also hold onto inspection reports for two years. At the very least, if you’re checking your own chimney, snap a dated photo of the interior of the flue (the metal pipe or clay liner that conveys smoke up the chimney).
On top of all that, clean your flue whenever there’s more than three millimetres of soot or creosote—the thickness of just three or four stacked dimes. How are you going to know when you’ve got 40 cents of creosote? You’ve got to look.
If you can safely get on the roof, unscrew the chimney cap and peek Santa-style from the top with a flashlight, eyeing the edge of the flue pipe or liner to gauge the thickness of the creosote. Creosote deposits tend to be thicker near the top of the chimney, where suspended tar is more likely to cool and condense, so the advantage of looking from the top is that you’re seeing what’s likely the worst part of the system. If you’ve got a straight shot sightline in your chimney, from ground level you can look up through a conventional fireplace through the cleanout on a masonry chimney, or by removing stovepipes, or opening the inspection port on a metal chimney. You may also be able to look up through the appliance itself when the upper baffle is removed (check your manual or consult with your stove retailer—not all units permit this). Lower reaches tend to be hotter and cleaner, so if you have creosote plastered inside your stovepipe, you’ve probably got a bigger problem higher up.
Monitoring creosote is especially important for wood-burning newbies, or cottagers who’ve bought a new stove and are learning how to operate it. Creosote is your wood-burning “report card”: too much, and you’re doing something wrong with the stove, or burning wet wood. Once you get the hang of it, and if you’ve got a good installation and an efficient stove, an annual cleaning should be sufficient.
Use a flashlight and mirror to see around corners, or go high-tech: “I use my iPhone and take a shot right up the chimney for my customer,” says Sean Mason, a second-generation chimney sweep and the owner of Brent Mason Chimney Cleaning in Sudbury, Ont.
With a roar like a jet engine, fire shooting out over the roof, and combustion so intense that stovepipes glow red and shake, the classic cottage chimney fire “is incredibly scary when it happens,” says Jon Pegg, the fire marshal for the province of Ontario. And it happens often enough: almost 19 per cent of Ontario cottage fires between 2015 and 2019 involved woodstoves, fireplaces, chimneys, and a statistical category including hot ashes, embers, and sparks.
While smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and a cottage fire escape plan are must-haves, so is checking your chimney for creosote, the tarry remnant of incomplete combustion that fuels chimney fires, and soot, the flammable residue of unburned carbon (see “Worried about creosote?”). Because creosote bungs up a flue the way cholesterol clogs arteries, the fire code mandates an annual chimney checkup—“whoo-hoo,” you’re probably saying, “another seasonal rite of cottaging”—as well as after a chimney fire, and when a new woodstove, fireplace, or fireplace insert is installed.
Dryden Fire Service fire prevention officer Jadie Scaman says the fire code doesn’t specify who must do the inspection. Some insurers require occasional WETT inspections, but in practice many “annual inspections” are probably conducted by cottagers when they clean their chimneys. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to have a WETT-trained inspector or chimney sweep in to check the system. “These are technical issues, so hiring a WETT-certified technician is the best bet,” Scaman says.
To keep your insurer happy (and meet the fire code) you should also hold onto inspection reports for two years. At the very least, if you’re checking your own chimney, snap a dated photo of the interior of the flue (the metal pipe or clay liner that conveys smoke up the chimney).
On top of all that, clean your flue whenever there’s more than three millimetres of soot or creosote—the thickness of just three or four stacked dimes. How are you going to know when you’ve got 40 cents of creosote? You’ve got to look.
If you can safely get on the roof, unscrew the chimney cap and peek Santa-style from the top with a flashlight, eyeing the edge of the flue pipe or liner to gauge the thickness of the creosote. Creosote deposits tend to be thicker near the top of the chimney, where suspended tar is more likely to cool and condense, so the advantage of looking from the top is that you’re seeing what’s likely the worst part of the system. If you’ve got a straight shot sightline in your chimney, from ground level you can look up through a conventional fireplace through the cleanout on a masonry chimney, or by removing stovepipes, or opening the inspection port on a metal chimney. You may also be able to look up through the appliance itself when the upper baffle is removed (check your manual or consult with your stove retailer—not all units permit this). Lower reaches tend to be hotter and cleaner, so if you have creosote plastered inside your stovepipe, you’ve probably got a bigger problem higher up.
Monitoring creosote is especially important for wood-burning newbies, or cottagers who’ve bought a new stove and are learning how to operate it. Creosote is your wood-burning “report card”: too much, and you’re doing something wrong with the stove, or burning wet wood. Once you get the hang of it, and if you’ve got a good installation and an efficient stove, an annual cleaning should be sufficient.
Worried about creosote? Here’s what to look for
Use a flashlight and mirror to see around corners, or go high-tech: “I use my iPhone and take a shot right up the chimney for my customer,” says Sean Mason, a second-generation chimney sweep and the owner of Brent Mason Chimney Cleaning in Sudbury, Ont.
Seek liner wholeness
Fragile clay liners are “the most vulnerable part of masonry chimneys,” John Gulland says. Whether the flue is metal or clay, eye it for gaps, cracks, or holes after cleaning. (The classic hack is lowering an automotive trouble light—a bulb in a protective cage on a long cord—but a powerful battery-powered LED lantern would work too.) Cracks caused by high heat can allow a flammable mix of creosote and water to seep into the bricks and mortar, leaving telltale dark stains.
Replace liners that are broken, cracked or—eek—completely missing with rigid or flexible stainless steel. (Some people choose to add ceramic fibre insulation as well.) It’s a fiddly job, so budget roughly $2,000 or more for professional installation.
Put a lid on it
“Stone and brick chimneys need regular maintenance, most frequently from the top,” Gulland says. Whether metal or masonry, well-dressed chimneys require a cap to prevent water from mixing with creosote to form a corrosive slurry. Masonry units need an additional cap (also known as a crown), to seal moisture out of the top of the structure and deflect rain away from brick and stonework. A flexible bead of silicone in the “bond break” between the cap and clay liner allows the clay to expand and contract without letting rain in.
The only way to check the crown is to climb up there and have a close look. Because damage is invisible from the ground, “nobody notices the problem until there are bricks lying on the grass and the deck,” Sean Mason says. “We rebuild four or five chimneys a summer. For ninety bricks and a metal cap, you’re looking at around $2,000.”
Find balance
Are you seeing widening gaps between chimney and flashing, roofing, and siding? That’s bad news: your hulking five or six-tonne fireplace could be shifting. “It’s a warning sign,” says Kim Pressnail , a professor emeritus in civil and mineral engineering at the University of Toronto. “You need to find the root cause and solve the problem. You’re dealing with a structure that could kill someone.”
For minor leans, one option is a partial demolition: hire a contractor to lop off the masonry above the roofline (as in photo above), reducing the chimney’s heft so it’s no longer teetering towards destruction. With the base stabilized, a WETT pro can install a fireplace insert and factory-built metal chimney atop the remaining masonry. You’ll likely pay at least $6,000, not including the partial chimney demolition and any additional repairs that the cottage needs from the strain caused by the lean. Aube says a rebuilt or partially rebuilt chimney will run you into the thousands of dollars.
As for shoring up the chimney, options include jacking up and stabilizing the structure, excavating under it and pouring an expanded foundation, or underpinning it with helical piles—metal, augur-like sections that corkscrew into stable soil. These are complex approaches, likely to run well into five figures. You’ll also need to find an experienced mason and an engineer with a good grasp of foundations, structures, and the load-bearing capacity of local soils.
In other words, it can be done. But should it be? Given the time, money, and construction safety challenges involved in righting a chimney with a bad lean, Pressnail says outright demolition and replacement is likely the simpler and cheaper option. “I feel for people who have chimneys with sentimental value,” he adds. “But if you can’t afford to fix the chimney properly I think the best practice is to take it down.”
After a couple of floods over the years, on in August 2020 took out Tom Clark’s deck supports and sidewalk, and shifted the chimney. He hired a crew to take the top half of the chimney down to reduce its weight for safety reasons. The Clarks plan to remove what remains of the 99 year old chimney and rebuild the exterior wall, floor, ceiling, roof and interior wall using materials that honour the spirit and history of the place. Photo by Erin Leydon.
Back at Bruce Beach, the Clark family is grieving their fireplace’s slow decline. “For 15 years, I think we’ve been thoroughly analyzing all the possible options. We’ve been trying to make a decision as a family,” Tom says. The verdict? Three or four years from now, the Clarks will likely gather around a natural gas fireplace. It’s safe, convenient, and much cheaper than restoring the old hearth as if it was a museum piece. But it’s still sad. “It hasn’t been an easy decision,” Tom says.
As for the rounded, glacial stones his great-grandfather assembled in 1922, Tom’s been joking for years that they want to return to the beach. Soon they will. “I want to use them in a decorative, memorial kind of way,” Tom says—maybe as a garden wall, or a bench with a good view of Lake Huron sunsets. Though their time near the fire is ending, the rounded granite, quartz, and gneiss of the old hearth will continue on as links to—and witnesses of—a new century of Clark cottage history.
This article was originally published as “Up in Smoke” in the Fall 2021 issue of Cottage Life.
What is creosote? It’s the tarry remnant of incomplete combustion that fuels chimney fires, and soot, the flammable residue of unburned carbon. The fire code mandates an annual chimney checkup, though the fire code doesn’t specify who must do the inspection. Some insurers require occasional WETT inspections, but in practice many “annual inspections” are probably conducted by cottagers when they clean their chimneys. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to have a WETT-trained inspector or chimney sweep in to check the system.
Between inspections, here are some of the things you can look for:
The woodstove “dashboard”: Everyday signs of clean burning
1 Glass on woodstove or fireplace insert is clear, or with only a slight haze after an overnight burn.
2 Firebox deposits are tan or light grey.
3 No visible smoke from the chimney when fire is hot.
4 Chimney cap that’s relatively clean and shiny.
The chimney checkup: Looking for creosote deposits
Bad sign: When stage three creosote ignites, “it puffs up to 1,400 times its original volume. It looks like an Aero chocolate bar,” says Zigi Gadomski, president of WETBC. Traces of puffy, black creosote on the chimney cap, roof, or ground could mean you’ve already had a fire.
Other problems: Nests, leafy debris, forgotten tools. “We got a call once: ‘Our chimney’s not working!’” says Yvette Aube, of AIM Chimney Sweep and Stove Shop. “Turned out there was a plastic chimney brush stuck in it.”
Chimney 101: get to know your smokestack
This article was originally published as part of”Up in Smoke” in the Fall 2021 issue of Cottage Life. Read the rest of the story here.
Ready to learn more about how a chimney works? Welcome to Chimney 101.
A chimney’s key attribute is “draft”—its ability to pull air from the stove or fireplace up and out of the cottage. This natural flow through a bed of coals, for example, makes it easier to kindle fires and helps the blaze reach efficient combustion temperature. As a bonus, draft increases as the fire grows. “The greater the temperature difference between the exhaust gases in the chimney and the outside air, the stronger the draft,”says John Gulland, one of the originators of Canada’s Wood Energy Technical Training (WETT) certification program. Likewise, “the taller the chimney, the more draft it will produce.”
The most reliable draft comes from a straight, well-insulated interior chimney that emerges near the highest point of the roof. It’s an express lane for the fire’s heat and combustion gases: they stay hot and ascend quickly. This approach is most common with newer woodstoves and fireplace inserts.
Almost any departure from this straight-up layout will slow the gases and potentially cause headaches. Every 90-degree elbow in the system causes turbulent airflow, allowing flue gases to bog down in transit. Exterior chimneys are cold, whether they’re brick or metal, making gases less buoyant. Chimneys that are too short or vent too close to a roof produce a draft that is weak or unreliable. The results include smoky downdrafts; smoke that spills from the stove when you open the door; and that dank, sooty odour when the fireplace isn’t in use. Worst of all, these layouts tend to accumulate more creosote, making maintenance a bigger concern.
Worried about creosote? Here’s what to look for
This article was originally published as part of”Up in Smoke” in the Fall 2021 issue of Cottage Life. Read the rest of the story here.
Muskoka’s trees are famously colourful, but are not as strong or productive as they could be. The soil lacks calcium, a vital nutrient for growth, and an Ontario non-profit is working on a clever solution to fertilizing the soil: scattering recycled wood ash.
“Calcium plays many of the same roles in trees as it does in humans,” says Norman Yan, a retired biology professor at York University. Yan is a board member of theFriends of the Muskoka Watershed, a not-for-profit group that is dedicated to researching and finding solutions to Muskoka’s environmental challenges. With theirASHMuskokaprogram, they hope to replenish the calcium deficient soils of the region in order to boost forest productivity.
Yan explains that in Eastern Canada, the Northeastern United States, and parts of Scandinavia, a history glacial retreat has towed much of the soil away, leaving behind low-calcium granite bedrock. “We’ve also had decades of acid rain. It took about a third, sometimes to a half, of the residual calcium away,” says Yan. He estimates that Muskoka soils have lost around half a ton of calcium per hectare, mostly due to acid rain.
Like in humans, calcium plays an important role in all kinds of physiological functions, from basic cellular processes to wound repair. Yan says that wood from trees that are deficient in calcium are actually 20-30 per cent weaker than their non-deficient counterparts, and the phenomenon of calcium-poor soils results in a condition called ecological osteoporosis.“The implications of that are lower photosynthesis, weaker wood, lower rates of oxygen production and sugar production, and weaker regeneration.”
To mitigate the calcium deficiency, the ASHMuskoka program is focused on research and sustainable solutions. Rather than importing limestone or dolomite to restore the lost calcium, the program proposes recycling wood ash from residential wood stoves. “Hundreds if not thousands of people out here heat with wood,” says Yan. “The ash that’s leftover is kind of a waste. It has more or less all the nutrients that the tree needs in the right proportions.” Except, he says, for nitrogen, which isn’t a concern because Muskoka soils already have plentiful amounts of that nutrient.
In the program’s study plots Yan and other researchers have already found that fertilizing forest stands increased calcium and potassium levels in foliage and dramatically improved calcium levels in root systems. “The most interesting result that we don’t quite understand yet is a dramatic increase in sap volume from sugar maples,” says Yan. In one experiment, some maple trees supplemented with wood ash doubled in sap flow.
The broader benefits of fertilizing forests with wood ash are multifold. For one, trees supplemented with wood ash transpire—or release water vapour through their leaves—25 per cent more than non-fertilized trees. The added water vapour in the atmosphere could influence the water cycle and mitigate the spring flooding issue the region often faces.
Critically, boosted forest growth can be vital for capturing carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. “This could make a real contribution to Canada’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 if we can roll out a program like this across the landscape,” says Yan. A study done in New Hampshire found that calcium-fertilized forests captured a ton more carbon dioxide per year per hectare.
Now, the AshMuskoka program is looking to collaborate with logging companies that could oversee the widespread implementation of wood ash fertilization. They’re also interested in raising awareness for recycling wood ash and involving the public in their project.
People interested in ASHMuskoka can contribute in several ways. For one the program is planning a citizen science project where property owners can volunteer some of their land as a study plot. ASHMuskoka also runs monthly wood ash drives where volunteers can drop off their ash at the Rosewarne Transfer Station in Bracebridge, Ont. Lastly, people that have groves of maples or other hardwoods can also sprinkle about a yoghurt container per square yard of wood ash in their forest stands. “You’ll see a real benefit for the health of your trees,” says Yan. Just be sure the ash is completely cold to eliminate any risk of starting a forest fire.
“If we look after our forests, our forests will look after us,” says Yan. “The forest could be a lot healthier in mitigating climate change and mitigating spring floods.”
