15 Places To Find Free Firewood

I don’t usually start thinking about firewood until much later in the course of the year. But this year with rumors of rolling brown-outs, with the prices of electricity, natural gas, and propane already going out of the roof, I’m taking proactive steps to make sure we’re well stocked. Keep reading as we discuss ways to find free firewood or worst case cheap firewood.

And while we’re just starting the second week of October, fall is only just starting to get into swing!!  I love fall.  I love the cool crisp weather, the sunny, breezy days, and the wonderful fires at night.  In an earlier blog post I gave you some tips and tricks for using your fireplace efficiently so that you can heat your house and use your fire to cook food.

But in order to be able to use your fireplace to it’s fullest, you need…………………WOOD!  Well, duh!  Yeah, I know.

But wood can be expensive!  Wood is measured in cords.   A cord measures 8′ long x 4′ tall x 4′ deep, and ONE cord of wood can run between $250 -$500!  Can you say, “OUCH?!”  So what do you do if it’s too expensive to purchase wood to heat your house through the colder months?  You get wood for FREE!

Yep, I said FREE.  Now, obviously, I can’t guarantee that you can get free wood from each of these places regularly, but I am going to give you fifteen places from which you can potentially get FREE wood to heat your house or to cook with this winter.  I would hope that you could find multiple sources of wood from this list.

Some pointers before you begin.

Develop a Relationship

When you find a place from which you can get firewood for free, work on growing a relationship with them.  Don’t just take them for granted.  When we started getting free firewood from a local company, we spent some time talking with the owners.  They understood what we were looking for.  We understood what they would allow us to take, and they gave us wholehearted permission before we took any fire wood.

After you get wood for free, a thank you note or other thank you gesture would be kind.  Let them see that you really appreciated their generosity.

Don’t Take More Than You Can Use

Do you only use your fireplace three or four times each winter?  If that’s the case, don’t take a whole cord of fire wood.  Just take what you will need to get you through your three or four times for the winter.

BUT…….If You Want to Stock Up “Just in Case” 

We are preppers after all.  If you want to stock up, “just in case,” (and don’t we all?) consider getting wood from many sources.  It would be incredibly selfish for you to take 2-4 cords of wood from one company when they only have 5-6 cords.  Now, if the company literally has several 20 feet high by 60 feet wide piles……maybe two cords wouldn’t be amiss.

Find Out If The Firewood Is Seasoned Or Not

What is seasoned wood?  Seasoned wood is wood that was cut down (or fell down) more than a year ago and allowed to “age” over the course of a year or more.

You should only use seasoned wood.  Why?  Because seasoned wood will leave less creosote on your chimney. Yea, creosote is a flammable substance that is deposited inside your chimney all the time, but especially when you use unseasoned logs.  If you use unseasoned wood regularly and the creosote builds up, you could end up with a chimney fire on your hands.  Not what you want.

Rotate Your Firewood

Just like you rotate your food (or at least you should…….uhuh, you know who you are) rotate your wood.  If you can’t find any seasoned wood this year, then stock up on unseasoned wood and hold onto it for a year.  Then next year use that wood and get some more for the following year.

Don’t get firewood from more than 30-50 miles away

There are several invasive species of wood pests which are wreaking havoc on forests and woods.  If you move firewood from more than 30-50 miles away, you can be introducing invasive species of wood pests into a new area.   Don’t do it……..wouldn’t be prudent.

Invest in cutproof chaps

If you are going to cut or split the firewood yourself, invest in a good pair of chaps.  These, like cowboy chaps, are worn over your pants.  These are made to prevent a chainsaw from inadvertently cutting your leg and have saved more than one person from a trip to the ER.  I’m rarely this bold, but if you are going to use a chainsaw to cut your own wood, buy a pair, please!

Fifteen places that you can get free (or really cheap) firewood.

1.)  Get Chip Drop

This is an organization which pairs tree services with people who are looking for free wood or mulch!  How cool is that?  This is a free service to you who are receiving the logs.  You can choose to donate money to the company which dropped the logs at your place.

What you need to know.  You don’t get to specify the size of the logs.  You get what you get.  If you’ve requested it, once they are there with the load, you can’t turn it away.  You will need to cut and split the logs as they won’t come precut or split.

2.  Facebook Marketplace

Just yesterday, I came across an add on Facebook’s Marketplace where a company was literally looking for dumpsites for either mulch or wood logs!  I mean really, not only would they give you firewood for F-R-E-E, but they would also bring it TO YOU.  You didn’t have to go get it!  It doesn’t get much better than that.

Don’t know where Facebook Marketplace is?  If you log into Facebook and click on “Home,”  the top of your page should look something like this.  On the left, you’ll see your name, News Feed, Messenger, Watch, then Marketplace.

Marketplace will let you search.  Just search for firewood or wood or scrap wood.  You never know what you’ll find.  Yes, most will be asking for money, but every now and again, you find a gem of an opportunity.

3.)  Craigslist

Did you know that Craigslist has a free section?  You can find it on the bottom right by the red arrow.

I had looked yesterday and there were no listings for free firewood in my area, but tonight I checked again, and there were two opportunities for free firewood on Craigslist.  Search it every few days to see if there are opportunities in your area.

4.)  Tree Companies/Surgeons

This is where we have been getting much of our free firewood over the last year.  One of the families in our church had a young man who worked for a tree company in the area.  They told us to call about free firewood.

When I called I found out that they sold firewood.  It was a decent price, but I had heard that they had free firewood, so I simply asked.  They did have free firewood, but it was a little larger than the pieces properly cut to a smaller wood stove/smaller fireplace size.  We were free to take the pieces from two huge piles.  So what did we do?  We picked over those piles for the smallest pieces.  We didn’t end up having to split any of the logs before we used them.

5.)  Neighbors or friends who have cut down trees

Get this, just in the last week, two families from church cut down trees on their respective properties.  I know for certain that one of them doesn’t have a fireplace.  All it would have taken would have been a call to them and an offer of help and a request to have the logs.

6.)  Drive around after storms and look for houses with downed trees

Most of the time, all you have to do is to offer to help them cut up the tree and they will split the wood with you.  I know some people feel awkward asking, but if you’re offering to help, most times people are willing to split it with you.

7.)  Small Stores

While large box stores have a method in place to reuse pallets, oftentimes smaller stores don’t have a way to get rid of their pallets except throwing them away.  Small stores are all over the place.  If you are already a patron at a small store that gets goods delivered on trucks, feel free to ask if they ever get pallets in and what they do with them.  If they don’t, do they know of stores that do get pallets in?  It doesn’t hurt to ask.

Some stores which you may have more success at than others are garden nursery stores, auto shops, and landscaping businesses.

8.)  Call your National Forests.

Many national forests will allow you to come and cut down trees or take trees that have already fallen.  I used the link that I just gave you on the line above and called my local national forests to see if they would allow trees to be felled and removed.

9.)  Free Firewood – Your Own Yard

Do you have an overabundance of trees?  Do you have the ability to take one or more down?  This would be completely free minus your own labor.  Just please be careful.  Research how to fell a tree.  Make sure you can do it safely before you tackle it yourself.

10.)  Free Box Springs

I’ve seen free box springs on both Facebook Marketplace and on Craigslist.  Box springs have great wood underneath them.  This wood could be cut up and used for firewood.

11.)  Your Local Electric Company

Last year, while we were renting, we had a company approach us letting us know that they were from our local electric company and that they had come to cut down parts of our trees that jeopardized our power lines.  You could contact your local electric company and ask them who cuts their trees and get the contact info.  See if they will give away their free wood!

12.)  Builders

Builders are forever throwing away scrap wood.  If they are doing a remodel or demolition, then they will have a lot of scrap wood.  You will need to be careful and be on the lookout for nails.  This wood can be burned, but you won’t be able to cook over it because it has been pressure treated by chemicals.

13.)  Free Firewood – Freecycle

Another group like Craigslist is called Freecycle.  The great thing about Freecycle is that everything is FREE!  The downside of Freecycle is that if you don’t live in a large metropolitan area, you might not have a lot of activity on your list.  It never hurts to sign up for your local Freecycle and keep an eye out for free firewood!

14.)  Sawmill

Sawmills may have odd-sized ends to logs or sides of logs.  Search for your local sawmills and give them a call.  They will at least be able to tell you if they ever get extra logs and you can get your name put on a list if nothing else.

15.)  Burn Piles

When lots of land are being cleared by builders so that they can actually build a house on the site, they put their wood in burn piles with the intent of burning them so as to dispose of them.  Call your local upscale building companies and ask them if they will be creating any burn piles near you and ask them if you are allowed to take wood from those piles.

What About You?

Do you know of any other places that you can find free firewood?  What is your favorite place that you’ve successfully found free firewood.   I’d love to hear!  Leave a comment below so that we can all be better prepared.

Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome

There are links in this post.  Some of the links may be affiliate links.  Some of the links may not be.  My promise to you is that I will only recommend the most economical version of the best quality of items to serve you. These are the items that I have bought for my own family.  You can feel free to use my affiliate links, of which I will get a small amount in compensation, or you can choose to search out your products on your own.

This post is an updated republication of a post first published on August 31, 2018.