The Valley Project Firewood Guide
The Valley Firewood Guide
Last Update: 25/7/2025
Who doesn’t love a good fire? It can warm your home, help cook your food (if you're adventurous), and provide atmospheric lighting.
So, for those of you who wish to keep your own fires going through the dark and cold months, the Valley Project has put together this nifty little directory of Dunedin-local sources of firewood, since chopping down the neighbours trees is both tedious, time consuming, and and has a tendency to make them furious for some reason. You were just improving the view!
Notable Firewood Suppliers
On a more serious note, here are some firewood suppliers accessible from Dunedin and the North East Valley area specifically, and a general overview of each.
Pankhurst Sawmilling
Pankhurst Sawmilling has their Dunedin Sawmill in Fairfield, just outside Dunedin. A bit of a trip, but fortunately, they have free delivery options!
Free Delivery: Pankhurst Sawmilling provides free delivery for orders of 3m³ or higher within 25 km of their Dunedin Sawmill, which includes North East Valley and the surrounding suburbs.
Availability: Pankhurst Sawmilling mostly sells wood semi-seasonally so people can stock up prior to the colder month. It also helps make sure they don't have to store the wood for as long, allowing them to keep the cost lower.
Prices: Pankhurst Sawmilling seeks to keep its firewood as low as possible, and maintain its most popular firewood, their block wood, at under $100 per m³. They also provide WINZ quotes that can be given to Work & Income if requested.
At time of writing (July 2025), Pankhurst Sawmilling has their semi-seasonal Macrocarpa blocks at $95 per m³, with a reduction of to $90 per m³ for 6m³ loads.
Additional Notes: During winter, Pankhurst Sawmilling occasionally runs a special for green split and block wood to be stockpiled for the next winter.
Contact Details:
Website: pankhurstsawmilling.co.nz/
Firewood: pankhurstsawmilling.co.nz/firewood-otago/ (This page includes an online order form, which is their preferred method of ordering.)
Email: ops@pankhurstsawmilling.co.nz
Phone Number: 0223766103
City Firewood Fairfield
City Firewood Fairfield is another, more firewood specific, organization based out of Fairfield.
Free Delivery: City Firewood also provides free delivery of any orders of 3m³ or above throughout most of Dunedin, including north East Valley and the surrounding areas.
Availability: City Firewood supplies dry and seasonal firewood year round. They do summer specials for people to stockpile early.
Prices: City Firewood rarely drops below $120 at time of writing (July 2025), even during specials, and averages closer to $140. City Firewood also provides WINZ quotes for Work & Income if requested.
Additional Notes: City Firewood advises that most of their drywood can be stored outside if needed, such as along a fence. Outside of their summer deals, their product should be thoroughly dried and seasoned.
Contact Details:
Website: https://cityfirewood.nz/
Firewood: https://cityfirewood.nz/order
Email: Cityfirewoodfairfeld@gmail.com
Phone Number: 034780508 or 0274080508
Quality Firewood Ltd
Quality Firewood Ltd is a firewood supplier located on Andersons Bay Road in South Dunedin.
Free Delivery: QFL does free delivery for any orders of 2m³ and above anywhere within Dunedin, obviously including the North East Valley and surrounding suburbs.
Availability: Seems to provide seasoned wood year round, with specials for semi-seasoned wood even during winter.
Prices: QFL’s prices are on the higher end, averaging around $160. Specials can reduce this by $30-40 or occasionally more for semi-seasoned wood.
Additional Notes: QFL has a straightforward website if you know what you want already, it’s terrible for any research of more than price comparisons, though. Seems to have a minimum delivery of 2m³.
Contact Details:
Website: https://qualityfirewood.co.nz/
Firewood: https://qualityfirewood.co.nz/shop
Email: qualityfirewoodltd@xtra.co.nz
Phone Number: 03 4552171
The Woodshed 2014
The Woodshed is a local supplier based on Kaikorai Valley Road, Burnside, with several former North East Valley locals among the owners.
Free Delivery: The Woodshed does free local delivery of orders of 3m³ or higher within 25 km of their location, which easily includes North East Valley and the surrounding suburbs.
Availability: The Woodshed has a good variety of both dry, seasoned, and freshly split wood, often available even during winter. They also advertise as the only source of Beech Block Firewood in Dunedin.
Prices: The Woodshed prices range from around $115, for their Beech Blocks, to $155, with dry Douglas Fir around $145. They also provide WINZ quotes that can be given to Work & Income if requested.
Additional Notes: During winter, they receive more orders, so deliveries may take longer, though they aim to deliver within 3 days when possible.
Contact Details:
Website: www.thewoodshed2014.co.nz/ (Has some pretty good information for first time or inexperienced buyers.)
Firewood: www.thewoodshed2014.co.nz/store/3/Firewood
Email: office@thewoodshed2014.co.nz
Phone Number: 034884203
Beginners Guide to Firewood
Picking firewood can be a surprisingly involved process, apparently, so here’s a basic guide for those of you whose knowledge, like mine, is restricted to “firewood burny”.
How much firewood do you need?
The general consensus seems to be that the average Dunedin Family will need between 6 and 10 cubic meters of firewood. For families who have their fire burning most of the day, there is an advised Hardwood/Softwood split of 80/20, whereas for those who only have their fires burning for a few hours a day, 50/50 might be better.
This will obviously vary from family to family based on size of the homes, insulation, and other heating systems-usage of heat pumps and other electrical heating will obviously reduce the amount of firewood needed. Curtains and other means of preventing heat from escaping can further reduce firewood consumption by making it easier to heat the home and allow it to retain heat longer, as can keeping doors to less used rooms closed.
Softwood vs Hardwood
Firewood is generally split into two main categories based on the wood's density. Softwood, which is low density woods, and Hardwood, which are high density woods.
Softwood:
Burns quicker and provides less heat in comparison to Hardwood, as there is less wood in a block.
It’s easier to carry, split, and ignite than Hardwood, as it weighs less on average.
Grows quicker than Hardwood trees, so is a bit more common and accessible.
Dries faster than Hardwood, but also absorbs more moisture due to the lower density.
Hardwood:
Burns for longer and gives off more heat than Softwood, as there is more matter to burn condensed into a block.
On average, it is harder to split, carry and ignite than Softwood due to being heavier.
It takes longer to dry than Softwood, but is also much more resistant to moisture once it is dry, due to its higher density reducing moisture absorption.
Note that this is more of a rule of thumb and useful distinction rather than a strict division - certain types of wood will naturally burn differently. For example, Douglas Fir is regarded as a Softwood, but has a similar general burn time to Gum, a Hardwood.
Generally speaking, Hardwoods are often preferable, burning long, hotter, and with less smoke, but are also more expensive and slightly less accessible due to taking longer to grow and season. On the other hand, Softwood also has its uses, being cheaper and more accessible, and burning for shorter periods, which is sometimes preferrable.
For example, if you intend to have your fire going all day, a Hardwood would be the preferred choice, since you will have to stoke if far less. On the other hand, if you only intend to have the fire running for a few hours or an evening, you might want a Softwood with a slightly lower burn time. Similarly, Softwood can be good as kindling for getting a fire started that can then have Hardwood added, taking advantage of Softwood’s easier ignition.
Unseasoned and Wet Wood
Obviously, when choosing to burn things to heat your home, there are certain safety considerations that may need to be accounted for when selecting what, exactly, you are burning.
Wood, being the desiccated corpse of a tree, has a natural moisture content that differs between wood types. Seasoning wood is the process of leaving it out to air and sun in order to reduce that moisture as much as possible.
This is because when wood burns, energy that could be heating your home is instead spent boiling the water content first, reducing the efficiency of the wood as a heat source. Further, this causes the wood to burn less cleanly, releasing more smoke, producing more soot, and filling the air with harmful pollutants - all around bad things. Hence why firewood is seasoned, and why, if buying unseasoned or half-seasoned firewood, it is best done with the intention of leaving it out to season first.
For softwoods, seasoning can often take from 6-12 months, while hardwoods can often take between 9-18 months. Hence, unseasoned or half-seasoned firewood, while cheaper, is best brought at least a year prior to when you intend to use it, rather than for the current winter.
Note: For example, Pankhurst Sawmilling keeps its prices low by not storing its firewood for longer than necessary to sell it, so is generally semi-seasoned, with occasional specials over the winter for people to store and season the firewood for the next winter. By contrast, City Firewood Fairfield is more expensive, but sells fully or mostly seasoned firewood that can be used the same year you buy it.
Do-Not-Burns
The second big safety concern is that there are some things you should avoid burning, even beyond the common sense “don’t just throw your trash in the fire”. For example, any plant or tree with poison in its name, has poison in its name for a reason, and should, as a general rule of thumb, not be burned, as this may cause dangerous chemicals and pollutants to be released into your home.
Greenwood, fresh wood, should not be burnt for reasons explored above - high moisture content - as well as sap deposits that further increase moisture and can cause increased sparks.
Driftwood is a major do-not-burn unless you're trapped on a deserted island about to freeze to death somewhere, as it is permeated in salt that contains chlorine, which converts into cancerous substances when burnt. Seriously, don’t.
You should also refrain from burning Construction, Furniture and other treated woods , as the chemicals used to treat them against decay and other harm also become poisonous when burnt. Apparently, prior to the early 2000s, pressure-treated wood often contained arsenic as a nice little surprise! So, ah, maybe don’t burn that old 30 year old chair?
Obviously, painted wood is also a no for obvious reasons - paint is rarely healthy when burnt. Or in general.
Anyone noticing a running theme of everyday things containing an alarming array of poisonous products eager to leap out at us at the slightest burning?
