Home and Garden Bargain Centre - Willington, Bedford

NOT HAPPY...H&G Bargains in Willingtom Beds have lost my business. For a couple of years I had been buying my logs and kindling from them but this year both their product quality and service has dropped so much it is shocking! I recently brought some logs from them while on offer, 10 sacks, I chose the cheaper logs as I usually have, on lighting my fire I found it would not stay lit. As I has 10 sacks that would not stay lit I returned to H&G thinking it was a bad batch and I would buy some more? When I spoke to the lady behind the counter she was incredibly rude, she asked if they were the cheaper logs, when I said yes she said well you get what you pay for!! This is all well and good if they advertised them as unseasoned logs that won't be ready til next winter! I am frankly shocked - I will not use this store again and I will happily pass on my bad experience!

Might have been unseasoned though ... we have log boiler central heating and we store our logs for 2 years. It is incredible how much extra heat we get out of them compared to younger / less seasoned wood - the boiler doesn't have to use some of the heat to "dry" the logs before they can burn!

Other difference for us (but not related to the wood actually burning) is the difference between hard & soft wood. Some years we have to get Pine as no Chestnut etc. available. Chestnut costs maybe 25% more, but we use nearly twice as much Pine when we have to burn that ...

For anyone using logs my recommendation would be to buy 2 seasons' worth one year, and then buy a season's worth each year after that, but keep two stacks.

If you have got 10 bags of logs that won't burn keep them for next year, and find some other dry wood for this year, then you will have 2 year seasoned wood in future. Much kinder to your chimney too as there will be more tar if you burn "cooler".

Up in the mountains where they use wood for heating they reckon on 3 years stacks. Two years for seasoning, and another year in case you are too ill to chop wood that year! If you are too ill to chop wood for 3 years then that's game over anyway :(