Scrap Wood Truths: B41 vs 42โs Sneaky Campfire Changes
Project Zomboid Scrap Wood: Build 41 vs 42 Survival Guide
In short: Scrap Wood in Project Zomboid Build 41 and Build 42 is only good for fueling fires, not for crafting or building. In Build 42, the main change is a new limit on how much fuel you can load (8 in-game hours max) โ otherwise, Scrap Wood remains the same trusty campfire fodder it was in Build 41. (Read on for full comparisons, pro tips, and mod solutions โ or jump to the Build 41 vs 42 differences if you're in a hurry.)
Table of Contents
- Scrap Wood: Useless Junk or Survival Fuel?
- Carpentry Blues: "All I Get is Scrap Wood!"
- Fueling Fires โ How to Burn Scrap Wood Safely
- Build 41 vs 42: What Changed for Scrap Wood
- Modding Scrap Wood: Planks, Compost, and More
- Conclusion & Survival Takeaways
- Patch History
- Action Steps & Further Resources
Scrap Wood: Useless Junk or Survival Fuel?
So you've torn apart a few chairs and ended up with a pile of Scrap Wood. At first glance, these wood scraps seem like useless junk โ after all, you can't hammer them into a wall or craft anything with them in vanilla Project Zomboid. Don't toss them out just yet! From one survivor to another, Scrap Wood is actually a lifesaver for fires. Think of it as the zombie apocalypse equivalent of kindling or charcoal: not much good for building, but great for staying warm and cooking when the power's out.
Why Scrap Wood Exists
In the early game, when your Carpentry skill is low, any time you disassemble wooden furniture there's a high "Chance to Break" the item into scrap. The game basically says, "Oops, you weren't skilled enough to salvage a usable plank โ here's some Scrap Wood instead." The result is that newbie carpenters often end up with heaps of Scrap Wood cluttering their safehouse.
One Trick Pony (Fuel Only)
Yes, by default, fuel is all Scrap Wood is good for. You can't turn it back into planks or craft arrows or anything fancy (not in the base game, anyway). But as fuel, it's actually pretty decent. Each piece of Scrap Wood burns for about 1 hour 24 minutes of in-game time โ significantly longer than burnables like books or magazines (those only last ~15 minutes). In fact, scrap wood is more weight-efficient as fuel than heavy logs or planks. Three scraps weigh much less than a log, yet provide roughly the same burn time.
Adding Scrap Wood as fuel to a campfire in Project Zomboid
Each piece provides ~1.4 hours of burn time, as shown in the tooltip (Fuel: 1 hour, 24 minutes for one scrap). Scrap Wood is only useful as fuel โ you can't craft with it โ but it excels at keeping your campfires, barbecues, or wood stoves going.
Now, if you're like many players, you might be asking: "Okay, it's fuel. So what? I have loads of planks and logs โ why bother with scrap wood?" The key is accessibility and convenience. Scrap Wood is free and plentiful when tearing down furniture, especially early on. You might not have a trusty axe to chop logs, and saws might be rare on Day 1, but you can bet you'll find a table or door to smash. That scrap can be a quick solution for boiling water or cooking a meal on a campfire. It lights easily (just use matches/lighter or a notched plank setup) and saves your precious logs for construction.
Fuel Efficiency Secrets โ Using Scrap Wood to Stay Warm
Let's talk efficiency. As promised, here's a quick comparison of common fuel items and their burn times in Project Zomboid (vanilla values):
ยน Weight of Scrap Wood: The in-game weight UI isn't precise, but 3 pieces ~โ 2.0 weight in inventory, so each is around 0.66. Some builds list it as 0.5; slight discrepancies don't change the overall point.
As you can see, Scrap Wood is surprisingly efficient by weight. Per unit of weight, it provides among the highest burn time, almost on par with ripped sheets (which are also great but burn out very fast individually). In practical terms: carrying 6 Scrap Wood (โ4 weight) gives you ~8 hours of fire, which beats 1 log (9 weight for 6 hours). This makes Scrap Wood a champion for mobile survivors โ if you're on foot and need to keep a fire or antique stove going at a safehouse, a stack of scrap is easier to lug around than logs.
Pro Tip: When to use Scrap vs Planks vs Logs
- Use Scrap Wood for short to medium fires โ boiling water, cooking meals, or keeping warm for a night. Perfect when traveling light or lacking tools.
- Use Planks for longer fires or when scrap runs out โ planks burn twice as long but are also valuable building materials. Use cautiously.
- Use Logs for extended base camp fires โ heavy but long-lasting (6 hours each), ideal when settled with transport to haul them.
Storing & Using Scrap Wood Smartly
One issue with Scrap Wood is where to put it all. It's not a huge item individually, but if you're disassembling an entire house worth of furniture, you can end up with dozens of pieces. Here are some gamer-tested tips for managing your scrap stock:
- Load up a container or fireplace: If you have an antique oven or a fireplace in your base, you can actually use it as storage for scrap wood. Just keep adding scrap to it without lighting it. In Build 41, players would do this to stack unlimited fuel (though in B42 remember it won't let you exceed 8 hours worth at a time while unlit either).
- Safehouse pile method: If no container is handy, you can drop scrap wood on the ground inside your safehouse (or in an enclosed area). Items on the ground in singleplayer do not despawn, as long as you're not in a MP server with item cleanup settings.
- Weight considerations: Each scrap is around 0.5 weight. A stack of 10 is ~5 weight โ keep that in mind if you try to carry them long distance.
- Keep it dry: Rain won't affect items on the ground in PZ (they don't "get wet" or anything mechanically), so you don't have to worry about scrap wood being outside.
Carpentry Blues: "All I Get is Scrap Wood!"
If you've started fortifying a base in Project Zomboid, you might have encountered this scenario: you dismantle a bunch of furniture hoping for planks and nails, but you mostly get Scrap Wood. It can be a bit disheartening โ you need sturdy planks to board up windows, but instead you're left holding a pile of weak wood bits. Don't panic, this is a common "pain point" for survivors-in-training, and it boils down to your Carpentry skill level.
Low Skill, High Scrap
Project Zomboid uses a system where your Carpentry skill influences the outcome of disassembling objects. At Carpentry level 0โ1, your character is basically an amateur swinging a hammer wildly. Furniture you take apart is likely to break into unusable bits.
Can I Build with Scrap Wood?
The short answer: no. Scrap Wood cannot substitute for planks in any building recipe. You can't nail scrap pieces to a window frame โ the game simply doesn't allow it (and realistically, a few splinters of wood wouldn't keep zombies out anyway!).
Understanding Why You Get Scrap Wood (and Getting More Planks)
Let's break down the mechanics a bit:
Each time you disassemble something wooden (beds, tables, doors, etc.), the game does a skill check. With higher Carpentry skill, the chance that you'll successfully reclaim useful materials (planks, hinges, doorknobs, etc.) goes up. At low skill, the chance of failure (resulting in scrap wood) is high.
For example, a simple wooden chair might have (hypothetically) a 50% chance to yield a plank with Carpentry 0, increasing to 100% by Carpentry 3 or 4. Before Build 42, exact odds weren't shown in-game, but you could feel it โ novices make a mess, experts get the goods.
Tips to improve plank yields
- Level Carpentry ASAP: Read Carpentry skill books (the beginners book gives you a XP multiplier). Then disassemble easy targets like small chairs, nightstands, etc.
- Take the Handy trait or Carpenter profession: These give starting Carpentry skill. Handy trait grants +1 Carpentry (and other benefits).
- Use proper tools: Make sure you're using a hammer or screwdriver (as required) to disassemble.
- Don't disassemble high-value furniture at lvl 0: Consider waiting until you have a couple of Carpentry levels under your belt for items that could yield multiple planks.
- Loot planks directly: Sometimes it's more efficient to scavenge than to dismantle. Check sheds, warehouses, construction sites.
The core concept here is to graduate out of the Scrap Wood phase. Scrap Wood is a byproduct of inexperience. As your survivor becomes a competent carpenter, you'll get the "real" products (planks) and leave less scrap behind. It's a satisfying progression: early on you're shivering next to a scrap-wood fire in a half-barricaded house, later you're confidently sawing logs into planks to build a fortress.
Early Defense Without Planks
If all you have is scrap wood and zombies are coming, you can't barricade โ but you can improvise other defenses:
- Use furniture: Place couches or wardrobes in front of windows/doors as a temporary barrier.
- Sheet Ropes: Hang sheet ropes from an upper floor window for emergency escape.
- Keep noise down: Fewer bangs and saws means fewer zombies to test your weak defenses.
Fueling Fires โ How to Burn Scrap Wood Safely
When the power's out in Knox County and winter winds are howling, a warm fire can mean the difference between life and death (or at least between a hot meal and a cold can of beans). Scrap Wood plays a key role in fire-making for survivors, especially in Build 41 and early Build 42, so it's worth mastering this skill.
First, to dispel any confusion: Yes, you can use Scrap Wood to feed virtually any fire source in Project Zomboid. This includes:
- Campfires (the ones you create with a campfire kit or the right-click "Build Fire" option on the ground)
- Charcoal Barbecues (those red grills you find in backyards โ they function as wood/charcoal burners)
- Antique Ovens / Wood Stoves (non-electric heat sources often found in cabins or as movable furniture)
- Fireplaces (if you're lucky to have a house with a fireplace, it works like an indoor campfire)
- Stone Furnaces/Kilns (new in Build 42's crafting, e.g. a stone forge โ these also accept wood fuel, though some might prefer charcoal)
Basically, anything that burns fuel in PZ will accept scrap wood as fuel. The only exception is vehicle engines or generators โ those need gas, obviously (don't go stuffing scrap wood into a generator!).
From Campfire to Antique Oven โ Mastering Scrap Wood as Fuel
Using Scrap Wood as fuel is straightforward: have the Scrap Wood in your inventory, right-click on the fire source (campfire, etc.), and choose "Add Fuel" then select Scrap Wood, then either "One" piece or "All" pieces. Be careful with "Add All" โ in Build 41 it would just dump everything in (which could be overkill), and in Build 42 "Add All" will add pieces up to the fuel capacity limit.
Important B42 Change
In Build 41, you could add unlimited fuel to a fire. In Build 42, there's a cap of 8 hours of fuel that can be loaded at once. If your fire is already at 8 hours of burn time remaining, you won't be able to add more scrap wood until some burns off.
To actually light the fire, you'll need an ignition source and tinder, but that's separate from fuel. Scrap Wood is not considered tinder โ it's fuel. Tinder items are things like ripped sheets, twigs, or newspaper. So typically you might use, say, a book as tinder (or a sturdy stick + notched plank kit if doing primitive fire starting) and then have scrap wood in as fuel to keep it going.
Once lit, the fire will start consuming fuel and the game will show you how long it has before it burns out. You can check this by right-clicking the fire and selecting "Campfire Info" (for campfires) or just examining the tooltip on the container (for grills/ovens it shows fuel hours remaining). As we discussed, each Scrap Wood gives 1h24m of fire. If you put in 4 pieces, you should see roughly "5 hours 36 minutes" remaining (plus whatever was left if it was already burning).
Fire Safety Tips
- Always keep an eye on that timer. In Build 42, an 8-hour max fire means if you fill it before bed, it'll be out by morning if you sleep longer.
- Device differences: Outdoor campfires can be rained on (rain can douse the fire). Indoor stoves and fireplaces are protected.
- Watch your surroundings: Fires can and will ignite nearby objects. Don't build a campfire in the middle of your living room floor!
- Extinguish properly: If you need to leave, it's best to extinguish your fire (right-click โ put out fire) to save fuel and avoid hazards.
Practical Winter Scenario
Let's combine some real scenario advice: Say it's winter, Build 42, you're held up in a farmhouse with an antique wood stove. You've got a pile of 20 scrap wood in the corner (because you broke all the old chairs). Night falls, it's freezing:
- You load 6 pieces of Scrap Wood into the stove. The UI says ~8 hours of heat. You light it with your trusty lighter.
- You cook a pot of soup on it (uses maybe 30-40 minutes of fuel to cook).
- Before bed, check the stove: maybe 7 hours left. Good to last most of the night. You go to sleep.
- Early morning, you wake and it's cold โ stove went out an hour ago. No biggie: you add 2 more scrap wood and relight. If there are still embers, you can often add fuel and it will catch without tinder; if completely out, use a bit of paper to start it.
Congratulations, you survived the cold night on just a handful of Scrap Wood!
Build 41 vs 42: What Changed for Scrap Wood
By now, the picture should be emerging: Scrap Wood didn't fundamentally change from Build 41 to Build 42. The devs had bigger fish to fry (like animals, crafting revamps, etc.). However, a few contextual changes around it are worth summarizing in one place.
As you see, the real gameplay difference between B41 and B42 regarding Scrap Wood is all about that fire fuel limit. Your strategies for using scrap wood itself remain the same, you just can't "set and forget" a fire quite as much in B42.
What Didn't Change
- No new crafting recipes: Despite Build 42's huge crafting overhaul (blacksmithing, etc.), Scrap Wood still isn't used in any vanilla crafting or building recipes.
- Same item, same stats: Weight, burn time, and how you obtain Scrap Wood remain the same from B41 to B42.
- Barricading: As in Build 41, you cannot barricade windows/doors with Scrap Wood โ only planks or metal sheets.
What Did Change
- Fire fuel cap: Build 41 had no hard cap on fuel loaded. Early Build 42 introduced a 6-hour limit, then devs tweaked it to 8 hours max after feedback.
- Fuel UI improvements: Build 42's interface now shows the total remaining burn hours more clearly in tooltips.
- Mod compatibility: B42's changes meant older Scrap Wood mods (like plank crafting) needed updates.
Adapting Your Play: Build 41 โ 42
- Early-game priority: In B41 you might have loaded a campfire with 20 Scrap Wood and forgotten about it; in B42, plan to keep an eye on your fire or set an alarm ~8 hours later.
- New crafting distractions: Build 42 offers many late-game crafting projects (metalworking, etc.), but don't let Scrap Wood distract you โ if it's not fuel, it's clutter.
- Same survival use: Ultimately, treat Scrap Wood in B42 just like in B41 โ a byproduct to burn for heat. The survival fundamentals didn't change.
Myth Busting
One myth to bust: Some players heard about new "wood splinters" item in B42 and thought it was different from "Scrap Wood". Let's clarify naming:
- The item we've been discussing is Scrap Wood (game identifier Base.ScrapWood).
- B42's crafting added Wooden Splinters (from chopping trees, used as tinder to start fires or as minor crafting components). Those are different.
- There's also Unusable Wood sometimes referenced on old forums โ that's just an old name some players use for scrap wood.
Modding Scrap Wood: Planks, Compost, and More
The Project Zomboid community is nothing if not resourceful. If there's a pain point in the game, chances are someone made a mod to address it. Scrap Wood, being often seen as "that useless stuff taking space," has inspired a couple of popular mods. Whether you're in Build 41 or 42, these mods can change the way you deal with scrap entirely.
Remember
Mods are optional and you should use them at your discretion โ some players prefer the challenge of vanilla. But it's our duty to lay out the toolbox!
Popular Scrap Wood Mods & How They Help
The "Plank from Scrap Wood" mod in action
Crafting menu showing the recipe to build a plank from 4 scrap wood. Mods like this integrate seamlessly into the Carpentry tab, allowing you to convert those piles of scrap into usable planks.
"Plank From Scrap Wood" mod
This straightforward quality-of-life mod adds a recipe to craft one Wooden Plank from 4 Scrap Wood. In-game, after installing the mod, you'll find in your Carpentry crafting menu a new entry: Build Plank from Scrap Wood.
Requirements: 4 scrap wood + a Saw (and maybe Carpentry lvl 2). The recipe takes a couple of minutes in-game time to complete.
"Compost from Vegetation" mod
This mod addresses a different problem: what to do with excess scrap wood besides burning it. It "allows more items to rot and turn into compost," explicitly including grass clippings, twigs, scrap wood and wood splinters.
After ~14 days, your Scrap Wood will become compost for farming. Perfect for ultra-long survivors in B42 who run farms and accumulate tons of scrap from base expansion.
"Goof Up Wood" mod
This mod is essentially the inverse of ScrapToPlank. Its premise is a bit humorous: it lets you turn planks into scrap wood. Why? The idea is for role-playing or added challenge โ say you want a chance to mess up when building, you could voluntarily convert some planks to scrap (or use it as a training exercise).
It's more of a novelty mod for those who enjoy the process more than the result โ maybe you want to simulate making firewood from planks.
Installing & Using Scrap Wood Mods
If you've never modded PZ before, don't worry โ it's mostly plug-and-play via Steam Workshop:
- Subscribe to the mod on Steam Workshop (for example, on the mod's page, hit Subscribe).
- Launch Project Zomboid. In the main menu, click Mods. Find the mod in the left list, click to enable it (it'll move to the right list or highlight green).
- Important: If you're adding mods to an existing save, back up your save file. PZ will warn you that adding mods can potentially corrupt saves if the mod is buggy.
- If the mod requires a new game (some do, but the ones mentioned generally do not โ they can apply mid-game), the mod description will say so.
- Once enabled, load your game. The mod features should now be available.
A note on balance
Using ScrapToPlank can significantly shift your gameplay balance. Without it, you might spend days scavenging or sawing logs to get enough planks to build a rain collector or fortify windows. With it, you can convert all those scraps from disassembling a house into a ready supply of planks. It makes Carpentry leveling easier and can accelerate base construction by a lot. Some players feel it's too "easy mode" while others argue it's realistic.
Finally, a quick mention: mod or no mod, Scrap Wood will not spontaneously disappear (unless burned). If you truly want to get rid of unwanted scrap without mods, you can put it in a corpse's inventory and delete the corpse (some servers allow corpse removal), or gather it into a pile and drive over it (car won't destroy items, just an RP way to feel like you did something), or simply let it be.
Conclusion & Survival Takeaways
In the world of Project Zomboid, Scrap Wood is the ultimate underdog. It starts off looking like trash โ a symbol of your failures in Carpentry โ but ends up being a key part of your survival toolkit for warmth and cooking. Whether you're in Build 41 defending a lonely farmhouse or in Build 42 brewing beer in a high-tech base, you'll still find yourself huddling over a fire made of those humble wood scraps on a cold night.
Analogy time:
Think of Scrap Wood like the leftover crust of a bread loaf. You can't make a sandwich with crusts alone, and many would toss them aside, but when you're starving, even that crust can be life-saving food. Similarly, you can't build a wall with scrap wood, but when the lights go out and the cold sets in, that pile of "leftover" wood can keep you alive. And just as clever cooks find ways to use bread crusts (breadcrumbs, french toast, etc.), clever survivors (or modders) find ways to make Scrap Wood do more.
By fully exploring Scrap Wood in both B41 and B42, we've learned:
- Scrap Wood = Fire Fuel, plain and simple in vanilla. Always has been, likely always will be (unless the devs surprise us in Build 43+).
- Build 42 changed how we manage fires (8-hour fuel limit), but didn't change the scrap wood item itself. Adapt your fire-tending accordingly.
- Carpentry skill directly affects how much scrap you get โ raising your skill will "promote" you from scrap wood to planks when disassembling. Until then, embrace the scrap (and use it to boil water and cook food).
- Mods are your friend if you want Scrap Wood to be more than just fire fodder. From crafting planks to composting fertilizer, there are mods that turn scrap into a resource rather than waste.
In closing, don't let those piles of scrap wood get you down. As a fellow survivor, I can attest: some of my coziest nights in Zomboid were spent around a scrap-wood fire, listening to the wind howl and the zombies groan outside, knowing I'd made it through another day using every last bit of material I had. There's a simple satisfaction in that โ turning yesterday's broken table into today's warm meal and hot cup of water.
Stay warm, stay safe, and may your fires burn bright (but not your safehouse!). Good luck out there, survivor!
Patch History
Click to view patch history for Scrap Wood & fire systems
Action Steps & Further Resources
Use Scrap Wood Efficiently
Start stockpiling Scrap Wood early game for fuel. Don't forget to limit loading to ~8 hours of fuel in B42 to avoid wasted effort.
Level Up Carpentry
To reduce future scrap clutter, invest in raising Carpentry skill. Read skill books, dismantle small furniture for XP, and aim for Carpentry level 3+ to see more planks instead of scrap.
Secure Fire Sources
Craft a Campfire Kit (3 planks or 2 logs) or locate a fireplace/antique stove early on. This will be where your scrap wood shines.
Watch That Fire Cap (B42)
Get into the habit of checking the "fuel time remaining" after adding scrap wood. Aim to refuel before it completely burns out to make relighting easier.
Install Mods (Optional)
If you want to expand Scrap Wood's uses, try the Plank From Scrap mod to recycle scraps into planks, or the Compost mod to turn them into fertilizer.
Keep an Emergency Stash
Always keep a few pieces of scrap wood in your backpack or base for emergencies. Power might cut out unexpectedly or a rainstorm could force you to boil rainwater.
Further Resources
For further reading and to deepen your Project Zomboid knowledge, here are some curated resources:
- Official PZ Wiki โ Scrap Wood: A concise entry confirming Scrap Wood's properties and uses. Good for quick fact-checks.
- Project Zomboid Forums โ Build 42 Patch Notes: Detailed patch note threads where devs and players discuss changes like the fuel cap.
- Community Guide โ First Week Survival: Many guides include sections on making campfires and managing resources.
- Mod Workshop Pages: For the mods mentioned (PlankFromScrap, Compost, etc.), read the comments and discussions.
- Project Zomboid Campfire Guide: In-depth guide on building and using campfires, including best fuel practices and fire safety.
- YouTube โ Build 42 Highlights: Video creators who break down Build 42 features might briefly mention things like the fire fuel limit.
Remember, in Project Zomboid every little thing can make a difference in the story you end up telling. Even something as unglamorous as scrap wood can be the hero of a cold winter night or the extra few XP you needed to hit Carpentry level 4. Manage it well, and you'll turn "scraps" into survival success. Good luck out there, and stay lit (in the campfire sense, of course)! ๐ฅ