When do you guys uncover your wood pile for the summer? I live in North Central PA and we have been getting and are going to get alot more rain this month. Is it safe to leave it uncovered with all this summer rain?
Mine has been uncovered since early March.....but I am a newbie and have been doing what I have learned by reading posts here. I plan to leave mine uncovered until a month before I plan to burn. Hope that helps.
I’ve been uncovered since about the begining of April. I have a wood rack down in the basement that I filled before I uncovered the pile outside.....just for insurance. The rain shouldn’t affect any potential burning that you need to do between now and next season. I wouldn’t try to burn it soaking wet, but within a day or so, you shouldn’t have any problems if you needed to burn some.
Excuse me (and already in the “Fire Honor Society"): why would one ever uncover the wood pile. I understood the idea was to keep the top covered to keep rain from soaking the pile to the “bone”, while letting air pass through the stack from the sides.
If “drying” wood in the open air/rain is fine, I’ll do it too, the clear plastic I use lasts only a few months anyway.
Excuse me (and already in the “Fire Honor Society"): why would one ever uncover the wood pile.
To dry it.
I understood the idea was to keep the top covered to keep rain from soaking the pile to the “bone”
As long as the wood isn’t in standing water it won’t get soaked to the bone.
If “drying” wood in the open air/rain is fine, I’ll do it too, the clear plastic I use lasts only a few months anyway.
It’s fine. Go for maximum sun/wind for the best drying (and for my $.02, sun dries it better/quicker than wind) and don’t worry about the rain. Cover the pile in the late fall pre-snow and you’ll be good to go.
The wood we cut over the winter has yet to be covered. I won’t cover it until late fall or when the fall rains come, if they come at all. But I’ll cover it no later than late October.
Jerry asked why to cover the wood at all:
The idea of leaving the wood uncovered is that the moisture in the wood can and will evaporate much better left uncovered. The rain will not hurt as it will run off. If any soaks into the wood, it will only be in the outer layer and will not take very long at all to dry. Around here after a rain we typically get a windy and very dry day. That by itself will dry off all the moisture from the rainfall.
So, leave the wood uncovered until fall and then cover it only just before or when the fall rains hit. If it is a dry fall, I won’t cover before the winter snow hits and have been known to leave a wood pile completely uncovered for a full year with no adverse effects. However, I usually do cover the wood in October.
But, seems the consensus, minus 1, and one “don’t know” (me), is leave the pile uncovered. I’ve cut some Eastern Red Cedar, that needed to come down for cosmetic reasons, and I’d like it to be dry enough to use his coming winter. So, maximum drying is important. I also have some other softwoods, White Pine, that I may use this winter, it has been drying for two years. Not a lot of soft wood, maybe 1/2 cord, maybe less. For the real wood burners around this forum, that much wood isn’t more than kindling. I burn only a cord and a bit, heat often, but not as my regular heat. I have the opinion (hope) that when it gets real cold, here that’s in the teens, it is good to heat with wood for a few hours to give my geothermal heat pump ground loop a chance to recover to ground temperatures. When I drive the closed-loop hard its internal temperature gets down to below freezing, just a little belor, 30 degrees or so. If I stop pumping for a few hours it comes back to the 50-something of the water-table.
OK, I have the recently split wood (recently, like within the last month) uncovered and stacked and they won’t be covered til late fall as I should have enough wood to last to probably January 2009 as I have leftover wood from this past winter. The wood I split and stacked last spring (aka this winter’s leftovers) I’ve left covered as this is now nicely seasoned. I would guess that seasoned wood can be left covered or is this a problem?
If you cover fresh/green split wood, the water condensates under the tarp and it never fully dries over the summer.
if you can cover the pile to shed water away, like a wood shed...you will be better off.
Otherwise just leave it uncovered to season in the open air/sun.
And like the others are suggesting, cover in early fall.
Even then, I will cover only when i hear rain is in the forecast. Since I don’t have the room to store 10 cords of wood to stay a seaon ahead, I try to keep the pile as dry as possible.
But not to the point where i’m trapping evaporated water under the tarp.
Seems to me it really depends on where you live and what your local weather patterns are like. When we lived in Virginia, we’d get some hellatious spring thunderstorms that would absolutely soak a wood pile in no time. Out here in the high desert of Central Oregon, the climate’s much more dry. Most of my wood’s under roof, with good air circulation, but I’ve some just under eaves and some stacked out in the open. I won’t cover any of that until the winter snows threaten, and only then because it’s a pain to keep knocking the snow off. If it gets an Oregon summer shower on it, it isn’t gonna have the same effect as a Virginia spring deluge. I don’t think there’s any magic date...and I think the more time the wood spends neatly stacked and exposed to the weather the better. When I do cover it, I cover only the top, with a bit down the sides to secure the tarp. Rick
But, seems the consensus, minus 1, and one “don’t know” (me), is leave the pile uncovered.
Not the first time I have been right and the rest of the world was wrong.
That 40 mil EPDM rubber roofing, weighing hundreds of pounds, goes up on top once and stays there. The 18” air channels between the stacks aimed at the prevailing wind takes care of condensation just fine. I live in the woods so sun is a non-issue and the sides stay open year round. I just lay pallets against them come snow time.
Well, as I’m a casual wood burner, don’t depend on it for heat, I’ll continue with the extra wisdom learned here. As NJ has weather much llike Virginia, including a lot of humidity in the summer, I’ll leave the cover off of “fresh” wood, and cover on some two year old hardwood, which I’ll try to burn next winter before it oxidizes in the open air. Also, given the small amount of wood I have, never much over 1 cord, putting a cover when heavy rain (e.g., tomorrow) is forecast is a possibility.
KEEP IT COVERED ! (while shouting with capitol letters.....smile....)
Walmart or Home depot sells rolls of black plastic about 3 ft wide and 50 long. Double it and it will last forever and the black gets very hot on the top so it will dry wood really well and the wood is so much dryer.
Leave the sides exposed to air all summer and if you do this you will have many nights of pleasant warmth next winter whlle sipping hot chocolate in front of your wood stove.........while burning your extra dry wood that you did not leave exposed to the water all summer and the ants and termites (who love water, but hate dry wood) will never go near because the temps under the top layer of black plastic reach almost 1/3 more in temps than clear.
I have used the above method for 3 years and my wood stays super dry.
I also use a staple gun to staple it down to the wood so it never blows off and it’s easy to uncover and the staples won’t hurt a thing and soften up when roasted in the fire anyway.
And you can reuse the plastic after taking it off to get more wood.
No, don’t keep it covered. The cover traps moisture and/or will build moisture. That’s how to make drinking water in the desert! I don’t cover farm equipment left outside for this reason. Cover it and it’ll rust out in no time.
