stack or pile?

I think the consensus is no.
Maybe they could also get hurt playing on the pile too.
I stack in a slopey area and know about stack collapse.
Can you stack going up and down the slope rather than across the slope?
That might be more stable.
Plus don't stack it that high.
Plus stack several rows together (I've been doing 3).

It generally dries a lot better stacked in rows IMHO. Not to mention it looks a lot nicer, takes up less space than a pile, and allows less of a habitat for rodents.

My experience is that no it does not dry very well piled.

The top of the mountain dries out pretty good.
Just have the kids turn over the pile every coupla weeks.

I'm in the no section also on piles. I bought about 4 cords that were cut and split in a pile for 2 years was 'dry" but the stuff deeper in was wet wet wet- towards the middle and bottom ever wet to touch. Not sure if I can explain this but the way I stack on my sloped portion of the yard is I put a pallet on the lower part, then heading upslope the next pallet would go on top of the first for about 6 inches, and so on up the slope. My slope is such that this "stair case" method give me nice flat level stacks. I've also used 4x4's under the pallets for ones that ran across the slope. If this doesn't make sense I can go take a pic
Good luck

I stack my next year wood 3 rows wide with room for a row or so in between. Any wood that is going to be used beyond that goes 4 rows wide with a few inches in between. My guess is it will dry better stacked even if it is 3 wide with limited space in between. 2 options to make it more secure in stacks like this is 1. stack the two outside rows cheating towards the center or even so they touch the center row at the top. 2. stack it 3 or 4 rows wide and add longer cross sticks across all piles every couple feet high and periodically throughout the stacks. This makes them hold onto each other and very stable. Cross sticks can be made easily from straight green branches or small junk trees.

Just a couple of ideas??

For sure with kids around I would not want the wood just in a pile. Kids will have a tendency to want to play on that hill and they could very easily get hurt.

Heaps have never worked well for me. Terrace the land so that there are level spots to stack on and keep the rows short. Drive in T-bar posts for the stack ends and tie a rope between them part way up the stack just as described in the wiki.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Stack_Firewood_1/

+2 on what LLigetfa said.
Exception would be that I just use small trees instead of metal posts. Only cost is a bit of fuel for the saw and a couple samiches to fuel me to dig the holes.
If you don't have the option of cutting down small trees on your property, revert to his plan.
When I got my first log load, I had the idea that I'd just go crazy cutting up the logs, then get to splitting later. Later took longer than planned, so the pile of rounds sat too long. When I got to splitting, the outside pieces were doing pretty good, but as I got deeper in, the rounds were wet and had some kind of alien growth going on.
The most I'll buck w/o splitting is about a cord, and those splits go straight into the trailer to be stacked within a day or 2.
I don't need aliens sprouting in my driveway.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/a-snowless-winter-is-good-for-one-thing.83620/#post-1072502

The pile on the right goes mostly up, but there is a side component as well.
The pile on the left goes mostly sideways. It suffered a minor partial collapse. It's about 6' high and I hadn't been tuning it up over the winter.
I think the more time spent leveling the pallets side to side, the better.
Up and down, not so critical.
I figured something else out...stacking with only a headlamp for light might lead to bulgy piles due to a narrow perspective: one of mine has a bulge in it, but all I did was tamp it and hope for the best.

walkerdogman85 said:

I live a slope and have tried stacking my wood but I have decided to just pile ir I don't need an unstable stack falling over if my kids are outside playing. So my question is will my wood be dry enough to burn being piled up?

Click to expand...

Your question should have been... will my wood dry? or will my wood dry in a year?

I've stacked and piled.

Split wood dries the fastest stacked in direct sun and wind. Smaller and shorter splits mean faster drying.
A big pile of of wood in rounds cut to 4' long pieces will dry the slowest

The thing to remember is given enough time wood in any form will dry but it just isn't as efficient. I'd recommend keeping your stacks short for the kiddo's and checking them often for lean.
Also type of wood may change the drying period. I split oak down to smaller splits to speed
Good luck and happy burning.

We have a gentle sloping meadow to the side of our house. the flat bottom is for play area, playset and etc. The gently sloped side is for stacking wood. We use pallets, and cinder blocks to level them out and then more cinder blocks to shore up the leveling. Since it's not much of a slope 1 or 1.5 cinderblocks do the job - not sure how steep yours is.

We have a rule - kids stay away from the wood - unless they are helping to stack/wheelbarrow it around WITH mom or dad.

ETA our stacks are also low - 4 feet or less - and angled a bit backwards if not straight, so that if one does topple, hopefully it goes off the back side and not down the hill.

walkerdogman85 said:

Stack or Pile?

Click to expand...

Yes

tfdchief said:

My experience is that no it does not dry very well piled.

Click to expand...

+1 You get to the center whens its very cold and its the worst wood.

I also stack on a hill and what I found out that works for me is to try to level a few pallets using some 4x4s or 6x6. I have had some success thus far with a few stacks. I am working on creating some sort of retaining wall using 6x6 treated wood. I will start the project in the near future and post some pics if it works out.