Why we elevate our wood...or should.

Pat53 said:

In my woodshed I put down a 2" layer of 2"-3" crushed limestone rock on top of sand and the wood stays bone dry.

Pat

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I poured a concrete slab in my woodshed and with the amount of sawdust, chips, and bark that I regularly sweep out of it, I can imagine the effort it would be to keep the crushed stone clear of all the debris.

jeff_t said:

This is why I stack it up off the ground. This is after the second back to back 4" rainfalls from overnight t-storms late last summer. The bottom two rows of splits were in water.

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Wow you need a hill or something for stacking, I live on a mtn. I don't have that problem.

I can't see the point of using pallets on asphalt. Sure the lowest level is going to stay wetter, but will not likely rot. Then you don't have to mess with pallets and the imprints they'll make on asphalt. On dirt, I've standardized on pallets.

I built mine with pressure treated lumber. I have the 2x4's on edge spaced 20" apart and10' long, the vertical legs are 6' tall. My splits are 24" so they hold 3/4 of a cord.
I get nice air flow under them. A you can see the racks against the house are covered with just plywood and the racks on the side have plywood and a tarp.

Nice set up Mike. Im thinking of doing something like your plywood/tarp idea over my racks.

@Jeff-t Are you using pallets or anything underneath that stack? Tough to prepare for 8 inches of rain in less than 48 hours.

Thanks weather guy. You cant see it from that pic but I have one more rack to the left and still enough room for 3 more racks that way and when I cut down the leaner I can add 2 or 3 more towards the driveway. I plan on getting those built soon. I may even go as far as framing a real roof .

Here are the pallets I picked up this year. I ended up using seven of them so together with another three I already had I have half of the wood I keep on plastic. Soon I won't have the chore of cutting up and getting rid of the wooden pallets at the end of every burning season.

JoeyD said:

Here are the pallets I picked up this year. I ended up using seven of them so together with another three I already had I have half of the wood I keep on plastic. Soon I won't have the chore of cutting up and getting rid of the wooden pallets at the end of every burning season.

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I looked at some plastic pallets but they looked like they would hold water in the molded cups. I was afraid that they would be mosquito breeding water cups.

Are those designed to drain?

gg

This is what the top looks like, some do hold water, most don't. I will have to wait and see if it is a problem, though I may dill holes in the ones that don't drain from now on.

I am in the treated 2x4 camp. Works good for me. I stack in the woods. I don't have a nice clear flat area.

I did recently drag a few lawnmower pallets home for a shorts/punks/uglies bin..

I put down some 4" landscape timbers last year, but they aren't working out so good.

1.) My ground is soft enough they settled about 1.5".
2.) Some sort of rodent varmit has gotten under the stackes and burrowed, pushing the dirt up and almost making contact with the wood. My cat needs to get off her @$$ and kill some critters.

I'm thinking I need to elevate them a little further with some bricks.

lukem said:

I put down some 4" landscape timbers last year, but they aren't working out so good.

1.) My ground is soft enough they settled about 1.5".
2.) Some sort of rodent varmit has gotten under the stackes and burrowed, pushing the dirt up and almost making contact with the wood. My cat needs to get off her @$$ and kill some critters.

I'm thinking I need to elevate them a little further with some bricks.

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I do the same thing. I stack 2 8x16 pavers 2in thick then put the timbers on top of that.
Green wood make it sag in the middle so I have been supporting the middle with bricks.
seems to work.

I use landscape timbers from HD to stack wood on that I season before I put in my shed. If you watch HD ads they usually have them for 1.97.

lukem said:

I put down some 4" landscape timbers last year, but they aren't working out so good.

1.) My ground is soft enough they settled about 1.5".
2.) Some sort of rodent varmit has gotten under the stackes and burrowed, pushing the dirt up and almost making contact with the wood. My cat needs to get off her @$$ and kill some critters.

I'm thinking I need to elevate them a little further with some bricks.

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I don't worry about a little sink as it won't do any harm. The critter digging under the wood is probably a woodchuck. I have one under one of our piles and will set a trap for him. Shoot, last week we had a ground hog (wood chuck, whistle pig. All the same) come up onto the porch looking to get inside. They do that as they are looking to make some new burrows. I caught up with him by the barn. No digging for him now.

Backwoods Savage said:

The critter digging under the wood is probably a woodchuck...

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You don't want them critters chucking your wood.

Here's my favorite woodchuck . . .

JoeyD said:

I won't have the chore of cutting up and getting rid of the wooden pallets at the end of every burning season.

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My Original stacking area has pallets on concrete blocks, and the pallets have held up well for probably ten years. I don't know how long non-Oak pallets would go...