My New Wood Shed + QUESTIONS

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PSYS

PSYS

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Sep 26, 2013
140
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Been a little while since I've posted here. I was a new member last year and joined the ranks of you guys after we purchased & installed our Lopi fireplace insert last November. My wife & I bought our first home last year. It is definitely one of the best purchases we've made thus far. Unfortunately, I came insanely short of being prepped for firewood and ran out mid-January. I was forced to purchase wood (and then ration it during our brutally long winter) to keep us going and when that fell short, the heating bill skyrocketed. LOSE/LOSE situation. I am hoping to become a bit more prepared this year.

I have about a half cord on hand right now and with the help of several photos I've found here on the forum as well as others scattered around the Internet, my friends & neighbors helped me build our wood shed last weekend.

I am planning on finishing it THIS weekend as I still need to shingle the roof and install the drip edge. I also plan on bracing the back and the right side with another 1x4 similarly to the way I have the cross brace on the left hand side.

It's 12' x 6'. The height at the front of it is 8' and then tapers down to 7' at the back of it. It is on a concrete slab. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I used all green treated wood except for the 1x4's. I applied two coats of clear sealant on all of the wood and then applied two coats of sealant to the concrete.

Thoughts?

I'm still a newbie at woodburning and this is my first wood shed. I'm curious as to how it is I should stack wood in the shed? Should it be staggered to allow maximum air flow? I want to get as much in there, as possible obviously.

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Nice! Start loading now. You are already late for next year. :)
 
Nice looking shed. I've been a member for years and still don't have one that nice:rolleyes:
Way to go on sealing the concrete, I also think loading on pallets or anything to get it off the floor will also help speed your drying.
 
macattack_ga said:
Nice! Start loading now. You are already late for next year. :)
Click to expand...

I KNOW!! So.... my co-worker has a bunch of land with a lot of downed [dead] trees that they said I could take advantage of.
I'm heading out there next weekend to load up and get as much as I possibly can.
They invited me back each weekend thereafter and I'm not stopping until that shed is full.
 
skyline said:
Nice looking shed. I've been a member for years and still don't have one that nice:rolleyes:
Way to go on sealing the concrete, I also think loading on pallets or anything to get it off the floor will also help speed your drying.
Click to expand...

Didn't even think about that to be honest with you... I'll see if maybe I can incorporate a pallet or two to help with the drying process.

Thank you for the suggestion!!!!
 
There is nothing holding your rafters up, you don't have headers in there. Put a big snow load up on that roof and then get rain and it can fail. I would bolt doubled up 2x8's to your 4x4 posts under the rafters, front and back. Hold that roof up. Do that and you can think about parking a cement truck on your roof.
 
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paul bunion said:
There is nothing holding your rafters up, you don't have headers in there. Put a big snow load up on that roof and then get rain and it can fail. I would bolt doubled up 2x8's to your 4x4 posts under the rafters, front and back. Hold that roof up. Do that and you can think about parking a cement truck on your roof.
Click to expand...

What he said. You need something to carry the load.
 
paul bunion said:
There is nothing holding your rafters up, you don't have headers in there. Put a big snow load up on that roof and then get rain and it can fail. I would bolt doubled up 2x8's to your 4x4 posts under the rafters, front and back. Hold that roof up. Do that and you can think about parking a cement truck on your roof.
Click to expand...

Thanks, PAUL!

I appreciate the info!!
I see exactly what you're saying.
 
Very nice, looks a lot like mine.
The one piece of advise I can offer is to dry the wood out in the open and then stack it into the shed once ready. That is my approach. The wood in the middle of the shed never seems to dry any more once placed there so I make sure it is dry before it goes in.
My system is that sometime around early September I load all the wood ready for this year's fires into the shed while next years remains out in the sun just top covered until it is ready.
Hope that helps.
 
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If I were under the gun for next season's wood, I'd get that dead stuff and stack it single-row in the windiest spot I had, then shed it later. Your stove won't perform to its potential if your wood isn't dry; Get it as dry as you can with the time you have.
 
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OK. so.... I did a search and this seems to be the way everyone is doing it. I was under the impression when I built the shed that the wood has the ability to become drier with the openness of the wood shed concept.

So if I get the wood up off the ground and stack it (like on pallets) in single rows to bake in the hot summer Wisconsin sun and dry up even more on the windy days, how exactly is everyone covering this wood?
On one hand by simply top covering it, the bulk of the wood is exposed during the torrential downpours that come a few times each Summer... you know the kind of thunderstorm I'm talking about, right?
The kind where the wind is blowing and the rain is falling horizontally.

On the other hand, if you cover up the bulk of it - it isn't exposed to the sun / wind.

Is everyone then re-locating into their wood shed in the late Summer / early Fall?

sorry for the newbie questions... I just want to make sure I'm maximizing the wood I get as well as my wood shed to its fullest potential.
 
I get rolls of plastic sheeting from the big box stores that are 3'x20 yards. Go out with my staple gun and box cutter and staple one end to the cut faces and work my way to the other end and cut to length. Throw some splits on top and it's good to go. I use the semi-clear plastic since clear just isn't available. I think I achieve the best possible results that way.
 
PSYS, I follow what you saying. Lot of mixed messages.
But this is what I've gleaned from all this stacking and drying information. Or should I say this is way I'm going to do it.

Single stack, stacks running north and south. This will allow morning and evening sun to bake the ends of the splits. The prevailing winds out of the west will more quickly dry the wood after a rain if it's single stacked. I'm with you that most rain doesn't fall straight down, it blows usually at a 45 degree angle, so no top cover is going to help.

The above plan would be with fresh cut green oak, however standing dead oak with punk goes under a shed double stacked six foot high with a walk way between the double stacked rows. I have weighed some of the splits that are in the middle of the stacks and will report as to how well they have dried when fall comes, but I fully believe it will be dry enough as standing dead drys much faster than green.

Backup wood will be pine that drys fast and limbs.-------Don't worry my friend, we'll be fine till we get to the lofty 3 year plan. :)
 
Bigg_Redd said:
Shed looks real good, but. . . 6x12x6 (if you stack 6' high) = enough room for about 3.4 cords, and that's assuming you leave no space between rows - so realistically more like 2.5. That seems kinda small, no?
Click to expand...

In relation to what? Let me guess, something bigger?
 
PSYS said:
OK. so.... I did a search and this seems to be the way everyone is doing it. I was under the impression when I built the shed that the wood has the ability to become drier with the openness of the wood shed concept.

So if I get the wood up off the ground and stack it (like on pallets) in single rows to bake in the hot summer Wisconsin sun and dry up even more on the windy days, how exactly is everyone covering this wood?
On one hand by simply top covering it, the bulk of the wood is exposed during the torrential downpours that come a few times each Summer... you know the kind of thunderstorm I'm talking about, right?
The kind where the wind is blowing and the rain is falling horizontally.

On the other hand, if you cover up the bulk of it - it isn't exposed to the sun / wind.

Is everyone then re-locating into their wood shed in the late Summer / early Fall?

sorry for the newbie questions... I just want to make sure I'm maximizing the wood I get as well as my wood shed to its fullest potential.
Click to expand...


Wood dries fastest through the ends. Leaving them exposed is the way you can help most with drying. Leaving it uncovered is also an option, but in areas that get lots of rain this can leave the middle of the stack with a lot of moisture. Lots of people on here move wood to the wood shed at some point but it is not necessary. It is very convenient though to not have to throw tarps off with a lot of snow on top.
 
Charlie2 said:
Just trying to follow, you lost me when you got into all that math.
Click to expand...

1 cord of wood = 4' x 4' x 8' which is 128 cubic feet

Your shed is 12' x 6' x however high you stack (I usually go about 6')

12' x 6' x 6' = 432 cubic feet (assuming you leave no room between rows - which I don't recommend)

432cf divided by 128 = 3.375 cord

I guess what I'm getting at is your shed might not hold enough wood to get you through a typical WI winter.
 
Bigg_Redd said:
1 cord of wood = 4' x 4' x 8' which is 128 cubic feet

Your shed is 12' x 6' x however high you stack (I usually go about 6')

12' x 6' x 6' = 432 cubic feet (assuming you leave no room between rows - which I don't recommend)

432cf divided by 128 = 3.375 cord

I guess what I'm getting at is your shed might not hold enough wood to get you through a typical WI winter.
Click to expand...
Probably not but you only need a shed for the worst part of the winter, you can get by without a shed at the beginning and end of the burning seasons, as long as your wood is under cover when the snow, sleet and rain falls and freezes you're all set.
 
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First things first... the shed is 8' tall in the front and slopes to 7' tall in the back. I'm definitely stacking more than 6' tall. I'm 6'1' myself. I already have the rear stacked up to the ceiling at 7' tall and it's sturdy as can be. :)
 
PSYS said:
First things first... the shed is 8' tall in the front and slopes to 7' tall in the back. I'm definitely stacking more than 6' tall. I'm 6'1' myself. I already have the rear stacked up to the ceiling at 7' tall and it's sturdy as can be. :)
Click to expand...


7 x 6 x 12 = 504cf = 3.94 cord (again, that's assuming you don't leave any space between rows)

I dunno how much you'll burn but that doesn't leave any wiggle room
 
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