Do you cover your wood if not going to use it this year?

Applesister said:

And I have plenty of scrap metal roofing.

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That's another good point to consider - I built my place, lots of scrap plywood and chipboard pieces etc so all the cover I do is pretty much with scrounge materials. Over a few years I probably trashed a few cheap tarps, but almost no cost overall.

I would love to have a nice woodshed, like some of the beautiful work some of you folks have shown here - would like to take it on as a project - something I'd enjoy building and would put to good use - but time and $$ are not on my side these days. Scraps and a few minutes of my time does the trick and gets me by.

makes absolutely no sense to me to leave something you're trying to dry out in the rain. I think it also encourages rot and mold if it keeps getting wet.

I top cover in the summer and cover my wood for coming winters almost completely during the snowy season. The snow in my yard gets to be 5-7 feet deep, so my future stacks pretty much get fully entombed until late May or so. If I lived somewhere without such a prodigious snowpack I would only top cover year round, but I have enough snow removal work keeping the driveway, the first story windows and the current winters wood excavated to bother digging out wood for the future.

Mrs does not like the look of tarps. Happy wife, happy life.

davidmsem said:

Mrs does not like the look of tarps. Happy wife, happy life.

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If you lay the tarp out on top of the pile then put another layer of wood on top of it, you can't even see the tarp.

KindredSpiritzz said:

makes absolutely no sense to me to leave something you're trying to dry out in the rain. I think it also encourages rot and mold if it keeps getting wet.

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It's counterintuitive I know. But there is a difference between dry and seasoned. Seasoned wood can get wet, but its still seasoned; unseasoned wood can be dry all week long and twice on Sunday- that don't make it seasoned.

mass_burner said:

It's counterintuitive I know. But there is a difference between dry and seasoned. Seasoned wood can get wet, but its still seasoned; unseasoned wood can be dry all week long and twice on Sunday- that don't make it seasoned.

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If you lay a 2x4 out in the elements and one in your barn. Which one will last longer? That is the same concept.

mass_burner said:

It's counterintuitive I know. But there is a difference between dry and seasoned. Seasoned wood can get wet, but its still seasoned; unseasoned wood can be dry all week long and twice on Sunday- that don't make it seasoned.

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This is not universally true. Perhaps with hardwood species, but softwood will re-absorb surface water like a sponge if they are exposed to rain. I have some subalpine fir that has been CSS for 2 years, a fresh split face measures around 10-13% on the MM, but 10 days after the last rain storm, and the outside faces of the same splits are measuring 20-24%. Top covering softwood is not optional.

Vikestand said:

If you lay a 2x4 out in the elements and one in your barn. Which one will last longer? That is the same concept.

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If you kept the 2x4 off the ground where it could dry out in the sun and wind, how long would it last, though?

I'm guessing more than 5 years, in which case, it should have been burnt anyway.

A former Hearth member (located in the Upper Midwest) did a test. He removed a tarp from his 3+year seasoned wood pile for one full season. He then tried burning that wood which typically burned perfectly.

His response: He will NEVER leave his PROPERLY seasoned wood uncovered again.

TOP COVER!!

fire_man said:

A former Hearth member (located in the Upper Midwest) did a test. He removed a tarp from his 3+year seasoned wood pile for one full season. He then tried burning that wood which typically burned perfectly.

His response: He will NEVER leave his PROPERLY seasoned wood uncovered again.

TOP COVER!!

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My initial assertion was not needing to cover unseasoned wood, when seasoned move it to a shed.

mass_burner said:

My initial assertion was not needing to cover unseasoned wood, when seasoned move it to a shed.

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I tried that and ended up with fungus and signs of rot in the 2 years before good fresh wood got covered. Maybe if you have lots of wind and sun it helps, but in my case all I can say is top covering from day one is important.

fire_man said:

I tried that and ended up with fungus and signs of rot in the 2 years before good fresh wood got covered. Maybe if you have lots of wind and sun it helps, but in my case all I can say is top covering from day one is important.

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I live less than a mile from the ocean, so its windier than most places. Maybe that's it.

I live in a sheltered wooded area with little sun and poor wind. My guess is the wind matters most.

Top covered with old scraps of plywood from the day I split and stack it. There are seams that leak, but most of the stack is covered.
This keeps the snow and leaves out.

Cover only the tops with old scrap metal roofing and such, if it has few holes nail or screw holes I don't worry about a little leakage. Weight it down with old chunks of junk wood.

So here is a before pic, this morning after 2 days of rain. I will take another pic on Sunday after 3 days.

Wow I've been told my splits are the size of splinters but those make mine look huge. Your wood is split so small is has no choice but to dry quick!

fire_man said:

Wow I've been told my splits are the size of splinters but those make mine look huge. Your wood is split so small is has no choice but to dry quick!

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Thank you...I think.

mass_burner said:

Thank you...I think.

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That means it will burn up quickly, too. You won't be able to get very long burns, and you'll go through the wood more quickly.

BlueRidgeMark said:

That means it will burn up quickly, too. You won't be able to get very long burns, and you'll go through the wood more quickly.

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I scrounged those short rounds, I've found that leaving them thick is worse. It works out for me cause I have small stoves and they fit NS.

I too split for the size of the stove and the size that burns best. I have a bunch of small splits on hand that was originally intended for my small stove. Since I now have a much larger stove, those small splits still work nicely. As for the duration of the burn, it's all in how you stack them in the stove itself as well as the use of the damper. More importantly, the use of DRY SEASONED wood! The best way to insure it will be dry seasoned is to TOP COVER for the duration!

I'm on the fence on this one. I have a woodshed that I plan on filling in the spring or summer with seasoned wood for the following winter, and I'd rather not look at tarps all over my yard, especially as the wood piles are in plain sight of the pool and our driveway. BUT, I can see the advantages of covering, even if you have a woodshed to place seasoned wood in a few months before burning. I'll see how my method works, and if necessary come up with a more decorative solution to keep most of the rain off.