Is covering your wood stacks essential?
- Thread starter teekal
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I have fallen head over heels for rubber roofing. Hogs was right
A few years ago I went to a bankruptcy auction for a local landscaping company. I was there to buy a generator. Got that and then the last item up for bids was an $800 roll of 45 mil EPDM pond liner. Nobody knew what it was and nobody but me bid on it. Got it for five bucks.
Dix
Minister of Fire
Paulywalnut
Minister of Fire
I agree. I have about ten cord stacked in long rows and top covered with black 6 mil. I trim it with a little overhang and staple the ends of my eight or twelve foot stacks. You can't even see it until you're right up to it.
Absolutely mandatory to top cover for me. Lots of rain, humidity and my lot is densely treed, which in addition to all the leaves acts as a windbreak. I left a couple stacks of elm uncovered for 6 months and when I went to move them earlier this summer, they covered in clumps of wet leaves. The leaves had begun to decompose and and feeding water into the wood and making them filthy. Moisture meter gave me a 35% reading, which is practically the same as when I first c/s/s. All my covered wood has dried nicely. The only wood I'll leave uncovered now is the crappy pine and poplar, and only if I don't have a tarp for them.
jatoxico
Minister of Fire
That's a score. I'm becoming a top cover convert. I have three year oak that just gave me a sizzle. My drying conditions ain't the best round here.Cut my old pool cover up to use as for top covering. It's a glorified tarp but doubled and tripled over it should hold up for a couple years. But I need to land some of that rubber stuff or at least some metal roofing.
Many people get used rubber roofing free from local roofing companies that tear it off doing re-roofing jobs.
One thing that I've been doing the past few days that has worked really well:
With my stacks of wood that are seasoned and ready to go, but not under cover, if there has been a bit of rain or snow and I want to get some from the stack, I'll pick 5 big pieces and bring it in to bake right in around the stove for the day. By the evening the pieces are nice and dry, and ready to burn that evening or to load the stove for the night.
With my stacks of wood that are seasoned and ready to go, but not under cover, if there has been a bit of rain or snow and I want to get some from the stack, I'll pick 5 big pieces and bring it in to bake right in around the stove for the day. By the evening the pieces are nice and dry, and ready to burn that evening or to load the stove for the night.
I cover the wood I intend to burn this year with a tarp in the fall. A tarp usually covers two rows of stacked wood, so there is adequate circulation.
BamaScroungr
Burning Hunk
I've found this technique to be essential this year, because all I have to burn is seasoned maple and punky ash. The ash soaks up ambient moisture like a sponge, so I have to dry the logs out under and around the stove before they're fit to burn. I just starting top covering this year myself.
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