Hi all--
when I built my barn in 2002, I planned and included an external overhung firewood area on the south-facing side of the barn, thinking that the sun beating on the wood would help dry it, plus, at this location, the prevailing wind during storms comes out of the north.
The barn is built on an "Alaskan slab" that floats, and so, between that and thinking that I wanted easy access to the wood between the barn and the nearby vegetable garden, I designed it with diagonal braces ("kickers"), instead of posts
the sun, etc. works great, and the access factor is pretty good.
Two problems, though:
1) when the snow unloads off of the barn and overhang roofs, it piles up against the woodpiles, so it gets harder and harder to get to the wood as the winter goes on (the wood gets entombed in packed frozen heavy snow).
2) my design with the diagonal "kickers" for braces leaves little lateral support for the wood stacks, so it's hard to really use all the theoretically available space without having the wood tumble sideways or out.
So now, I'm trying to figure out how to put some vertical members at intervals along near the outer edge, both to give the wood some sideways partitions/ bracing, and so that maybe I can, in winter, put some temporary sheeting (plywood?) up so that the wood doesn't get "glaciered in" by the accumulating packed fallen snow.
Any vertical posts are going to need to "float" at top or bottom, because since the barn floats on its Alaskan slab type foundation, anything else that's anchored into the ground at or below frost line (like posts on sonotubes) isn't going to move at the same pace and are going to fight with and damage the barn's wood overhang.
I welcome any and all ideas, observations, etc.
when I built my barn in 2002, I planned and included an external overhung firewood area on the south-facing side of the barn, thinking that the sun beating on the wood would help dry it, plus, at this location, the prevailing wind during storms comes out of the north.
The barn is built on an "Alaskan slab" that floats, and so, between that and thinking that I wanted easy access to the wood between the barn and the nearby vegetable garden, I designed it with diagonal braces ("kickers"), instead of posts
the sun, etc. works great, and the access factor is pretty good.
Two problems, though:
1) when the snow unloads off of the barn and overhang roofs, it piles up against the woodpiles, so it gets harder and harder to get to the wood as the winter goes on (the wood gets entombed in packed frozen heavy snow).
2) my design with the diagonal "kickers" for braces leaves little lateral support for the wood stacks, so it's hard to really use all the theoretically available space without having the wood tumble sideways or out.
So now, I'm trying to figure out how to put some vertical members at intervals along near the outer edge, both to give the wood some sideways partitions/ bracing, and so that maybe I can, in winter, put some temporary sheeting (plywood?) up so that the wood doesn't get "glaciered in" by the accumulating packed fallen snow.
Any vertical posts are going to need to "float" at top or bottom, because since the barn floats on its Alaskan slab type foundation, anything else that's anchored into the ground at or below frost line (like posts on sonotubes) isn't going to move at the same pace and are going to fight with and damage the barn's wood overhang.
I welcome any and all ideas, observations, etc.
