How do you store your wood?

Up to now I split it about 300 feet behind the house and stack it between old pasture fence posts. In the fall, I bring it down by the house and stack it on racks under an awning. Each of my racks holds about 40 cubic feet of wood and I have about six of these racks and a few smaller ones. Whatever doesn't get brought down to the house gets a tarp on it in the fall.
I'm hoping to get a wood shed built this year so I can eliminate a step in the process. I don't mind stacking wood once, twice is just too much.

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billjustbill said:

If it's green, how do you store and season your wood? If it's seasoned wood, where/how do you store it?

Covered with tarp? Large wood rack? Covered/Roofed wood rack? Etc.

Thanks,
Bill

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I have a large 3 walled woodshed (a detached 1 car garage with an open roller door). Green or seasoned it all goes in - green to the rear, dry to the front.

Storing green wood is simply done split and stacked for air circulation, but left uncovered for the first 6 months. Then for the remaining 6 months cover the top to keep snow, rain and ice off the stacks. Some, like red oak will need up to 24 months total time for complete seasoning.

There is a great deal of reference information here on Hearth.com about this subject.

Just pile it up in the sun and let mother nature work its magic. As long as the wood isn't wicking moisture from the ground there's a lot of ways to do it. Just depends on the amount of time you want to spend...I'm a minimalist. We cover up between nov-apr...but know some peeps that don't.

savageactor7 said:

Just pile it up in the sun and let mother nature work its magic.

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Impressive pile... how many cord?

I too just loose pile fresh split wood and leave it out uncovered all summer but I will then cart it to the woodshed and stack a 2 year supply there.

Truthfully I don't know...experience tells me it's 3+ years. Every now and then I'll extend the gravel base to make it longer, but I didn't plan it that way. Just sort of happened over time that pile is 50'long and 16'wide, the wood is piled 12' high but it balloons out from the side cause I stick pieces in at 45* to pile it up higher on the sides. Piling saves a whole lot of labor.

If it were squared off, that'd be near 50 cord but I was guessing around 30 cord.

Nice plie savageactor7 Thats what i do!

Thanks for the cord estimate LLigetfa...our drawing pile behind the house is half that size. Yeah smokinJ once you eliminate the time spent on wood handling those piles just get bigger almost on there own. Just say'en ...as we split the wood it gets throw up on the pile on the return stroke. Usually takes longer cleaning up splitter trash than handling rogue splits lying around.

Sometimes, I get more excited seeing a big pile of split firewood than a pair of cute shoes...

We do all our cutting during winter. Come Spring we do the splitting and stacking.

Stacking: Try to have wood piles so that wind can go through the stack (hit the sides). Lay poles (cut from saplings), or you could even use landscape timbers (pallets too but that does not work as good because they are a pain as you are removing the wood). We use a criss-cross on the ends so we don't have to use posts. The splits are usually stacked bark side up.

The stacked wood is left uncovered during the summer and fall to allow for maximum evaporation. In late fall or early winter (depending upon weather) we then cover the top only, leaving the rest open to allow for further evaporation of moisture. We cover the tops mostly with old galvanized roofing but do use tarp if we run out of the roofing.

Done this way we do not have any worries about wood going bad and it is very dry by the time we use it. It is very dry actually by fall. But we do have about 7 years supply on hand so green or unseasoned wood is not a worry here.



Savage: that is a nice woodpile. I hope you, like many of us, get great pleasure out of looking at that wood pile from time to time. It's better than a CD in the bank.

I stack my wood on 4x4's about 20 ft. long along our fences. Suburban wood stacking is a challenge. Not much space.

I stack it about 5-6ft. so it stays lower then fence.

Uncovered during the spring and summer and cover the top only when we begin to get snow which sometimes is not until Nov. Been dry here.

A lot depends on your climate. If you have humidity seasoning will take longer. If you have a dry climate, which is what I have, seasoning happens pretty quickly.

Species of wood also season at diff. rates.

I got a lot of ideas here and ended up using the ones that work best for my space. I sure would love a shed though.

If you get tarps to cover the top of your wood - get the heavy ones that are more expensive. The thin, cheap ones will end up costing you more in the long run as they do not hold up as well.


;-)

I see a lot of you aren't cutting with a Dolmer and a hydraulic splitter. What are you guys trying to prove?

I have three properties for wood storage.

1. My house: I built racks out of pallets and 2x4s that hold 2.6 cord. They are stacked 32" wide (16" splits) and 6' tall. Not sure about the length. I also built a 6' tall cage for my scraps that I put next to those racks. I just go with tarps, enough to cover the top, but no more.

2. 2 acre lot: Pallets sit between a row of mature pine trees with wood stacked on them. Three rows deep, 48". Covered with tarp/tin roofing panels.

3. Wooded lot with cabin/garage: Open air shed with roof attached onto the garage. Wood stacked onto planks.