how should i stack my wood?

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iamquaker

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May 28, 2007
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so i finally got my fence done and made myself a nice 25' x 28' "white trash" corner of my house for stacking my wood, parking my trailer and splitter and anything else i drag home that the wife hates me to pile around the house.

the area to stack wood is 8' deep and 28' wide. i will need access to the stack with a wheel barrow to stacking and running loads to the house in the winter. so a solid 28' of wood would make it hard to get a wheel barrow past all the metal posts to hold the stack ends up.

shoot me some ideas.

the wood will be stacked on the right side of the gate in this photo 8 feet deep.

 
I'd run a few 2x4s horizontally across the 4x4s and then put up some of the metal fence from TSC or Mr Seconds or whatever is near you to protect the fence. Then, run 28' wide and not bother with the metal posts. You will want something between the grass and your stacks as well. Pallets are quick and easy short term but I like coarse gravel in the long run.
 
Look on craigslist for free pressure treated wood. It comes from old decks, wheelchair ramps etc, that come down.
 
iamquaker, you don't need those posts and your yard will look better without them after the wood has been taken from the stacks. Here is how we do it.

Wood-2009c.gif


You could stack it in 8' rows but you would get better air circulation using the 28' rows because the fence and garage will block all the wind from those directions.
 
To quote my father, when I asked questions like that.... "Very carefully".

In all seriousness... I stack all my wood on pallets to keep the splits off the ground. If you can find pallets, they work great. If you stack carefully, you can stack on the pallets, and "box" the ends to keep the stacks from falling over.

-SF
 
I get my pallets free from Home Depot (the ones without the yellow or blue paint on them ofcourse). My brother-in-law is an AM there and he's glad to get rid of them otherwise they have to pay to do do.

Anyways I stack on pallets in the same manner as Backwoods. Just take your time in sizing/building the ends and you shouldn't have any issues with them toppling over. Some of my ends have been stacked in this manner for over a year and are still fine.
 
Backwoods Savage said:
You could stack it in 8' rows but you would get better air circulation using the 28' rows because the fence and garage will block all the wind from those directions.
Click to expand...
BWS makes some nice stacks but the way each row is independent of the other would topple from frost heave on my clay soil. The variation I used was to lay down a first course of long rounds (perpendicular to the ones on the ground) tight together like a corduroy road. The three rows then move as one with the frost rather than independently.

I no longer have the patience for making cross-piled ends and prefer to use T-bars. True, they do present an obstacle when the stacks are depleted but that doesn't bother me. IMHO, cross piling ends take too long and can be precarious if stacking really green wood as it shrinks a lot.
 
Preused ufO brOKer said:
i do it drunk & sloppy which leaves more space between the splits.
Click to expand...

And here I was thinking that I was the only one that has used this method....Talking about stacking wood that is :)
How do I know?....well last night one of the sloppy piles fell over...
 
Cut some holes in the fence to allow air flow. If you don't want to do that, take off every other slate or dig some holes under the fence at least 12" across to allow airflow.
 
To answer the guys above. If my memory is correct, I think only one or two ends have ever fell over on any of our piles and none has ever fallen sideways. At present, we have some wood that has been stacked 5 years with no sign of falling over even if we left them another 10 years. Just be careful building the ends, which takes very little time; it's almost as fast as just stacking in the rows.
 
Preused ufO brOKer said:
Jamess67 said:
how about 2 rows like this.
Click to expand...
air space between wood & fence would enhance air circulation,eh?
Click to expand...

Might need the room for future wood, and keep it neat and clean for the significant other ?
 
Alright dude, here's my take on this stacking dilemma.

I'd lay out pallets. Looks like you can get three, maybe four 28 foot rows in there, and I'd leave enough room to run a wheelbarrow between the fence on the right and the wood pile. That way you can stack it in there tight, air can get to either side of the stack, you can access it from either side, and it'll be easy to cover up.

There's a Pennsylvania boys .02$
 
make a maze in your yard 2 pallets together and stack and then do it in different places and it would look cool!
 
Northwind- Is it no wife or the best wife?
 
Northwind said:
Here's 6 cords...


DSC02197.jpg
Click to expand...


thanks for all the input on ideas guys. i am thinking something like what northwind has here, except instead of just driving the stakes into the ground. i was thinking of digging some post holes with pipe in them to insert the posts into so they are removable for wood access.

i guess i forgot to mention part of the problem i have for stacking wood is the quantity of wood i need to stack. my wood scavenging started out this year with a buddy whos brother took down "2 trees" if you want them go on over. well those "2 trees" turned out to be about 20-25 trees! my only payment to the guy is to help him run his chipper to clean up the branches. and now that we have gotten about half down with these trees he is already talking about taking down more trees! i will end up with easily over 10 cords of wood.

so i am thinking i will need to make rows 8' deep all the way across the 28' foot wide section and still not sure i will have enough room! :)

what a hassle free wood is!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Those T-bar post pull up easily. Just put a big pipe wrench on it near the base and pry them out with a long bar or farmer's jack. You won't be pulling up anything in the Winter when it's frozen into the ground.

I cram 12 cord into a 10x20 woodshed by stacking 9 feet high with no spaces. Mind you for stacks that high, you really need a good concrete slab.
 
I used the T-Bars for the first time this spring and they seem to work OK (don't buy the cheap ones spend a few extra bucks and buy the heavy ones-- don't ask how I know!), But I found that everytime I stack over 4ft high my stacks start to lean and eventually fall over, the t-bars help me to control the heigh of the stacks also I know when I get to the height of the bar all the way across I am done with the. I also started stacking on some course crushed stone, way easier than screwing around with pallets and I don't have to pick up the stone in the spring.
 
Stack it neat and your wife just might say, "wow, that looks nice". Like they said, the end posts pull up easily. I also run 14 or 16 ga wire between the end posts to keep them from pushing out. The wire doesn't show up in the pic.
 
ilikewood said:
Preused ufO brOKer said:
i do it drunk & sloppy which leaves more space between the splits.
Click to expand...

And here I was thinking that I was the only one that has used this method....Talking about stacking wood that is :)
How do I know?....well last night one of the sloppy piles fell over...
Click to expand...

When I first saw the title to this post my initial response, being he pig I am was to say "any way she wants you to", but I won't go there on this one. That's what my buddy calls it... stacking wood..... (yeah, I'm 15 mentally, sometimes)

The two above responses are more my reality. I have decided though... due to the same row (times 3 rows deep) going over 3 times, that once split, I won't stack it for 2 to 3 weeks, due to what I feel may be 'initial rapid evaporation', or "initial shrinkage' for lack of a better phrase.
 
iceman said:
make a maze in your yard 2 pallets together and stack and then do it in different places and it would look cool!
Click to expand...

Then you could have a paintball course as well!
 
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