Holtz Hauzens question

I built mine with just one ring, and then lots of vertical pieces in the middle. My neighbors (suburbia) got a big kick out of it; one them actually said "now that's the prettiest wood pile I ever did see."

Just make sure to shim the outside from time to time so the pieces stack towards the middle. As the wood dries it will shrink, sometimes unevenly. I was a bit lax on one side on one of my hausens and oops! down it came!

Hey GW, I've built 2 HH. They were both about 7' diameter and about 7' tall. The first I planned on doing a second internal ring, but after building the outer ring I realized there wasn't a whole lot of room left, so I started standing them vertical. Yes, it can be a little PIA to stack the inside vertical which is why when I built my second I just used the inner space to hold all my ugly, short, hard to stack pieces. It worked great. I also didn't slant the sides in as much as the first, didn't think it needed it and I like the straight sides better. Have fun, they are a great way to store wood in a small footprint.

Very nice work there pulldownclaw^ but that's takes the patience of a saint.

savageactor7 said:

Very nice work there pulldownclaw^ but that's takes the patience of a saint.

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Working at a leisurely pace(and trust me, my fast is leisurely to most),I finished about 1/2 of my HH in 4-5 hours.


My technique is just to toss the wood in the middle. stacking vertically would take a long time, and I don't see much advantage there.

I hear ya savageactor, you're a "pile" guy, right? If I had the land, I might be tempted to do that as well, but here and suburbia aesthetics can go a long way. Plus, I gotta use my 5 years at art school for somethin', right?

^Well that's not for us but I support the work ethic involved to keep the peace in the neighborhood...property values and all. Your neighbors should could themselves fortunate they have a considerate person as yourself as a wood burner. They almost look too good to take apart. yup, we pile up our wood ...crude but effective.

Well I've only ever had one HH but I've built it twice and repaired it once

My first mistake was building a platform I thought would be good but wasn't. Pallets are the go. I concur with the previous comments about putting cross-ways splits to ensure wood tilts towards middle - be aggressive with the lean imho.

I put the non-straight splits in the middle vertically. Quicker, easier, allows gravity to pull more water out (er that's a joke - I think - although I haven't tested this yet).

If you put bark on top as per a "traditional" HH then I would put the bark U shape up not down as most seem to do. The bark prevents sun hitting the top row of wood but is designed to take rain off the HH, so if you put bark on "upside down" the rain just runs off the edge and into the HH achieving a net disadvantage. If it's cupped "up" then the water runs to the middle of the bark and down the HH roof as per a corrugated iron roof.

If you build an 8 foot diameter HH, with a 7'8" height at edge and 8'8" in the middle then you will have "pi" cords of wood Just something that tickles my fancy when people ask how much wood I have in the HH. Oh, about 3.14159265 . . . cords of wood.

I built my first HH about a month ago. I used four 4'x4' pallets as the base, and I leveled them (more or less) with shims before starting. My HH is 8' diameter, and 8' tall at the peak in the middle. A couple of things I picked up while building mine:

1. be sure to save a few skinny splits for shimming to keep the splits pointing inward.
2. as I stack, I carefully pick pieces that fit/lock together well.
3. as I stack, I take a large split and knock the ends of the stacked spits (3-4 rows down from the top with some weight on them) to keep them even and tightly stacked--there is a fair amount of "settling" that occurs this way and I think this helps stabilize the stacks.
4. I also just tossed the pieces randomly into the middle, I really don't think that there's any truth to the idea that vertical stacking decreases drying time as the outer wall is stacked pretty tightly which limits airflow inside.
5. I did the "bark-shingle" thing for a "roof", but we get soooo much rain here in Oregon in the winter that in the end I decided to cover the top of my HH with a tarp. My feeling was that the water WOULD filter down into the middle and keep that wood very wet and dark all winter, and that I'd sacrifice the looks of having a tarp vs keeping the wood dry.

In the end, I'd do it again. I think it takes about the same amount of time to stack 2 1/2 cords this way as it would the traditional way, and it takes up a LOT less space. I'm starting my 2nd HH this weekend, looking forward to it!!

NP

I mostly like the looks, and the kids love building the "wood castle". I do believe it wont dry as fast as a straight stack. Both sides being exposed makes a difference. The wood in the middle is the worst off.

I built my first HH this year and it turned out great. It is 10 ft wide so I had room for an inner circle, I don't think there would be room on a 7 ft. However if you check out this link you will see how I left a way in to mak it easy to stack in the middle. In the future I think I might just throw them in the middle, it might make for better air flow, you just would not be able to stack as much.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/41091/

I build my holz hausens with two rings of horizontal splits, leaving about a 3 foot inner circle in which I toss oddball pieces. My HH are 8 ft diameter, the splits about 16 inches long. I don't think from a drying point of view it makes any difference which way the wood is aligned in the center. The air flow in the stack is at very low velocity so any shape of opening should work fine. I don't know if my Holz hausen have any special wood drying properties, but they stand on their own and look nice.

karri0n said:

savageactor7 said:

Very nice work there pulldownclaw^ but that's takes the patience of a saint.

Click to expand...

Working at a leisurely pace(and trust me, my fast is leisurely to most),I finished about 1/2 of my HH in 4-5 hours.


My technique is just to toss the wood in the middle. stacking vertically would take a long time, and I don't see much advantage there.

Click to expand...

WTF?

I can have my entire year's worth stacked in less time. . .

Bigg_Redd said:

karri0n said:

savageactor7 said:

Very nice work there pulldownclaw^ but that's takes the patience of a saint.

Click to expand...

Working at a leisurely pace(and trust me, my fast is leisurely to most),I finished about 1/2 of my HH in 4-5 hours.


My technique is just to toss the wood in the middle. stacking vertically would take a long time, and I don't see much advantage there.

Click to expand...

WTF?

I can have my entire year's worth stacked in less time. . .

Click to expand...

That is about how long it takes me to build one, but that time includes splitting the logs as well as stacking them, and probably some chainsawing as well. I think I could build a whole 8 ft diameter by 6.5 foot tall HH in an hour or two if the wood was split and ready to stack.

I built a holz miete for the first time this past year . . . pretty much just for fun. It may have taken a bit longer than doing the traditional firewood stack in a row, but it was kind of neat to do and not all that hard. So far, it has been fine with no blow-outs or collapses. I did start with it on level ground and used four pallets . . . and I took the time to select the wood I was using for the outer ring and positioned them a little more carefully than I would of if I had been stacking the wood in a row.

In the inner circle I threw the Chunks and Uglies . . . chunks = short pieces of wood and uglies = the wood with branch nubs, forks, curves, etc. that would not stack nice and straight. As I went up in height I would start the circle leaning in on to the chunks and uglies which helped give it some support. It was a bit hard to reach and finish off the "roof" of the holz miete . . . I had to stand on a short round to finish it off, but all in all building it wasn't really that bad.

firefighterjake - I found when I was going up I could find foot holds on the side of the HH that I could use like a ladder to step up. Maybe try that next time for a way to finish. No matter what any one says the HH are sure a conversation piece. It was great fun showing the family and friends over the Holidays. Most people have never seen one.

I'm just starting to break into my first HH, interested to see how the interior pieces seasoned. It's a 2 cord version of red/white oak, finished October '08, so we'll see....

golfandwoodnut said:

firefighterjake - I found when I was going up I could find foot holds on the side of the HH that I could use like a ladder to step up. Maybe try that next time for a way to finish. No matter what any one says the HH are sure a conversation piece. It was great fun showing the family and friends over the Holidays. Most people have never seen one.

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Definitely eye-catching . . . I've seen more than a few folks go by and do a double take . . . and my ATV Club's Trailmaster's son told his Dad that "Jay has way too much time on his hands if he can stack his wood like that."

I may start on my next HH tomorrow. I have over 1 cord of maple to stack so at least I'll have a good strat until my next scrounge. Co-worker had another rather large oak taken down wednesday so I'll be over with the splitter to get my fair share. 50-50 HEs a good guy. That may just about complete the newest HH.

Got Wood said:

I'm about a week away from using up the wood currently in the space I have ear marked for my HH. I have shown my family golfandwoodnut's (BTW - great id.... could be mine too) HH picture and they get a nice laugh at me - your going to build one of those...LOL! Heck, they laugh at me even being on this forum.
Anyhow, I have about a cord split and in a pile near by. If the weather isnt too brutal this wknd I'll do some more cutting & splitting - anxious to built this thing.

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Thanks "Got Wood" you can't beat that name either, oh I guess you could :lol: Go ahead and build it, some may laugh, but I'll bet you will get alot of admirers. My biggest problem is that I hate to tear it apart. Another bonus is you can store alot of wood in a small footprint.

Was it collapsing inward or outward? It may be more stable to add the interior pieces as you go up with the wall....

firefighterjake said:

golfandwoodnut said:

firefighterjake - I found when I was going up I could find foot holds on the side of the HH that I could use like a ladder to step up. Maybe try that next time for a way to finish. No matter what any one says the HH are sure a conversation piece. It was great fun showing the family and friends over the Holidays. Most people have never seen one.

Click to expand...

Definitely eye-catching . . . I've seen more than a few folks go by and do a double take . . . and my ATV Club's Trailmaster's son told his Dad that "Jay has way too much time on his hands if he can stack his wood like that."

Click to expand...

WTF? A kid who's in an ATV club, talking about you having too much time on your hands? One could presume that ANYONE in an ATV club or almost any club has spare time. Perhaps he has too much time on his hands if he can be in an ATV club.
Sorry Jake, but that line hit a nerve or something. I feel better now.