quick and simple wood rack for my deck . . . see pics.

i got a couple ideas off the forum and decided to build my own.

the whole thing was made with 9 2x4s , and a 8' long x 24" wide roof from 3/4" plywood .
i worried about the roof sagging in the middle with snow and rot, so i put an additional 5th post to support it .
the uprights are held together with galvanized 4" lag bolts, then locked in from bowing out by the roof screws and also 2x4's that were placed below to lock them in so the bottom end cant move at all . i thought it was a better design than adding 4 angled pieces on the sides to support the posts which is what i see all the time . . that robs a lot of wood space i thought

all in all it worked out good. i love that sage color .... painted a couple rooms in the house the same color . it was called 'mossy green' at home depot , if anyone wants to know .

the 2 main beams at the bottom are left at their stock 8' length . the 3 rear taller roof supports are about 7' tall, and the front 2 supports are 6' tall, with a 30 degree miter to accommodate the slope of the roof to shed snow and rain. i initially had the roof as 36" wide instead of the now 24" ... but realized itll be under a soffit so i dont need the roof to cover the back of the rack .
i was told to put some silicone caulk on the roof edges , since thats where most plywood starts to rot . im going to leave it i think since the Glidden paint i used was pretty thick . plus you can paint with it all the way to 37 degrees ... which is light years from paints ive used in the past... kinda neat. 18$ for a gallon. with it double coated i still had 1/3rd gallon left.

simple and effective . itll hold .62 cord so thats not bad either. . .

thanks guys . ya , im fillin her up tomorrow , just used those pieces for reference . itll properly shelter pieces 14" - 22", or mayber longer since i have the soffit above . i can only fit 22" max length in my Baker though.

oh and the other nice part is that i can take out the 5 lag bolts and pop the roof off and take it down if need be in the summer. doubt i will though. i only glued/screwed the rectangle base frame together, everything else is just bolted/screwed. it would take maybe 10 min to take apart.

carbon ,

i will put one 2x4 underneath it like you said , but only because i bought and painted 10 2x4, but only needed to use 9 . so with that one laying around ill put it under the front section of the the roof and tie it into the front smaller posts. i was trying to keep it simple, so i can take it down in 10 minutes in the spring . but this is ok since it should be done anyways .

my wood isnt too far away , about 50 yards from the house. but thats far enough when your burning several cords a winter

Todd said:

Looks nice, but I wonder how much weight that deck can hold? Have cord of Oak can wheigh 2000lbs.

Click to expand...

funny you mentioned that ...

i just built the deck in july, and specifically beefed it up by the foundation to support firewood .

its free standing for a reason. if i were to take the easy route and put a ledger board on the house it would have had to attach to hollow concrete blocks with epoxied anchor bolts.... i didnt like that idea. instead i made it free standing and have 12" diameter 42" deep footers every 6 feet . double 2x10 beams.2x10 joist every16". 21 footer holes . . . it aint going anywhere.
heres a couple pics if you want to take a gander .

well what happened was i realized when i put the roof on that it was about 40lbs .. i knew after a year and my 120 inches of snow it would sag . thats why i put the back middle post in there.. to support the roof . in hindsight-and Carbon's suggestion- i would have not put a middle post at all (only use the corner posts) and just install 2 2x4's below the roof spanning the width of the rack .that way nothing is in the way of my wood stack.

i would be sure to tie the 2 roof 2x4s into the corner post , BUT also install them so the 2x4's wider 3 1/2" flat side is facing the you if your looking at the rack from the front(like a balance beam).
in other words, rotate the 2x4 so the skinny part of the 2x4 rests below the roof, that way the 2x4 boards will resist sagging more. it may not be as asthetically pleasing to have the 2x4s exposed more under the roof, but hey, it wont sag at all !
i hope this makes sense...

Well I think midwestcoast was kidding around... as he wants me to build him one...har deee har har...

Per my county's inspection, I think it needed to be around 100 lbs per sq foot live load weight , maybe more or less can't remember. The inspector said I would have hit the requirements with single 2x10 beams 8' apart and 2x8s as joists... I used double beams only 6' apart and 2x10s as joists...so I'm well qualified for a wood rack I think .

per request i made one change .
as you can see from the pic below , i added a middle front post . now i have essentially two separate bays to store wood in . nice if you want to separate fringe season wood from your red oak or sugar maple. now the 1'wide x 8'long roof has support in 6 places... more than enough to deter sagging for a while . i didnt tie in the new post with a galvanized lag bolt like the others, honestly because i didnt want to go to the store to get just one bolt for the bottom, and the middle post doesnt really have a huge load against it seeing how the wood smooshes the post with an equal load on each side. i just used 2 coated deck screws on the bottom and 2 on the top at the roof.

to give you an idea, i use a 8 cu ft wheelbarrow to get the wood from my stacks about 60 yards back from the deck . it takes about 13 heaping wheelbarrows to fill this rack up . ..so
ya , a tad over a half cord . should last me 10-14 days in the dead of winter. . . we shall see !

and yes , that is a Certified, Licensed, Bonded, Insured Moisture Meter Kitty ... inspecting the splits to guarantee their below 20%.