Answer to wood drying under full tarp

[DougA]

Just thought I would post this info since there have been posts asking how long it takes to dry wood under tarps.

Three years ago we had a bad wind storm and I got a lot of the downed trees cut but no time to split. I made 3 rows of mostly black locust, black walnut and hard maple on the shady side of a large shed. It was fully covered with a heavy tarp. Not the best spot but that's all I could do at the time. Today I finally started to bring the wood out to split and stack them. The outside rows averaged 20% moisture but the inside row was minimum 25% and sometimes over 30%.

So... air circulation is a huge deal. The rows did have a bit of space but having it fully enclosed in a tarp was not the best idea. Yes, it kept the rain off but no, it didn't allow it to dry enough.

The outside rows will be OK for burning this year but the inside will have to wait a year. Not a big deal since I have too much wood already but thought it might be useful info for people who want their wood to dry faster.

Last year, I finally got my wood shed finished and I'm now getting around to loading the 2017 wood.

 

[Knots]

Yep. Thanks for the data. I had wood in a greenhouse that wouldn't dry until I got some air circulation in there to take away the humid air...

 

[iamlucky13]

In our humid climate, I covered some half-dried maple, sitting on concrete with a tarp for winter. When I checked it in the spring, it had quite a bit of fungus growing on it, which was starting to decay the wood.

It was a medium-weight nylon tarp with no holes. I know they weep if you let water sit on them, but it was tented decently well. I'm pretty sure it was just the water remaining in the wood that enabled the fungus to grow.

So I'd be tempted to say air circulation is even more important than cover, despite the amount of rain we get.

Last winter I took the extra time to fold my tarps to size to leave the sides mostly exposed and got much better results.

 

[jaoneill]

Air circulation is absolutely critical, and for that matter, all that is really necessary. I try to get my woodshed (3 sided concrete block) filled by early July with wood that has been split and partially seasoned (25% - 30%). I have an old 1/4 hp, slow speed furnace blower that uses a negligible amount of electricity but creates a constant strong breeze (of warm summer air) through the wood during the daylight hours (I unplug it at night and when it rains). I resplit a few pieces of hard maple yesterday and found the moisture at 15%-18%, cherry was all below 15%, after only a month and a half. I generally put the blower away when the weather cools off in late September but it definitely does the job.

 

[Fred Wright]

Stacked rounds will rot if they're left uncovered for very long. Keeping 'em covered like you did was a good decision.

I'm not familiar with the scientific explanation, just going with experience... had 3 rows of red maple rounds stacked in the yard for over a year. My fault for leaving 'em set so long but I did have the presence of mind to throw a tarp over the lot.

Or so I thought. Part of the cover leaked; there was a lot of rot where it got wet. The rounds essentially went punky where they were rained on. Had to trash some of it, sadly.