Cover your stacks - plywood

[Enzo's Dad]

It was just a thought...and plywood is not cheap. And I did build a shed

 

[Ashful]

Call me crazy! but if I'm gona spend money on roofing material to cover my firewood, I'd want to put it on a roof of a woodshed.
But that's just me.

Baby steps. Free time is in shorter supply than money.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

It was just a thought...and plywood is not cheap. And I did build a shed

That's for sure.
I can't agree with your original post Joful."Plywood is a cheap, easily obtainable, and almost infinitely reusable solution."
I just bought some 5/8" construction grade plywood for a project, and with tax it was nearly $40 a sheet. At that price I made sure I didn't leave it out in the rain to start de-laminating or soaking up water and warping.
See if you can grab some free lumber wrap next time you are at the lumber yard, try covering your wood with some of that. You can cut it to the exact size you want and use screws and small pieces of plywood scraps to pin the wrap down and keep it tight so water doesn't pool on the top.

 

[Ashful]

Yeah, at $40 a sheet, I'd be thinking twice about it, too. I can still find 7/16" ply (underlayment or sheathing) around here for $12/sheet. It's not going to last 20 years, but for this application, it doesn't need to.

 

[Diabel]

I use plywood. These sheets are about 6yrs old.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Jack- I think you are right about the lumber wrap. I'd been hearing about this for some years. Just recently got some free from a local yard. The guy was real nice and I think I could probably get more if I need it. I used mostly the cheap blue tarps the past seven years. They are 'OK' but do have problems including gathering pools of water in low spots, poor UV resistance and rapid wearout. I'm impressed with the quality of the wrap I just got. Looks like it ought to last a few years, and the price was right.

I'm going to follow BrotherBart's advice and use at least cardboard or else plywood scraps to try to get things level under those tarps. He's right about wind rubbing tarps across high/sharp spots and shredding them. I've had only a couple of mine do that. Mostly I think it's UV damage, however, that leads to the tarps shredding. So maybe these lumber wraps will stand up better to UV...

BTW do they resist sunlight less if you place them with the black underliner on top? White is a bit more of an eyesore, especially with some of the graphics printed on some of them. I placed a few of them black side up...

 

[Lumber-Jack]

BTW do they resist sunlight less if you place them with the black underliner on top? White is a bit more of an eyesore, especially with some of the graphics printed on some of them. I placed a few of them black side up...

That's a good question. They certainly are designed with specific layers and no doubt the best UV protection would be built into the exposed (printed) layer, so I would have to assume that by flipping them over they might become less UV resistant, how much less I can't say. Perhaps you'll be able to tell us in a couple years.
I use a lot of this lumber wrap material on my stucco contracting job. I use it as a typical tarp for covering material, and like a drop sheet for protecting sidewalks, paving stones, roofs, flowerbed, etc.., and I also use it as a liner in the back of my truck bed for hauling sand or other materials, it makes it easy to pull the tarp wrap to get the last bit of material cleanly out of the back of the truck. I generally just throw it away after I'm done with it, but in some cases I've seen it last for 5 years or more. Lots of people use it in place of landscaping fabric under rocks or bark chips to prevent weeds from growing through.
It's very versatile, and the thing is once you find a source, meaning you figure out how to acquire it before they throw it away, you have an endless free supply.

 

[BurnIt13]

Wait....we are supposed to cover our stacks???

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Wait....we are supposed to cover our stacks???

Nah, what we are suppose to do is stack our wood in our woodsheds, covering our stacks is just a half measure.

 

[maple1]

I will be using some used steel roofing this winter, I think. Should last a lot longer than plywood, and at 32" is just about the right width for a double stack. And is free. A lot of this covering stuff comes down to what you have kicking around or can get you hands on for not much.

But no matter what I would use, I don't think I would get into any of this fastening it down procedure. Just put another layer of wood on top & it won't go anywhere. I haven't done much top covering at all anyway, but any time I did, it was with tarp material, and the only way I could get much satisfaction out of that was forgetting about trying to fasten or tie it down, & just put some wood on top. But tarps seem to have a pretty short lifespan.

 

[Razo]

Is there any reason why I hear of people using just about every material EXCEPT roof felt for their stacks? I was thinking that may be the route to go, I mean its cheap, its water resistant, its heavier than plastic, and it can be stapled right down to the stacks.

Yes I know its coated in bitumen (asphalt/tar) and you wouldn't want that on wood going into a stove but not much would transfer from the paper to the wood.

I'm just curious why I've never seen anyone using this, is there a glaring reason not too that I'm seeing?
http://www.google.com/shopping/prod...rior+Roofing+Roofing+Underlayments&gws_rd=ssl

 

[maple1]

It rips pretty easy.

 

[Razo]

True, I would think that the thin garden plastic would rip fairly easily as well but by nature the plastic will have some give/stretch to it. Even with it stapled, I just envision the flimsy plastic ripping in the wind and flapping around, even if its only the 2" off the ends where the staples end.

 

[Ashful]

6 mil black plastic is surprisingly tough. I'm re-using some of the same pieces since 2011, and I think I'll get a few more years out of them. I staple them to the stacks with a hammer tacker, so they have some holes around the edges from tearing them off.

 

[Gboutdoors]

Ok I have been in the lumber business for thirty years now can get all the plywood I want for free but just can't see how it would be better than my lumber tarps? The last pallet I even stacked the middle row two splits higher so the rain would run off and it's working great.

They have not degraded at all over this summer and I have them black side out as I figure this would heat the wood stack up much more than the white side out( heat,wind = dry wood?).

I also have 5 cords covered with some left over rubber roofing again free but have some roof truss on top to hold it in place. This seems to be ok but I just like the way the lumber tarps fit and staple tight to the stack. I am sure if you go to your local family owned yard they would be glade to save them for you.

Ps if anyone in the Fairhaven area would like some 20' pallets and some nice lumber covers to fit them give me a pm and I will set you up as I have more at my yard than I could ever use.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Just think about what they use to cover and transport kiln dried construction lumber when they haul it down the highway over long distances. Certainly whatever they cover it with they'd want to make sure it was durable, water proof and would not rip or blow off in the wind at those highway speed. Do they use felt paper? Do they use plastic? Do they cover their lumber with plywood, or roofing material? Or maybe they use those cheap blue or orange tarps you buy at Wal-Mart?

Here's a clue.

 

[johnpma]

^^^^^^^^^yeah but! yeah but! yeah but!

Thank you for keeping it simple, and effective

 

[maple1]

I can see if you have enough over hang to keep a driving rain from reaching the stack, it would be good, but most rains/fronts are proceeded and accompanied by winds. Around here, it's common to see the rain falling at a 45 degree angle, more sometimes , less sometimes, but 75% of the time it's 45 degrees or more. We are taught here to stack our stacks so that the winds and sun can work best for drying, ie- sideways to the prevailing winds. So,-----if you as Bart is showing, put a narrow strip of plastic on top of a stack, how in the world is that going to keep the stack dryer? The only pieces of wood that won't receive a good drenching would be the pieces directly beneath the plastic and after the rain those few dry pieces will trapped under plastic like a cigar in a humidor.

You would likely have better luck turning your stacks 90°, so the prevailing winds blow across the ends of the wood & not into them. I have two long double rows 90° to each other, the row that the wind is blowing into the end of always seems to be drier inside than the row that the wind is hitting side-on. Plus when you top cover, then not much rain will get blown into the side of the pile, it will just hit the small end of it. Seems the drying wind will suck the wet out of the ends of the wood, whereas hitting the side it has to push it through it.

 

[Charlie2]

I see your point as to the wind, but do you give up the sun's heat combined with the wind? I have red oak in the field, single stacked, large splits cross ways to the wind and sun, I'll split one before long and we can compare. The wood was cut at the end of last year. But in the end , it might boil down to location, gets pretty hot and dry down here in Georgia during the summer.

 

[maple1]

I get better sun I think. With prevailing south winds, one side gets early sun and one gets late sun. The other stack gets sun on only one side. But it doesn't get that hot here, I think we get most of our drying action from the wind.

 

[Paulywalnut]

This will be my first year to use black plastic exclusively. The clear stuff just doesn't hold up against the sun.
I have my work cut out for me. 28 stacks. Half have been uncovered 2 years, some never, but I want to really try and keep them covered this year.

 

[Paulywalnut]

If that stuff could be purchased with the corrugations running the short length, it would be ideal for those of us stacking in long rows. As it is, it will just dump all rain off the ends into the middle of my long row stacks.

I agree. I have two sixty foot rows and keeping the middle dry is a challenge.

 

[smokedragon]

I use rubber roofing that I got for free. Beats any tarp you can buy. Got a 5' wide roll, perfect for covering stacks.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

I use rubber roofing that I got for free. Beats any tarp you can buy. Got a 5' wide roll, perfect for covering stacks.

Yep rubber roofing is great stuff if you can get it, it's just that it's usually a lot harder to come by for free then lumber wrap. Either one beats buying tarps or plastic especially when the free stuff works better.
Below is where I get most of my free lumber wrap. It's a structured beam manufacturing plant. They neatly fold and put all there used lumber wrap in this bin just outside their property for the public access.
They also put a lot of wood and beam ends on the other side of the driveway, I didn't take a picture of them though. They had huge pile of massive laminated beam platform there when I went there, that must have weighed a ton or more. I was kind of curious what their purpose or how they expected people to pick them up and pack them away.

 

[smokedragon]

Below is where I get most of my free lumber wrap.

nice

Yeah, I would take that if I didn't have rubber roofing. Of course, tarps, black plastic, plywood, etc are all good if the price is right.