stacking wood?

[Grimripper]

Forgive my newbie question. I'm moving my pile of wood closer to the house. I'm curious if stacking wood north/south or east/west will make a big difference for drying? I stacked 2 cords north/south already.

I have 8 more cords to go and now i'm also wondering how i should put it? I do not want to make it any longer. If I make rows 2 cords long parallel to each other will it dry properly?

 

[ecocavalier02]

This post should probably be in the wood shed but whateva. around heare wind blows north to south. so ends facing the wind will make a difference. also good to keep a good airspace between stack. foot or so.

 

[thewoodlands]

The prevailing wind here is out of the west so our stacks run north/south so it gets direct wind and sun, last year we did east/west and I think the wood moisture content is less this year.

Nice stacking.


zap

 

[Wood Duck]

More important than stacking either parallel or perpendicular to the wind would be allowing air space between the stacks. You have three rows stacked up against eachother. i think if you can allow a foot or more between rows you'll get better drying that either N/S or E/W stacking.

I am not sure if you'd want to stack parallel or perpendicular to the wind even if you have really constant wind direction. I can think of reasons why either one would be better than the other. I think a windy, open location and space between stacks is the most important thing, not the alignment of the stacks to the prevailing wind, which changes every minute anyway.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Grimripper.


Knowing that wind should hit the side of the stack of wood gives you the answer. But bear in mind that just because the prevailing wind is from a certain direction, where you stack the wood, near buildings, will make that wind change direction a lot and might even cause swirling. Therefore, you stack so as to take the most advantage of how the wind hits your stacks no matter where you stack them. I hope this made sense.

One good example is one area on our place where I like to hunt. Hunting deer means you do not want them to scent you so you want the wind at your face. The problem I have is the one tree that is good for sitting does face the direction of the prevailing wind, but, whenever I sit in that tree, the wind is at my back even though the wind is in the opposite direction in other places. The wind simply swirls in this spot. I have another were it seems no matter which direction the wind is that day, it will always hit me on one side or the other and never at my face or back.

The point is, you have several buildings there and that will affect how the wind blows there.

As for stacking in 3 rows, that is how we do most of our wood. If I needed to dry as quickly as possible I'd stack in single rows. When not needed right away, I've stacked as much as 20 rows together.

 

[eujamfh]

Made what I would call a mistake stacking three across a pallet like that three years ago...oak in the middle did not have a chance of drying. Stuff in the middle was way too wet to burn after two years and it was standing dead when cut for a couple years. I now stack two rows per pallet. Its about a 8"-12" in between. For multiple rows of pallets...I leave a pallet space in between to get the garden mower and cart in between. Actually....the first year I did three rows per pallet, and three pallets next to each other with a run of about ten pallet lengths. It will eventually dry....but was taking way too long so I moved the middle row out.

 

[maplewood]

Spacing is more important that wind direction. I'd put two rows per pallet, not 3.

Here's last years piles. 6 pallet rows, two ranks per pallet row about 6" apart, with at least 12" between each row of pallets. Lots of air flow.

 

[Kenster]

Maplewood, how do you keep those huge stacks from tumbling down? I don't see any "bookends."

 

[muncybob]

Spacing is more important that wind direction. I'd put two rows per pallet, not 3.

Here's last years piles. 6 pallet rows, two ranks per pallet row about 6" apart, with at least 12" between each row of pallets. Lots of air flow.

dang!! that's a lot of wood!

 

[maplewood]

Maplewood, how do you keep those huge stacks from tumbling down? I don't see any "bookends."

My soil is all gravel, so I can't drive stakes in the ground like Zap does so well. And I'm either not good at cross stacking my ends, or I don't cut my wood to produce spits that like to be cross stacked. I've got lots of space, and lots of pallets, so I just go from the ground up and let it be as steep as it will allow. It's been a long time since a rank fell over. I've had to tap a few sections vertical again, after one or two have started to lean towards the sun, but that's it.

This year I tried two types of more vertical ends. I criss crossed two ranks - not too bad. I tried to use a vertical pallet, tied to a couple of splits about 6'-8' back into the pile - one worked, one is laying backwards in a nasty 45 degree angle. I'm going back to just ranking it like you see in the above photo.

BTW, these ranks are each about 30' long and 4.5' high.

 

[KB007]

I attach pallets to the base pallet using 2X4s - works good for me

 

[thewoodlands]

Spacing is more important that wind direction. I'd put two rows per pallet, not 3.

Here's last years piles. 6 pallet rows, two ranks per pallet row about 6" apart, with at least 12" between each row of pallets. Lots of air flow.

Maplewood those are some nice stacks of wood, no t-post will hold that back.


zap

 

[Georgiadave]

If you stack so that the north wind blows through the pile, you will not have vermin within.

 

[thewoodlands]

Grimripper, here are two different pictures, both stacks running east/west with the sugar maple (second picture) on the north side of the house and the ash on the west side of the house.

Both the Ash and Sugar Maple were bucked and split in the summer of 2007 and stacked for the last two years. The Sugar Maple looks like it is seasoned more.


zap

 

[Danno77]

Make your woodstacks work for you. They should be open to wind and sun when you can. I have mine protecting the dog's fenced in area. gives him good protection from wind and snow mid-winter. you could use it for a snow fence, or a wind break, or a privacy fence.

Just wanted to throw that angle out there.

 

[Occo370]

What is a rank

 

[Danno77]

What is a rank

when wood is ranked it's all stacked with pieces in the same direction. the alternative is cross-stacked or piled, or a holtz hausen (spelling?)