Summer project - Wood shed / lean to- ideas?

[ruserious2008]

Ok now that I've learned that when they sell "seasoned" wood it really only means its not attached to mother earth by roots still.... I'm ready to start "aging" my wood for future years. I wanted to build a wood shed that looked good as opposed to a drunken looking pile that I made last year (have not perfected the art of a nice looking wood pile and admire those I see) with an ugly plastic cover in it that makes it look like the Beverly Hillbillies moved to NH (add my pile of pallets I've collected and I really just need a few junk cars to have some peoples version of paradise!
So I've read the pro's and con's of having a cover and have decided I want some sort of covering (though still welcome to comments re total open air aging. I'm envisioning a 16 ft long, 4 ft wide structure (lowes has 2x6 x 16 ft for $9.99) and I would have the front 8 ft tall sloping down to 5 ft in the rear giving me room for 4 cords plus some kindling. I want to use this clear plastic corrugated roof panels from Lowes for the roof and will have it south facing (the sloped panels) and figure the sun will help "cook the wood with some greenhouse effect. How's it sound so far? Then I was thinking to I want to also use those Panels (see below) to cover the back (vertical part) and the sides to help with more solar heating and put a couple of those solar powered fans I've used in boats over the years to keep the air moving. (see pic below also) Too high tech? By using the panels and fans could I shave any appreciable time off getting the moisture out of this wood or should I KISS (keep it simple stupid)
Comments appreciated

 

[Rick Stanley]

My "knee jerk" to this is to keep the roof overhanging the walls enough so that the side panels can be short of reaching the top, by a foot or two, and short of reaching the ground by a foot or two. This approach, along with a door opening, should provide plenty of natural air flow.

 

[cygnus]

Using the sun for the most benefit sounds good. I don't think the fans will have much affect. They won't move nearly enough air to make them useful. I think the solar oven idea has some merit in spite of many attempts that prove otherwise. It's a matter of drying with heat then somehow drying that warm moist air and really moving it around the splits. In my view, getting this right is more trouble than it's worth for a marginal decrease in required seasoning time. Face south, keep the sides open and just load it up.

 

[snowleopard]

I"ve been cogitating on the subject of woodsheds as well. Some similarities in your thoughts and mine; some differences. As a newbie, I can't offer much useful critique, so I'm just sharing what I'm thinking about woodsheds.

I had originally envisioned a shed large enough to hold a few years' supply, but have a different vision at the moment. I figure that what I really need is a shed that is relatively close to the back door that holds a winter's supply, rather than a massive woodshed that is, by necessity, further from the house. The rest of my wood can sit in stacks on pallets with a cover over the top, and the shed can get refilled each spring.

I'm planning on building mine high enough for 6' stacks, 16' long, 8' deep, with a 12' roof, 2' of overhang front and back. I want to have rolled-up tarps in the rear (windward) side to drop when blizzards hit so that I don't have to dig my wood out. I also want to build`bays' in it--if only deliniated by a front support Y-post--that would hold a cord of wood. This will help me monitor wood use through the winter as I go along. I'm going for a six-cord shed because of the rule of thumb bespoken here that you should always have 1.5x the amount of wood you think you'll need for the winter. I figure a 4-5 cord winter, so am aiming to have six cords under shelter and at hand. I'm planning on separating my wood by species as well, since I'll be acquiring them separately. This will help me for future winters' planning.

I've seen some rather presentable looking woodsheds made out of pallets and am considering going that route. I think the trick with these is to get uniform size square ones that are in decent shape--like the heavy oak ones. The bottom row is drilled and bolted, and then another row above that, and then they are stabilized with 2x4's stuck down from the top to the ground. Three sides built like that, front built up enough to put a roof on it with some slope. Some people--I am not making this up--even paint their pallet shed.

I spent this winter grubbing my firewood out of the ground, splitting it, and drying it (when necessary) indoors. A woodshed with freshly split, stacked, clean wood accessible a few feet out the back door sounds like heaven to me. I'm so jazzed!

I personally prefer metal roof panels, primarily because I found a stack of about a dozen brand-new ones in the weeds behind the garage (thank you, P.O.). They're also going to stand up better (with proper support) under the sometimes-massive snow loads here. If you go with the fiberglas panels, I'd knock the snow off periodically.

I like your `out-of-the-box' ideas. If you do this, you'll either be successful in finding out that it works, or you'll be successful in finding out that it doesn't work. Either way, you'll add to the sum total of human knowledge. What you might consider doing is marking a dozen or so splits in the various locations of the shed, then doing regular checks with them with a moisture meter to see how they're drying. Monitoring the wood like this will also let you know if the stacks need more air movement. Do the same with some wood that is stacked in the sun and wind, covered and uncovered. Wear a lab coat and carry a clipboard when you take these measurements, just to keep the neighbors on their toes. You just may be on to something there. Even if you're not, let us know. The unbridled spirit of scientific inquiry is one of the finer features of this forum, and frequently good for some serious amusement. So to speak.

 

[skyline]

RUSERIOUS,

I would say "in general" the advice on this forum would be to season with open sides and lots of time BUT since you are trying to avoid the open view and season more quickly, I would try to make it warmer and use a fan. Based on my experiments (https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/64871/) with a fan and wood in the garage, the fan made a huge difference but even the wood away from the fan was able to dry from over 100% MC to 20% in a month, (this was Alder and not oak), so even a little bit of air flow will greatly help. But just as important was the 10-20 degrees warmer temps in the garage even though it was unheated. There are many successful solar kiln's in use so using of clear glazing for the greenhouse will allow the wood to heat up, even better if the whole shed gets warmer and helps lower the EMC (equilibrium moisture conditions) as long as you have enough air flow (it doesn't take much) to disperse the humidity. The difference between your wood's MC and the surrounding EMC is what drives the speed of drying. A typical example here might be a 35 °F day with 32 °F dew point, RH 87% and EMC of 19.4. A 15 °F increase will lower the RH to 50% and the EMC down to 9.5. Hours every day of this kind of difference will speed up drying considerably. Your conditions in NH would be even better than ours in the NW as you have colder drier air.

You can use this site http://www.dpcalc.org/ (solve for RH) to see how increasing the temperature in your local conditions can significantly reduce the RH and drive down the EMC.

Incidentally, I tried using a large solar attic fan and it just wouldn't run enough especially when I need it the most to justify its cost. I didn't bother with a small one. The desk fan I use runs about 34 watts on high, about $2.50/month of electricity for the months I use it. Also, don't forget to use a vapor barrier between the ground and your wood shed and anything else to lower the RH near your wood.

 

[Jack Straw]

This is just my 2 cents. I can't stack wood very well either. I make wood cradles out of pallets and scrap lumber I scrounge. (basically a pallet on the bottom with vertical 2x4s on the end) I stack my green wood in them and let it dry for 2 years. In the fall I load up my wood shed with that winter's wood. My wood shed is designed for dry wood storage, not to dry out the wood. I was lucky enough to scrounge some metal roofing and one of my wood cradles does have a roof. That is where is dry out my much coveted shagbark hickory. I do have a lot of steps in the process, but I enjoy the work. My avatar is a picture of my wood shed.
Good luck and try to have some fun with your project.

 

[lobsta1]

I’m planning on building mine high enough for 6’ stacks, 16’ long, 8’ deep, with a 12’ roof, 2’ of overhang front and back. I want to have rolled-up tarps in the rear (windward) side to drop when blizzards hit so that I don’t have to dig my wood out. I also want to build`bays’ in it—if only deliniated by a front support Y-post—that would hold a cord of wood. This will help me monitor wood use through the winter as I go along. I’m going for a six-cord shed because of the rule of thumb bespoken here that you should always have 1.5x the amount of wood you think you’ll need for the winter. I figure a 4-5 cord winter, so am aiming to have six cords under shelter and at hand. I’m planning on separating my wood by species as well, since I’ll be acquiring them separately. This will help me for future winters’ planning.

From 35 years experience with a similar sized shed (8'Wx18'Lx8'D & 8' to the joists with another 4' to the rafters, I can tell you that freshly split wood will NOT be seasoned in LESS than two years. (At least here in Eastern Ma.) I stack 8' high & go through a little over a half of the shed per season. I have three sides completely open & the back side is the block wall of my garage. The wood I burned this year was split & stacked almost two years ago & I spent all winter stacking it around the stove to dry it enough to burn well.

This was mostly soft maple, ash, some locust & some sugar maple. The locust & sugar maple I had to stack around the stove for several days to be able to burn it. I'm burning in an Englander NC 13. In my old Russo smoke dragon it was never a problem.
Al

 

[skyline]

I can tell you that freshly split wood will NOT be seasoned in LESS than two years. (At least here in Eastern Ma.) I stack 8' high & go through a little over a half of the shed per season. I have three sides completely open & the back side is the block wall of my garage. The wood I burned this year was split & stacked almost two years ago & I spent all winter stacking it around the stove to dry it enough to burn well.

This was mostly soft maple, ash, some locust & some sugar maple. The locust & sugar maple I had to stack around the stove for several days to be able to burn it. I'm burning in an Englander NC 13. In my old Russo smoke dragon it was never a problem.
Al

Based on your results of two years and a few days, it sounds like your woods needs more time in conditions like around your stove and less like those in your wood shed ;-) We in the NW use Hawaii in January to solve that same problem, otherwise we get moldy. Kiln's dry big timbers to much lower MC than we need in firewood in a few days/weeks even while keeping the RH high to prevent checking. Imagine how fast they could dry the wood if they didn't care about checking and used low RH. Since most of us have many months to dry our wood small changes that increase the temperature of and around our wood (sunshine, glazing, south facing), lower our RH (vapor barrier, good drainage, roof, ventilation, off the ground & anything to increase temperatures), will lower the EMC conditions and when combined with constant air flow will dry wood much faster than ambient EMC conditions.

 

[snowleopard]

From 35 years experience with a similar sized shed (8'Wx18'Lx8'D & 8' to the joists with another 4' to the rafters, I can tell you that freshly split wood will NOT be seasoned in LESS than two years. (At least here in Eastern Ma.) I stack 8' high & go through a little over a half of the shed per season. I have three sides completely open & the back side is the block wall of my garage. The wood I burned this year was split & stacked almost two years ago & I spent all winter stacking it around the stove to dry it enough to burn well.

This was mostly soft maple, ash, some locust & some sugar maple. The locust & sugar maple I had to stack around the stove for several days to be able to burn it. I'm burning in an Englander NC 13. In my old Russo smoke dragon it was never a problem.
Al

Thanks, Al. I appreciate your sharing the fruit of your experience. It will probably be late summer before I get the woodshed finished, and my wood is going to be sitting out stacked and split until then. I'm hoping to get started next week on the splitting, because even though we've still got snow on the ground, we have great seasoning weather going on. I was just thinking today that if I stacked the wood on the lawn on the south side of the house, the reflected heat from the house and windows might help. I'm in one of the kinder climates of Alaska, fairly close to the center of the state. We usually can expect hot weather in June, and drying breezes. The birch I'm buying will season pretty quickly if it's split, and will rot to fibers if it's left in the bark. The rest of the wood I'm planning on burning will be standing dead poplar, and that burns pretty well. If I have to, I get the boiler repaired and burn oil.

I've got another load on order, and that was dropped a year ago--but not cut to length or split. Yet. That may be what I'll burn next year. Some of this I'm just figuring out as I go along.
Kathleen

 

[muncybob]

I had initially thought of using solar to help further dry wood in my soon to be built shed. But, since I have plenty of room to season firewood and since air movement has helped me to dry uncovered wood to less than 20% in 12 months(or less, except oak of course) I plan to enclose my shed as much as possible on 3 sides along with metal roofing. My shed will be for storage, not seasoning.
I like the idea of rolled up tarps for the south facing front if we get major snow storms just so I spend less time digging out. I am planning to allow enough room in the shed to store my splitter and snowblower. Plan to have some sort of lighting...probably solar powered but running a line is in the works too.

 

[oldspark]

Been burning wood for over 30 years and it all gets seasoned outside with no cover what so ever, after its dried it gets covered for what I need that winter, no reason to over think it just get ahead on the wood and let mother nature do its thing.

 

[dannynelson77]

Been burning wood for over 30 years and it all gets seasoned outside with no cover what so ever, after its dried it gets covered for what I need that winter, no reason to over think it just get ahead on the wood and let mother nature do its thing.

Perfect post! I think us wood nutts get carried away sometimes........

 

[firefighterjake]

I"ve been cogitating on the subject of woodsheds as well. Some similarities in your thoughts and mine; some differences. As a newbie, I can't offer much useful critique, so I'm just sharing what I'm thinking about woodsheds.

I had originally envisioned a shed large enough to hold a few years' supply, but have a different vision at the moment. I figure that what I really need is a shed that is relatively close to the back door that holds a winter's supply, rather than a massive woodshed that is, by necessity, further from the house. The rest of my wood can sit in stacks on pallets with a cover over the top, and the shed can get refilled each spring.

. . ..

Why not have both . . . my own woodshed holds 2 + years of wood, is within 25 feet of my back door so it's easily accessible in the dead of winter and -- I may be biased -- but I really like the look.

 

[firefighterjake]

Random thoughts . . .

What works for me . . . Year 1: Wood is bucked, split and stacked outside in relatively neat stacks and in a holz miete (just because it looks cool in my opinion.) Year 2: This wood is moved into the woodshed in the section now empty from using the previous winter's wood in my woodstove. Year 3: After seasoning outside in the sun and wind and then sitting in my nice, dry woodshed this wood is brought inside and put into the woodstove.

If given the choice of relying on wind or solar heat to season my wood I would go with wind . . . I have a lot more faith in there being more windy days or days with a breeze and it seems as though wind is the thing that really seasons the wood. Of course, having both is good . . . but once in a while you will end up having a summer like we did two years ago where the summer is one big, cold, wet affair.

Finally, I'm with JackStraw and others . . . while my woodshed does have gapped sides (think board and batting without the batting) and an open front to allow some seasoning once the wood is put into the woodshed, I look at my woodshed primarily as a place to store my wood . . . to avoid having to remove tarps or dig through the snow and ice in the winter . . . it's mostly for storage, not for seasoning.

 

[snowleopard]

Why not have both . . . my own woodshed holds 2 + years of wood, is within 25 feet of my back door so it's easily accessible in the dead of winter and -- I may be biased -- but I really like the look.

Unfortunately for this farmer-at-heart, I'm on a hillside. The flat area around the house was carved out of it, so my space by the back door is somewhat limited. East lawn comes down to a retaining wall about 20 feet long and about 3 feet high--that's where I'd butt the shed up to. That next level follows the curve of the hill, and narrows as it moves away from the house. If I extend the woodshed a full 24 feet, I'd be cutting things kind of close. I think as I've got it planned, I'll be able to pull my toyota pu around there for wood deliveries, but not if I make the big shed. Trust me when I say I've been cogitating--worrying this like a dog with a chew toy.

On the west side, the land drops away more gradually, and there's more places to make some pretty stacks--then I could just carry the wood across the front of the house and resupply the woodshed.

Making my first attempt here to upload a picture, so please bear with me. This is the view from my downstairs doorway. The space is pretty limited right there--but I'm open to any suggestions. Where I'm considering putting the shed is back to the left there--it would encoumpass the concrete pad, which will be nice in case I need to do any additional chopping-block work. The ground drops off to the right where the fireweed is growing. Further back to the left, in that level area is my septic system--wish I could build a woodshed there, but I know that's not wise.

So here goes my attempt to post this.
ETA: Ha-it worked!

 

[snowleopard]

Just looking at this picture, I thought of another twist on this. This picture was taken underneath a deck (and yes, shoring up the corner support is way high on my to-do list this summer).

There is enough room under the deck to store 1.5 cord of wood off to the left, if I make a row of wood two deep and stack it 6' high--about as high as I can comfortably reach. That means I could build that wood shed to hold 3 cords, and have a winter's supply of wood off my back step. How cool would that be? So I could make a shed that was 8' long, 8' deep, and stack it 6' high, and even have some room left to store my bags of ashes, keep a chopping block set up, hang shovel, broom, etc. I think that's roughly the dimensions of the concrete pad there, so that would just make things easier in terms of laying out support structures, etc. I've already got the roofing, so 12 pallets and a few support rafters for the roof is all I'd need to get for that.

If I end up needing more than 4-1/2 cords this winter, we're already experienced at moving wood from staging areas--we could just pick a nice sunny weekend to refill the shed. It would be towards spring when we'd have to do that, anyway.

And then, once the woodshed is emptied in the spring, if I run the end pallets so that the slats are horizontal, once the shed is emptied I could run some 2x's from one side to the other in the back, and put plants out to harden off in the spring, and use it as a general potting shed. I could drop that tarp and keep the cool north breezes off the plants, and the sun would shine in directly on them.

Off to take some measurements.

 

[mecreature]

best I can figure is to use all summer to season the wood best you can.. then put some under cover in fall, Sept. or Oct around here.
It only takes a few days of sun and wind to dry the surface moisture I am thinking.

If you have already done this in years previous you are that much more ahead.

I have a plan for a 16x8 at 8 ft high... plenty of ventilation and it is going to double as a work place in the summer
(park the lawn tractor, set my beer in the shade kind of thing) and a shelter in the winter
(stack up wood that has been waiting to burn). Nothing more specific then that.

Around here you can get a dry breeze going that will dry things out pretty much anytime. Well except for this last few months.

I have plenty of lumber, shingles sitting around already to do it.. so that helps.

I drew a little something up to go by.. not quite done yet... it jives real well in the veggie garden


and the back side...

 

[ruserious2008]

Thoughts and comments so far are great! Thank you. I've been rehabbing foreclosures the last few years and find myself without a project at this time and am itching to build something so I think I'm going to build this sucker...can't hurt except the pocket book a little and I'm a curious and experimental type of guy so I need to get a moisture meter and I plan to see how wood in my solar wood shed seasons over the next 2 years vs a pile I'll leave in the open and one I'll cover the top with a tarp. Again great ideas here as I was not thinking of some things (like the suggestion to put a vapor barrier on the ground) and realized I should have a smaller shed close to the house for my seasoned winter supply. I already have some posts in the ground 5 ft from the house where I've been passing the wood in thru a slider window that were from a clothesline set up that I can use to make a shed to hold about 2 cords, which will cover me for a winter along with my ton of Eco bricks stored in the garage.
And for the gent that posted the graphic about his planned shed, ya need a Jacuzzi next to it to keep that fine looking lady happy
Thanks folks

 

[cygnus]

This site is loaded with cool stuff. It looks like you might want to research this solar kiln design:

http://www.timbergreenforestry.com/Solar Cycle Kilns.html

 

[firefighterjake]

best I can figure is to use all summer to season the wood best you can.. then put some under cover in fall, Sept. or Oct around here.
It only takes a few days of sun and wind to dry the surface moisture I am thinking.

If you have already done this in years previous you are that much more ahead.

I have a plan for a 16x8 at 8 ft high... plenty of ventilation and it is going to double as a work place in the summer
(park the lawn tractor, set my beer in the shade kind of thing) and a shelter in the winter
(stack up wood that has been waiting to burn). Nothing more specific then that.

Around here you can get a dry breeze going that will dry things out pretty much anytime. Well except for this last few months.

I have plenty of lumber, shingles sitting around already to do it.. so that helps.

I drew a little something up to go by.. not quite done yet... it jives real well in the veggie garden


and the back side...

And the lady in the bikini next to the woodshed . . . she the one stacking the wood in the woodshed?

 

[mecreature]

best I can figure is to use all summer to season the wood best you can.. then put some under cover in fall, Sept. or Oct around here.
It only takes a few days of sun and wind to dry the surface moisture I am thinking.

If you have already done this in years previous you are that much more ahead.

I have a plan for a 16x8 at 8 ft high... plenty of ventilation and it is going to double as a work place in the summer
(park the lawn tractor, set my beer in the shade kind of thing) and a shelter in the winter
(stack up wood that has been waiting to burn). Nothing more specific then that.

Around here you can get a dry breeze going that will dry things out pretty much anytime. Well except for this last few months.

I have plenty of lumber, shingles sitting around already to do it.. so that helps.

I drew a little something up to go by.. not quite done yet... it jives real well in the veggie garden


and the back side...

And the lady in the bikini next to the woodshed . . . she the one stacking the wood in the woodshed?

She is only there for scale.