Wood Rack Advice

[therealdbeau]

Hello all. I'm going to build a wood rack to hold 1 full cord. It will consist of 3 cinder blocks as the foundation. 2 - 16 foot 2x4's on top of that. I will level the base then place 2 - 6 foot 2x4's vertical in the end cinder blocks to serve as the side walls. I'll add 2x4 stretchers between the 16 foot boards to help stabilize things.

It occured to me that this is a pretty serious wall of wood and stability might be an issue. I'm going to put 1 of these together first and see how it goes and hopefully make more if things go well.

Anyone have some advice for keeping this thing from falling over or just generally enhancing the stability of it?

I was thinking maybe I should wrap rope or wire around it to keep it from falling over once full of wood.

Thanks

 

[Supersurvey]

We go up a few feet then tie wire between the posts and continue stacking.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

The higher you go the stronger your sides will need to be.. why dont you do 2 racks...1 16 foot long rack and an 8 foot and only go 4 foot or at the most 5 foot high... just as an FYI a cord is not alot of wood you you might plan on multiple racks anyway

 

[therealdbeau]

The higher you go the stronger your sides will need to be.. why dont you do 2 racks...1 16 foot long rack and an 8 foot and only go 4 foot or at the most 5 foot high... just as an FYI a cord is not alot of wood you you might plan on multiple racks anyway

The end goal is 9 cords. Space is an issue though so the more vertical I can go the more I can fit. I'm trying to cram 9 cords into an area roughly 16x24 feet with enough room to breath and move things around.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Hello all. I'm going to build a wood rack to hold 1 full cord. It will consist of 3 cinder blocks as the foundation. 2 - 16 foot 2x4's on top of that. I will level the base then place 2 - 6 foot 2x4's vertical in the end cinder blocks to serve as the side walls. I'll add 2x4 stretchers between the 16 foot boards to help stabilize things.

It occured to me that this is a pretty serious wall of wood and stability might be an issue. I'm going to put 1 of these together first and see how it goes and hopefully make more if things go well.

Anyone have some advice for keeping this thing from falling over or just generally enhancing the stability of it?

I was thinking maybe I should wrap rope or wire around it to keep it from falling over once full of wood.

Thanks

3 cinder blocks won't cut it. One at least every 4 feet, even that probably will not be enough with 2x4s.

It will fall over unless you lean it against a wall. The cinder blocks on the ground will heave unevenly with the freeze thaw cycle.

Just got done restacking a 17' long wall of wood that fell over. I'm certain I'll be doing it again this winter. I'll be making shorter stacks once the ground thaws and I can level the ground under my blocks.

 

[Sawset]

An observation - spanning 16ft with 2x4s, supporting 3-5000lb of wood will not hold up. 2x10s supported every 6-8ft would be better, or something like that. On the other hand, I store cords of wood using locust poles (or treated 2x4s) laying directly on the ground, steel fence posts for ends, fence wire doubled to span the posts. Fast cheap and easy. You could do this in 12ft sections twice over to get your 24ft. 6 of these rows would get you to 9 cords. One thing to note though - sorting and restocking will be very tight in a small area of 16x24. Getting a trailer or at least a wheelbarrow down the middle somehow would alleviate that some.

 

[therealdbeau]

Well I was thinking of laying it out like in the diagram attached so there was a space in the middle to sort/load/split etc. Each section of 3 cords would be for each year. I've already bought the supplies for one rack so I'm gonna give it a go and see how it goes.

 

[new_wood]

Unless the wood will already be seasoned when you stack in the area, it will take a lot longer to season than normal due to lack of airflow getting to some of the stacks in each of the three sections. In my experience, mine has seasoned faster when I stack in single rows versus putting 2 rows up against each other. Just my opinion.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Well I was thinking of laying it out like in the diagram attached so there was a space in the middle to sort/load/split etc. Each section of 3 cords would be for each year. I've already bought the supplies for one rack so I'm gonna give it a go and see how it goes.

Fyi- I had about a little less than 4' spacing for my cinder blocks under my racks, using landscape timbers roughly 3x5, and had one timber break, and all of them bend a lot, probably gonna break more unless I get them supported better.

 

[therealdbeau]

Not to offend but I have a hard time believing that a 2x4 stood on the short end with a cinder block every 4 feet is going to bow but I guess I'll find out.

Unless the wood will already be seasoned when you stack in the area, it will take a lot longer to season than normal due to lack of airflow getting to some of the stacks in each of the three sections. In my experience, mine has seasoned faster when I stack in single rows versus putting 2 rows up against each other. Just my opinion.

The plan is to have a 3 year seasoning rotation. I'm hoping 3 years is enough even if not optimal airflow.

 

[Sawset]

Not to offend but I have a hard time believing that a 2x4 stood on the short end with a cinder block every 4 feet is going to bow but I guess I'll find out.



The plan is to have a 3 year seasoning rotation. I'm hoping 3 years is enough even if not optimal airflow.

1cord wet = 5000lb
14ft x 5.5high x 20" = 1cord
Each 2x4 would need to support 700lb
Analogy :
Hanging a good sized garden tractor by one 4ft 2x4 turned on end.

A lot of construction situations spec 40lb/sqft for floor joists, rafters, deck supports, etc. Your at 105.
It will work, till it starts to lean.

 

[therealdbeau]

Maybe it would help to make each section of 3 cords 1 structure. What I mean is to link 3, 1-cord racks together. I guess at that point I'm just making 3, 3-cord wood sheds huh.

What would you all do with an area roughly 16'x24' to get about 9 cords but with enough room to rummage about as needed. This area is just the "wood lot" so to speak where most of the drying will happen. I hopefully will build a 2-ish cord shed for the dry stuff closer to the house.

 

[maple1]

Maybe it would help to make each section of 3 cords 1 structure. What I mean is to link 3, 1-cord racks together. I guess at that point I'm just making 3, 3-cord wood sheds huh.

What would you all do with an area roughly 16'x24' to get about 9 cords but with enough room to rummage about as needed. This area is just the "wood lot" so to speak where most of the drying will happen. I hopefully will build a 2-ish cord shed for the dry stuff closer to the house.

How long is your wood? Assuming 18"?

Consider double staking on elevated pallets (on top of blocks). 4 rows double stacked 24' long & 4' high is 9 cords. Gives you about 4' of extra space to divy up between the 3 spaces in between the 4 rows.

Orient the stacks so prevailing winds blow into the ends of them. I.e., blows down & thru the spaces between stacks. If possible.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Maybe it would help to make each section of 3 cords 1 structure. What I mean is to link 3, 1-cord racks together. I guess at that point I'm just making 3, 3-cord wood sheds huh.

What would you all do with an area roughly 16'x24' to get about 9 cords but with enough room to rummage about as needed. This area is just the "wood lot" so to speak where most of the drying will happen. I hopefully will build a 2-ish cord shed for the dry stuff closer to the house.

I've been having the same waffling problem for about 5 years. Eventually I do something a little makeshift to get by, but I understand your process. If you have your area picked out, you are halfway there.

For single row stacks, having some break at about every 8" is helpful. Then, if one falls, the whole thing doesn't fall. My 135' wall fell a couple times but always stopped at the break.

Oh, and I was curious, is there someone else we should be looking out for, claiming to be The Dbeau?

 

[therealdbeau]

I've been having the same waffling problem for about 5 years. Eventually I do something a little makeshift to get by, but I understand your process. If you have your area picked out, you are halfway there.

For single row stacks, having some break at about every 8" is helpful. Then, if one falls, the whole thing doesn't fall. My 135' wall fell a couple times but always stopped at the break.

Oh, and I was curious, is there someone else out there claiming to be The Dbeau?

Haha yeah well when I went to sign up for the forum here my usual handle "dbeau" was already taken so rather than be creative and dream up something else I went with this.

But yeah, I've changed the location of my wood racks on my property about 3 times now. I'm sure whatever racks I build now will be changed later. My main issue right now is that the area I'm planning on building my racks is already occupied by all of my wood that I've haphazardly piled on pallets in one big pile. Therefore, I can't just build all my racks at once. I have to build one at a time and fill it in as I go and free up more space as I fill the racks.

Also, this area isn't flat. Not incredibly slanted but not flat. I'll put a picture up when I get a chance.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Haha yeah well when I went to sign up for the forum here my usual handle "dbeau" was already taken so rather than be creative and dream up something else I went with this.

But yeah, I've changed the location of my wood racks on my property about 3 times now. I'm sure whatever racks I build now will be changed later. My main issue right now is that the area I'm planning on building my racks is already occupied by all of my wood that I've haphazardly piled on pallets in one big pile. Therefore, I can't just build all my racks at once. I have to build one at a time and fill it in as I go and free up more space as I fill the racks.

Also, this area isn't flat. Not incredibly slanted but not flat. I'll put a picture up when I get a chance.

Yep, totally relate. I move wood around way more than necessary. If I only had a better plan going in...

Now, we just need to be on the lookout for that dbeau imposter...

 

[Sawset]

One thing that I've been thinking about - wood shrinks as it dries. From wet high moisture, to 20%, wood can shrink up to 10%. A 5ft stack would loose 6" by the time it dried down. But it all doesn't dry at the same rate. Radial shrinkage is about half that of tangential. The first year the stacks are fairly unstable, and I'm out there hitting pcs back to center. After that they move very little. If you're looking to get stacks off the ground and elevated, I like the idea of using pallets - since they are wider and won't add nearly as much to the stability issue.

 

[armanidog]

I use that method and what I found was that you need a block in the middle to support the middle of the rack. I use landscape timbers (like a 4x4 but rounded and cheaper). and they will bow down from the weight of the wood. You can dig a hole and put cap blocks in the hole and then the cinder blocks on top of them. otherwise the cinder block sink in the ground.
The 2x4's are edgewise to the firewood and they have not bent in three years.

 

[maple1]

Cinder blocks can sink some, yup, but I put mine right on the ground on the first loading. The sinking evened them up - higher ones sink more with more weight. Next time around I flip them over and get 4" or so of gravel onto where they sunk. Seems to do it. The higher (bigger) the blocks, the better.

 

[tsquini]

As wood dries it shrinks. The spaces between get bigger. Stack tightly and go over 4 ft. Gravity will always win.