OK, Folks, I've been lurking for aa while to get info and now decided to jump in. We just bought our first wood stove, a Lopi Leyden in Firerun Red, to be installed Monday in our new log house. I guess I'll learn the stove when I get it started but my question concerns wood storage. I have a full length front porch over a concrete patio (walk-out basement) and was thinking about storing my seasoning wood on the patio. It is open to the wind but protected from rain unless the wind is really whipping around. Should the wood pile still be covered with a tarp or is the protection of the porch and porch roof sufficient? Thanks, and this is a great place to learn!
Wood Storage Question
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Gasifier
Minister of Fire
This is my opinion. I put a clear plastic cover over just the top if I have some available. Keeps the rain and snow off the top and running down through the rest of the wood, but lets the wood breath well and the sun and wind get to it. Keep at least a few inches between your stacks so moisture can not get trapped. If I have room I will leave 12-18" between the stacks. But this year I wanted more wood in the same place, so I only left 2-3" between them. If you are not going to burn it for a while, the roof will also be enough coverage. The wood will dry good like that as well.
Are you burning it this year? How long has the wood been cut and split?
Are you burning it this year? How long has the wood been cut and split?
shawneyboy
Minister of Fire
I would be cautions of storing unseasoned wood that close to the home, especially a log home. You would be better to store your "seasoning" wood in the open in the sun and exposed to the wind. After it is seasoned then maybe put it, or some of it, on the porch for ease of use.
Welcome Aboard.
The stack is already covered by the porch above it, yes?
This wood is not long tern storage; you are actually going to be burning this in the coming weeks, yes?
The stack is already covered by the porch above it, yes?
This wood is not long tern storage; you are actually going to be burning this in the coming weeks, yes?
Kenster
Minister of Fire
The only wood that needs to be covered is wood that is ALREADY dry (seasoned), NOT green wood. Why would you want to stack and store green wood on your deck for a year or two? Stack your unseasoned wood out in the yard, UNCOVERED, where it will get maximum wind and sun. Depending upon what kind of wood you have, this will probably take a year, maybe two, before the wood is dry enough to burn.
At this time of year, you may have a hard time finding wood that is already dry, despite what what the Firewood seller will tell you. Ideally, your wood should have a moisture content of 20% or less. First year of burning is always hard. You will be trying to learn how to work your stove and most new burners are trying to do that with green wood.
That will make for a very frustrating, smokey, messy, non-productive experience. If you have not already secured a bunch of good, seasoned wood, many of us will suggest you buy a pallet of bio block. These will burn great, give lots of heat, and will help you greatly in your learning curve. But, you should also immediately start building up your supply of wood for next year. Get it split and stacked - again-- out in the sun and wind, UNCOVERED. Depending upon your wood type, it MIGHT be ready next year if you get after it now.
Really, the only wood that needs to be under cover is wood that is already seasoned that you will be burning in the very near term. Rain or snow only dampens the surface of the wood and it will dry quickly in a couple of days. I keep maybe three days worth of wood on the front porch. The rest is out exposed year round.
At this time of year, you may have a hard time finding wood that is already dry, despite what what the Firewood seller will tell you. Ideally, your wood should have a moisture content of 20% or less. First year of burning is always hard. You will be trying to learn how to work your stove and most new burners are trying to do that with green wood.
That will make for a very frustrating, smokey, messy, non-productive experience. If you have not already secured a bunch of good, seasoned wood, many of us will suggest you buy a pallet of bio block. These will burn great, give lots of heat, and will help you greatly in your learning curve. But, you should also immediately start building up your supply of wood for next year. Get it split and stacked - again-- out in the sun and wind, UNCOVERED. Depending upon your wood type, it MIGHT be ready next year if you get after it now.
Really, the only wood that needs to be under cover is wood that is already seasoned that you will be burning in the very near term. Rain or snow only dampens the surface of the wood and it will dry quickly in a couple of days. I keep maybe three days worth of wood on the front porch. The rest is out exposed year round.
Wood Duck
Minister of Fire
I'd be a little concerned about storing green firewood on the porch. Firewood always seems to accumulate dirt, bits of bark, etc. that attract bug. Most of the bugs are just creepy/nuisance bugs, but I still wouldn't want them on the porch all summer. If you are talking about putting some already seasoned fireewood on the porch in the fall for winter burning, then i think it is a good plan. That is what I do. The porch roof is more than enough coverage.
for your green/fresh/unseasoned firewood I'd stack it out in the open. It doesn't really need to be covered, especially in summer.
for your green/fresh/unseasoned firewood I'd stack it out in the open. It doesn't really need to be covered, especially in summer.
Thanks for the response (and thanks to the Mod that moved this to where it should have been!) The wood is already dry and will be burned this winter. I have 60 acres so I have to start cutting (thinning) for next year (mostly Oak, Beech, and Maple). Until I read your answers I had planned to put the green wood there also but now I will re-think that! I have a covered shed lean-to I can press into service. Thanks again.
Beware of carpenter ants! I had great dreams of building my own full scribe log home. I had the land, and I had a few larger white pines to "play with". Short story is, I ended up leaving the white pines about 100' from where I built the stick frame house, 
, and had a problem with carpenter ants inside the house. Well, short story is, they had made a huge nest inside that white pine 100' away....and apparently they had satellite nests inside the house. We'd see about 20 a week. Well, I finally discovered the nest in the white pine, and removed it, and the ants inside are gone. Amazing how these critters work.
Obviously your concern with ants should be paramount....they would LOVE to nest inside your walls. I would NOT bring wood that close to the house to season. If you know it is clean, and temporary waiting to come inside, I'd say fine.
When I'm splitting now and we find ants, and we do frequently, we take the split, lay it down, and pour a little gas on them. I know of nothing else that truly kills them well. Did all sorts of experiments on that pine log nest....sprays, baits, powders....nothing killed them dead. I ended up cutting into the nest and dumping gas in it. The nest was amazing. About a 3' length of the log, about 18" in diameter, they had turned into a honeycomb. It was filled with big eggs, more ants than i could ever hope to count, and I turned the sections on end and poured in a little gas. problem solved. That morning I had tried to spray it....and all the ants...thousands of them...started running out. In about an hour, I had a section of my yard (the log was on the edge of the grass right were the trees started), this maybe 20'x20' section of my hard was covered with ants...all apparently fleeing towards the house! Amazing thing to me is, NONE seemed to go in the direction of the woods....all went towards the grass, towards the house. Anways, I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed all the yard and finally they seemed to die....but I went through 3 bottles of the stuff, supposedly killing on contact. Nope. They do a little dance and then be back on their way. Gas.....instant. The whole nest.
By the way, one of my experiments was with the borax powder stuff. I rolled the log over and covered the ground beneath, and the log, etc. The next day, there were hundreds of white ants running around, and they had collected a pile of their dead, maybe a few hundred ants.
So the spray pissed them off enough to flee, towards the house, and the war had begun and HAD to be finished. It doesn't take much gas, a cup is a huge amount....but it is the only thing I have found that will kill them, all of them, on contact or even within the vicinty.
I'd be very careful at all times looking for the buggers. Apparently any nests within 300' will be a source of satelitte nests. I spent hours outside at night trying to trace them down....it was "fun". Almost.
Since that log was killed....they appear to be gone. I'm in the middle of the woods, 300' radius here involves a huge amount of trees, possibilities, etc.
One last note....a few nights before the final battle, I went over to the white pine and there was another smaller white pine. I kicked it....and within 30 seconds, the entire end of the log was moving, enveloped in carpenter ants. Amazing to see! The next morning I went back to that log and kicked it, nothing. Not a single ant. I cut into it....nothing. These buggers will move, almost swarm I guess, from place to place looking for places to establish satelittle nests.
Don't ever give them an opportunity to do this in your new home!
rANT off!
, and had a problem with carpenter ants inside the house. Well, short story is, they had made a huge nest inside that white pine 100' away....and apparently they had satellite nests inside the house. We'd see about 20 a week. Well, I finally discovered the nest in the white pine, and removed it, and the ants inside are gone. Amazing how these critters work.Obviously your concern with ants should be paramount....they would LOVE to nest inside your walls. I would NOT bring wood that close to the house to season. If you know it is clean, and temporary waiting to come inside, I'd say fine.
When I'm splitting now and we find ants, and we do frequently, we take the split, lay it down, and pour a little gas on them. I know of nothing else that truly kills them well. Did all sorts of experiments on that pine log nest....sprays, baits, powders....nothing killed them dead. I ended up cutting into the nest and dumping gas in it. The nest was amazing. About a 3' length of the log, about 18" in diameter, they had turned into a honeycomb. It was filled with big eggs, more ants than i could ever hope to count, and I turned the sections on end and poured in a little gas. problem solved. That morning I had tried to spray it....and all the ants...thousands of them...started running out. In about an hour, I had a section of my yard (the log was on the edge of the grass right were the trees started), this maybe 20'x20' section of my hard was covered with ants...all apparently fleeing towards the house! Amazing thing to me is, NONE seemed to go in the direction of the woods....all went towards the grass, towards the house. Anways, I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed all the yard and finally they seemed to die....but I went through 3 bottles of the stuff, supposedly killing on contact. Nope. They do a little dance and then be back on their way. Gas.....instant. The whole nest.
By the way, one of my experiments was with the borax powder stuff. I rolled the log over and covered the ground beneath, and the log, etc. The next day, there were hundreds of white ants running around, and they had collected a pile of their dead, maybe a few hundred ants.
So the spray pissed them off enough to flee, towards the house, and the war had begun and HAD to be finished. It doesn't take much gas, a cup is a huge amount....but it is the only thing I have found that will kill them, all of them, on contact or even within the vicinty.
I'd be very careful at all times looking for the buggers. Apparently any nests within 300' will be a source of satelitte nests. I spent hours outside at night trying to trace them down....it was "fun". Almost.
Since that log was killed....they appear to be gone. I'm in the middle of the woods, 300' radius here involves a huge amount of trees, possibilities, etc.
One last note....a few nights before the final battle, I went over to the white pine and there was another smaller white pine. I kicked it....and within 30 seconds, the entire end of the log was moving, enveloped in carpenter ants. Amazing to see! The next morning I went back to that log and kicked it, nothing. Not a single ant. I cut into it....nothing. These buggers will move, almost swarm I guess, from place to place looking for places to establish satelittle nests.
Don't ever give them an opportunity to do this in your new home!
rANT off!
Dracomeister said:
So me, the sophmoric idiot, I'm the only one that could read that?? :lol:
So, since this wood is going to feed your stove in the near future, needs no covering in addition to the porch above. The issue of bugs. . . you are going to have to store SOME wood in/near the house. But I'd not suggest putting an entire season's worth up next to the house.
Kenster
Minister of Fire
Dracomeister said:
That goes against everything we've just told you. Don't put the green wood in the shed or under any cover at all! Leave it out in the open. You have sixty acres. There has got to be a place where you can stack your green wood to get max sun and wind for a year or so. Wouldn't hurt to leave your oak out there two years. Keep it out of the shed until it's dry. You can use the shed as a staging area between your remote stacks and your covered porch. Then you can keep a few days worth of wood on the porch.
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Dracomeister said:
Welcome to the forum Dracomeister.
By now you no doubt get the idea that most folks do not like your idea. So here is my take. If the wood is dry and you plan on burning it right away, by all means, stack it on the porch but I see no need to cover as the porch has a roof (I think). But, stacking green wood there, even if in the wind, the wind can't circulate; it can only hit the sides of the piles but not blow through. You need circulation and the best way is to stack outside in the windiest spot you have. If you can also stack in the sun that too is good but wind is the most important.
We do all of our cutting in the winter months and then after snow melt we do the splitting and the stacking follows immediately. Because we have several years before we burn the wood, this is how we stack the wood:
Notice the poles under the wood. This keeps the wood from touching the ground and also allows for some ventilation which speeds the drying process. If the wood were needed the following year, then we would stack in single rows.
Just before snow flies we then cover the wood like this:
Notice that we cover only the top of the stack. We use old galvanized roofing and we hate tarps as they make the worst covering. We also never cover the sides or ends of the stacks.
It is our belief that leaving the wood uncovered that first summer and fall allows for better evaporation of the moisture and one thing that we do notice is that we stack the wood approximately 4.5' high. By early winter when we cover the wood the height will usually be down to 4' and sometimes less which tells us that a lot of water has gone from that wood. Even with this, we still like to leave our wood in the stack more than a year and have burned up to 8 or 9 years old but that is rare. We have burned a lot of 6-7 year old wood though and the benefit of this is that you get more heat from less wood and never have a problem with that darned stove that doesn't want to burn the wood. This wood burns wonderfully.
bogydave
Minister of Fire
Welcome
You got some good advice above.
Green stuff is good to have it out in single rows for a year for good air circulation. If you cover it, just cover the top, a rigid cover is better than tarps IMO
It will dry in a shed but the stuff in the middle will take allot longer.
Save the shed space for the 1 year or more dry stuff.
Separate any red oak, as it will take 2 - 3 years in humid Tennessee to dry then put it in the shed.
Sound like you are going to start having a bunch of green wood to season. Keep it off the ground. Pallets on the bottom works great.
The dry stuff you will burn this year, patio will work, nice to be "handy" to load the stove. Patio roof is the cover.
You are just showing signs of "firewood addiction". Most of us are members of this support group. We can help you thru the beginning stages :lol: LOL
You got some good advice above.
Green stuff is good to have it out in single rows for a year for good air circulation. If you cover it, just cover the top, a rigid cover is better than tarps IMO
It will dry in a shed but the stuff in the middle will take allot longer.
Save the shed space for the 1 year or more dry stuff.
Separate any red oak, as it will take 2 - 3 years in humid Tennessee to dry then put it in the shed.
Sound like you are going to start having a bunch of green wood to season. Keep it off the ground. Pallets on the bottom works great.
The dry stuff you will burn this year, patio will work, nice to be "handy" to load the stove. Patio roof is the cover.
You are just showing signs of "firewood addiction". Most of us are members of this support group. We can help you thru the beginning stages :lol: LOL
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
ISeeDeadBTUs said:
Gotta agree . . . since it is already seasoned . . . I see no problem and wouldn't bother with a tarp on top unless you are worried about water or snow getting in despite the roof. In fact I store wood in my woodshed for two years and it's about 20-30 feet from the house and then I put up a little more than a week's worth of wood on my covered porch in the winter . . . I should mention that I only put the wood that close to the house though once temps get quite cold just in case there are any buggers in there . . . so far, so good . . . but I imagine our temps up here are a bit cooler than what you get.
Welcome to the forum by the way.
Sixty acres of woodlot--sounds great!
I had thoughts of building a woodshed, then took a look around my place and started doing the math:
10x14 deck over the back door--I drape a tarp over the floor of the deck, and have covered storage for 3-4 cords;
32x8 overhang on the south side of the garage will hold 4-5 cords easy;
40x6 porch across the back of the house, another four cords with no problem. I've got far more storage than i need for wood this winter.
Woodshed plans were nixed. My seasoned, ready-to-burn wood goes under the deck/porch/overhang and stays dry. I don't care if blowing snow gets on it, because when it's windy enough to blow snow, it's very dry snow. The rain or wet snow falls straight down and my wood is sheltered from that. Tarps would be a major nuisance in that application. (It took me about an hour to nail one to the bottomside of the deck with lath and curses during the three day rain we had last winter. DS looked at it later and asked why I didn't just lay it across the top of the deck. "Shut up," I explained.)
I store my seasoning wood as per posts above--out in the wind and the rain and the sun, uncovered. I try to keep the weeds around it knocked back so that the moisture has no bridge to encourage rot. Other than that, put it on pallets and forget it.
I had thoughts of building a woodshed, then took a look around my place and started doing the math:
10x14 deck over the back door--I drape a tarp over the floor of the deck, and have covered storage for 3-4 cords;
32x8 overhang on the south side of the garage will hold 4-5 cords easy;
40x6 porch across the back of the house, another four cords with no problem. I've got far more storage than i need for wood this winter.
Woodshed plans were nixed. My seasoned, ready-to-burn wood goes under the deck/porch/overhang and stays dry. I don't care if blowing snow gets on it, because when it's windy enough to blow snow, it's very dry snow. The rain or wet snow falls straight down and my wood is sheltered from that. Tarps would be a major nuisance in that application. (It took me about an hour to nail one to the bottomside of the deck with lath and curses during the three day rain we had last winter. DS looked at it later and asked why I didn't just lay it across the top of the deck. "Shut up," I explained.)
I store my seasoning wood as per posts above--out in the wind and the rain and the sun, uncovered. I try to keep the weeds around it knocked back so that the moisture has no bridge to encourage rot. Other than that, put it on pallets and forget it.
Woody Stover
Minister of Fire
WoodpileOCD
Minister of Fire
Dracomeister said:
I'm just going to pile on here. You are first year wood burner asking for advice but you aren't listening to the people who have been doing this for a long, long time. Probably because you have some preconceived notions about having to keep wood dry in order for it to 'season'. Nothing could be farther from the truth as you can see from the comments above.
There is a difference between wet wood and unseasoned wood. To me, wet means it has been rained on and it will dry in a few days. Unseasoned (which is way more important) means it is wet on the inside and will take 1-3 years to dry out.
I have never covered my wood but may start doing the Backwood Savage routine of covering only the top after the first year simply because I've never done anything he has recommended that hasn't worked out pretty good. (Well, maybe occasionally splitting horizontally) You'll get that inside joke after you've been around awhile, trust me. You have gotten the advice of probably a combined 200+ years of experience in the last half dozen posts... Heed it.
tim1
Member
I guess that I never really gave to much thought to the seasoning of firewood to the degree of sticking a moisture meter in it as I burn with a smoke dragon Fisher. In Oregon here, I usually split the fir in spring, let set in sun and lots of wing all summer and then put in my ventilated shed for 2 years till use. But now, with the PE Summit to be installed, I will have to change my thinking. I have 3 cords in logs to be cut, Do you guys with the epa stoves feel that I should let in stacks outside in the rain 24/7 thru the winter with a sheet metal top? Can do this, just never did. The new stove will want dry dry wood! Oh did i mention lots of wind here in the Columbia River Gorge. Thanks Tim
PapaDave
Minister of Fire
Dracomeister, first off, welcome to the Hearth.
If that wood is already dry, I'd say stacking it on the patio which is under the porch, which is under the porch roof, should keep all but a small bit of blowing rain/snow from getting to the wood.
If you are still DRYING the wood but need to burn it now, same applies. You should think hard about getting more wood put up for the next couple of years in a somewhat open, windy and maybe sunny spot. This amount of time of course, depends on the type of wood you're burning and the weather conditions you have in your area of Tennessee.
So, how do you like the new stove? Done with the break-in fires? We'd love to see pics of that and the patio/porch area. We're pic crazy.....well, I am.
If that wood is already dry, I'd say stacking it on the patio which is under the porch, which is under the porch roof, should keep all but a small bit of blowing rain/snow from getting to the wood.
If you are still DRYING the wood but need to burn it now, same applies. You should think hard about getting more wood put up for the next couple of years in a somewhat open, windy and maybe sunny spot. This amount of time of course, depends on the type of wood you're burning and the weather conditions you have in your area of Tennessee.
So, how do you like the new stove? Done with the break-in fires? We'd love to see pics of that and the patio/porch area. We're pic crazy.....well, I am.
tim1
Member
I am in the process of rebricking and sealing the summit. Currently running a pappa bear fisher and really love it, bit if I can save a third wood, that is alot. Will post some photos of install and wood storage area soon. Always looking for wood!
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