Woodshed stacking question

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Stegman

Feeling the Heat
Jan 4, 2011
317
Sterling, MA
I'll be putting the finishing touches on my woodshed this weekend [installing the roof - pics available here at https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/woodshed-progress.89383/] and I want to get stacking. I was initially going to lay down pallets like I do everywhere else, but I'll have to cut them up like jigsaw pieces to make them fit around the footings.

Since I have a nice three-inch gravel base, is it OK to skip the pallets and stack the wood right there on the gravel? Or will the wood on the bottom absorb too much moisture from the ground? The wood is already seasoned and will be burned this winter.

Thoughts?
 
My vote is that you get the wood off the stone somehow. Pallets would be the cheapest.......great shed!
 
i have also heard of people laying down sheets of poly/plastic
 
If I were me . . . and I am me . . . I think . . . I would put the wood up on something other than gravel . . . chances are it would be fine if you use it all in a year with a roof overhead . . . assuming that by "gravel" we mean gravel and not actual stone.
 
You could put down some left-over 2x4s or something as sleepers...
 
I've been using used skids for years, setting right on the dirt, and have never had any problems. I always inspect the skids when I use the wood that is stacked on top of them, if they are bad I throw them out and replace them. Your base, being gravel, would allow te skids to stay good indefinitely. Especially with a roof above them.
 
I'm in the general vicinity of you, and I also vote for the pallet method. In additional to keeping the wood of the ground, you'll also prevent the nice crushed stone from freezing to the wood the bottom of the stacks. I see that you are in the Worcester Area, and I am always seeing free pallets on craigslist....you could probably just get 4-6 and just cut them up as needed to fit.

Also, nice shed...been meaning to do the same but there are still too many items on the honey do list.
 
I agree with the above. Off the ground, (gravel) some how.
Don't have to be pallets but I used them & cut some to make them fit.

Nice shed & a level surface . Throw down a few 2X4s under each row would work too.
 
OK, pallets it is then. I already have a bunch. I just want to get stacking and was trying to cut some corners.

Thanks guys.
 
As long as you have them, you may as well use them. Personally I do not like pallets. I'd much rather just take some of the logs you cut and lay down 2 rows then stack the rest of the wood on those. If they are wet when you get the rest of the wood off, just save them for use next year. We just cut saplings in the woods to lay down and stack on them. They last a few years then we replace.
 
Or stack as many pallets together as you can w/o cutting? Judging by the pictures (and I remember reading that thread good job!) you'd loose 6" to a foot all the way around if you don't 'jigsaw' around the footers. Does it have to be so close to the walls? Leave a foot all the way around. Unless you planned on using the walls as bracing for stacking.
 
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