indoor/oudoor storage

beermann · Sep 20, 2017

So I'm not experienced with storing wood but I am planning on moving some wood closer to the house and some inside the house before winter hits. here is my dilemma.....i have a lot of pride in the yardwork i do so and i also worry about toddlers getting hurt so if i move the pile out from behind the shed then it's not helping the curb appeal to my back yard and as many of you know. Kids/small toddlers can and will get hurt around a stack of wood.

The question is.....

What sort of storage units do you guys use when stacking a week of wood right beside a back door. I don't want to just stack an open pile of wood beside the door as I've got two young children and many of their tiny friends who will undoubly get hurt one way or another.

Also if you stack indoors what are you storing it in.

Please provide pictures. I have 2 links below for what I was thinking. These are not exact items and I'm not selling anything. Just giving you an idea of what I was thinking about using.

Outdoor storage
Link 1:
https://www.lowes.ca/deck-boxes/keter-101-gal-glenwood-deck-box_g2780553.html

Indoor storage beside the fireplace
Link 2:
https://woodlandcreekfurniture.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Firewood-Holder.jpg

Except for free standing piles please provide photos of what you use and are doing.

Thanks.

maple1 · Sep 20, 2017

Not sure it will appeal to you - but I put my whole winters wood in my basement (doing that right now). And the next 2 winters wood is piled on the edges of our yard. I think woodpiles can look kind of good, if done neat. Woodpile fences.

Also raised 3 kids here over the past 20 years - no injuries.

Tocramed · Sep 20, 2017

I can say that I just use a face cord rack; one of the store bought metal ones, right next to my back door. I just keep it covered enough to keep snow off the wood. I don't like the idea of storing inside for too long as any bugs may wake up and start moving around, but I know some people do store indoors.

I don't know what the quality if the deck box you linked to is, but in my experience, plastic anything will not hold up well during the winter. The cold makes the plastic brittle and a single split falling on the floor could put a hole in it. I have had many plastic pallets get destroyed during the winter from many things, including firewood.

One or two face cords on racks outside has been working great for me.

Dobish · Sep 20, 2017

i stack my wood right outside the back patio, right next to the radial arm saw and the chainsaw chains that are waiting to be sharpened. I tell the toddlers not to touch them, and so far i've had success. Every so often I come home and they are building their own wood piles using the scraps

I bring in about 3 days worth of wood and will stack it up in the closet across from the stove. We have a big gate around our stove, so they don't get to go in there unattended, so I'm not worried about having them near the stove or the wood piles.

For a long time, we had multiple piles scattered about the front yard, areas fenced off, etc, so I don't know if I'm a good example of how to make it look nice. I've been in project mode for the last 3 years and I think my kids and their friends are just used to hazards. It keeps things interesting

Below is a quick rack I made to get about 2 weeks worth of wood, just outside the back door. I put a back on it so the wood wasn't right up against the side of the house.

velvetfoot · Sep 20, 2017

I have 4 cords stacked in the garage, which should be enough for the winter. I'm not crazy about it because my wood seems to get powder post beetles which has a tendency to bore into unpainted wood. I've got drywall over the walls and ceiling but they bored into the bare windows, which I then painted. Don't seem to be in the house.
The convenience outweighs the potential problems for me.

WoodyIsGoody · Sep 20, 2017

maple1 said:
I think woodpiles can look kind of good, if done neat. Woodpile fences.

Oh yeah! Nothing looks better than a nice stack of firewood. Show that stuff off!

firefighterjake · Sep 20, 2017

I make more work for myself . . . but it works for me and gives me a sense of security.

Once a week I move a bunch of wood on to the covered back porch. I would guess there is close to two weeks' worth of wood there.

Once a day I move a load of wood into the woodbox . . . it's something I cobbled together with left over 2 x 4s and tongue and groove pine. Added a few hooks on the side for tools and a plastic tote inside to help with the mess as I can just take out the tote and dump the majority of the mess.

Ctwoodtick · Sep 20, 2017

Woodstack are only dangerous if stacked high and are tippy.

Birdbrain · Sep 20, 2017

I hope it is ok to jump in with a question here about wood piles. I am afraid of having woodpiles near the house....I am afraid of snakes. Is there a deterrent to snakes making home in the piles? 4 years ago there was a massagua (sp?) in our pile. We have had other snakes as well. Building on my son's 40 acres. He has 6-7 foot milk snakes and many black snakes.

johneh · Sep 20, 2017

maple1 said:
Not sure it will appeal to you - but I put my whole winters wood in my basement

X2

Hogwildz · Sep 20, 2017

Curb appeal & back yard? Kind of an oxymoron?
No one can see out back from the front curb right? That problem solved.

Inside stacking, I don't do, only when I was laid up with a hernia repair surgery.
I bought the larges totes that walmart had, and filled 6 in the living room. The advantage is the wood dries out even better and faster in the stove room with low humidity. But generally, I stack on the back porch just outside my back door, no need for inside storage.

Outside, tell the kids the rules and dangers of playing on/around wood stacks. Then, let them be kids.
Keep the stacks lower and wider, rather than taller and narrower, and you should be okay. Or build a shed or rack for the wood.

I used to have a small pallet shed I built (I called it the wood manger), that I could disassemble after burning season & store in the barn. Then set up come next season.

maple1 · Sep 21, 2017

Birdbrain said:
I hope it is ok to jump in with a question here about wood piles. I am afraid of having woodpiles near the house....I am afraid of snakes. Is there a deterrent to snakes making home in the piles? 4 years ago there was a massagua (sp?) in our pile. We have had other snakes as well. Building on my son's 40 acres. He has 6-7 foot milk snakes and many black snakes.

That is one case for stacking the wood in the basement instead of piles or stacks just outside. When you restack into the basement, you are also leaving everything that would have been in the outdoors piles - outdoors. Away from the house. If you stack just outside or against the house - then you have a place some critters (snakes, mice, whatever) might take up housekeeping in where it is only a short crawl walk or whatever into your house. I move all my wood into the basement after 2 years of seasoning away from the house and in the open, after a long dry spell. Right now. Sometimes I find a mouse nest or two - whatever I find there when I unstack that I wouldn't want in the house stays outside. The wood comes in dry & clean. Stacking against the house makes the side against the house a pretty cozy place for undesirables.

Also might add that when the kids were in their air soft days, the stacks became a war ground - paint ball obstacle like. Used to have them & their friends out there for hours. No injuries. Double stacked, solid. I don't see a reason to fear stacks hurting kids, if stacked right.

saewoody · Sep 21, 2017

Main racks:

. That is four rows deep. I have an additional 2 cords in two other spots.

Short term outside the door rack:

Right now it just has some firepit wood on it.

Inside rack:

. These pics are from today, so please nobody get too worked up about my 3 year old's doll next to the stove and my 9 year old's football practice pants. They won't catch fire right now. As for why they are there? Who knows. I find the less questions I ask, the less worked up and stressed I get. The wood box is the kindling box. It is usually a mix cardboard, egg crates, junk mail and scraps from the splitter.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Birdbrain · Sep 21, 2017

Well, I really like the basement idea to keep unwanteds away, but I do not have basement. But I could keep it stacked far away and bring more over to Garage after freezes. Are there repellants that keep snakes away?

blades · Sep 21, 2017

Birdbrain said:
Well, I really like the basement idea to keep unwanteds away, but I do not have basement. But I could keep it stacked far away and bring more over to Garage after freezes. Are there repellants that keep snakes away?

snakes- do not know of any personally - ain't no fan of the ones with fangs (We got Timber rattlers here, sw corner of state Corals also) never been a problem after the cold sets in. But they do go looking for warm places ( buddy had a rattler under the refrig a few years back at his cabin ( he's a pellet guy)- that was a tad exciting as he could not understand what was making the buzzing sound when the frig door was opened. (city slicker) Milks and blacks keep the vermin #s down. already played the game with the ones with loaded fangs not interested in a repeat of that.

Vikestand · Sep 21, 2017

I have a system right now that works for me. I have 4 cords stacked on 8 pallets. That will hold me for a year. And I have the same stacked next to it for next year. I top cover next years during the fall to keep leaves out and then uncover in the spring. This years has been top covered since spring and I'll actually completely cover with a very large tarp come late fall, to keep snow ice off of it. Then I haul up a weeks worth of wood every sunday and use those fancy store bought metal brackets to hold it on the back porch. My back porch is covered and faces the opposite direction that our snow/storms blow in. Then I can usually bring in about 1-2 days worth of wood in my wood box. So I only have to go out to get wood a few times a week.

It works well for me. We have such a up and down of winters that you never know what you'll get. Some years like 2013 we'll have snow covered ground for a month. Then others like last year we won't have hardly any snow. I like having a limited amount stacked on the back porch for reason's mentioned above(mice mainly). And it allows me clean up the mess mid winter.

billb3 · Sep 21, 2017

Kids/small toddlers can and will get hurt around just about anything.

I have a box by the back door that holds almost a week's supply.
Bring a day's supply in, in two milk crates.

I don't have a shed so I have corrugated panels on double row stacks.

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indoor/oudoor storage

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