Barn bridge wood shed

[mcdougy]

Wondering what risks I may be taking with the wood drying by cutting then storing the wood in a barn bridge gangway. It is a concrete room aprox. 12'x 14'x 6'high. It has concert walls, floor and ceiling. There are 2 windows that oppose each other. 1 on the north side and 1 on the south side about 2'x3'. My intentions are to remove the glass and put tight mesh in for max. Airflow. The bulk of the wood will be ash, with some cherry,maple and beech mixed in. I plan to fill the room pretty much to max if it seems like a good storage space. My concerns are losing a nice jag of wood to rot? I'm hoping I am fine and just overthinking. The sweating of the concrete is more then likely no concern, but hoping for some feedback or experience.
Cheers

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Wondering what risks I may be taking with the wood drying by cutting then storing the wood in a barn bridge gangway. It is a concrete room aprox. 12'x 14'x 6'high. It has concert walls, floor and ceiling. There are 2 windows that oppose each other. 1 on the north side and 1 on the south side about 2'x3'. My intentions are to remove the glass and put tight mesh in for max. Airflow. The bulk of the wood will be ash, with some cherry,maple and beech mixed in. I plan to fill the room pretty much to max if it seems like a good storage space. My concerns are losing a nice jag of wood to rot? I'm hoping I am fine and just overthinking. The sweating of the concrete is more then likely no concern, but hoping for some feedback or experience.
Cheers

Mind putting a few pictures up? Hard to imagine from what you described (concert walls, floor and ceiling?). If dry going in, no problem, but you may want to put it up on skids or something else similar for good airflow. Doubt that even would be necessary.

 

[mcdougy]

Mind putting a few pictures up? Hard to imagine from what you described (concert walls, floor and ceiling?). If dry going in, no problem, but you may want to put it up on skids or something else similar for good airflow. Doubt that even would be necessary.

I will attempt pics later, imagine a big old two story barn that has a ramp up to the large slider doors. Well in the ramp, it's not that uncommon here, that they formed up a concrete room inside the ramp. Cement floor and walls, then they layer i beams over the walls and poured a concrete ceiling. The i beams were the support for the weight of the implements,horses, whatever.... I guess for simplifying, it would be very similar to the room that's under most front porches on a home. Except this has 2 exposed walls with the 2x3 windows.

 

[St. Coemgen]

Dry the wood in stacks outside. Then move the wood to your "shed" when it is dry.

Sheds are great for storage of dried wood read for burning.

Open, well ventilated wood stacks exposed to the sun and wind are best for drying. Do not worry about spring, summer rain on a wood stack. That is just a little surface water, easily lost on the next sunny summer day. You are trying to suck out vascular water deep in the wood. And for that, direct sun and wind are the best.

 

[mcdougy]

Dry the wood in stacks outside. Then move the wood to your "shed" when it is dry.

Sheds are great for storage of dried wood read for burning.

Open, well ventilated wood stacks exposed to the sun and wind are best for drying. Do not worry about spring, summer, fall rain on a wood stack. That is just a little surface water, easily lost on the next sunny summer day. You are trying to suck out vascular water deep in the wood. And for that, direct sun and wind are the best.

I understand what your saying, and agree. But, are you thinking I will have issues if I put fresh cut wood in this area. Truthfully, I want to limit the amount of handling. In the prefect world, I want to cut,split then move it to this "room". It would stay there for aprox. 2 years. Stacking outside would add to this process. I'm in the process of trying to get 3 years of wood on hand. I'm aiming for 20 full chord, stored in various locations.

 

[ElmBurner]

A 2' x 3' window is pretty big, considering the room size. If your prevailing winds hit those windows at all, you should get decent air flow. I would keep it up off the ground somehow though. Concrete blocks and landscape timbers is my method of choice, but there's a million ways to do it.

Give it a shot and find out.

 

[iamlucky13]

My concerns are losing a nice jag of wood to rot?

I'd worry more about the worried about the wood of the barn, which will be exposed to potentially higher humidity for years on end, while your firewood cycles through.

I helped a friend build a woodshed at his cabin: 8 x 16, with no windows but I think about 2 square feet of gable venting at each end. He then stuck a cord of nearly green wood in it, and within a couple months had mold growing on the interior walls.

Granted, this was in the Cascade Mountains in Washington, so the outside air was itself pretty humid, and green douglas fir has a lot more water in it than most hardwoods.

My advice is to try a small amount in the room first, to see if any signs of problems show up. If it works well this year, try more next year.

 

[Jags]

A couple of thoughts;
The original reason for the barn (animals, hay, etc.) probably produced more moisture per day than drying wood will.
Exposed cement walls typically stay fairly dry with the exception of sweating during temp transitions.
The flavors of wood that you listed above should dry sufficiently if split and stacked for two years even without wind exposure.
Adding all of that up....dunno. I don't think I would be afraid to give it a shot. I seriously doubt if rot of the firewood will be an issue especially if you can get a little air exchange from the windows. Just one dudes opinion.

 

[mcdougy]

I decided to say fanukle it, and went for it. Tossed about a bush cord in there today. This "bomb shelter" is not inside the barn at all. It literally is the ramp to approach the 2nd story of the barn. So no moisture worries for the barn itself. I'm going with the hope the sweat will not equate to much, and things will dry up nicely. Thanks for the help......I hope im not handling this wood in a 911 situation, but only to keep the families toes warm.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I decided to say fanukle it, and went for it. Tossed about a bush cord in there today. This "bomb shelter" is not inside the barn at all. It literally is the ramp to approach the 2nd story of the barn. So no moisture worries for the barn itself. I'm going with the hope the sweat will not equate to much, and things will dry up nicely. Thanks for the help......I hope im not handling this wood in a 911 situation, but only to keep the families toes warm.

I bet you get moldy wood (unless you post a few pictures of the setup!).

 

[mcdougy]

I bet you get moldy wood (unless you post a few pictures of the setup!).

How much? I would go for some Pa shine, offer up some canadian maple syrup?
My problem is my computer saviness, uploading pics from my phone to an iPad, then posting is beyond my skillz.
If you want to pm me with your cel # I can text a pic with the best of em'

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

How much? I would go for some Pa shine, offer up some canadian maple syrup?
My problem is my computer saviness, uploading pics from my phone to an iPad, then posting is beyond my skillz.
If you want to pm me with your cel # I can text a pic with the best of em'

I understand, I had the same issues figuring out how to post pics. Quick tutorial: email the pictures to yourself. Open the pictures on your ipad from the email, then save them to someplace easy to recall. Then next time you reply (post) here, select "upload file", and once you click on that, navigate to wherever you saved the pictures and double click on the saved picture file. And that's it! So easy, even an Ontarian can do it!

What's PA shine, by the way?

 

[mcdougy]

I understand, I had the same issues figuring out how to post pics. Quick tutorial: email the pictures to yourself. Open the pictures on your ipad from the email, then save them to someplace easy to recall. Then next time you reply (post) here, select "upload file", and once you click on that, navigate to wherever you saved the pictures and double click on the saved picture file. And that's it! So easy, even an Ontarian can do it!

What's PA shine, by the way?

First problem....I don't have email.
Second problem.....I don't have email on iPad.

But I can text like a champion.

PA shine......the medicine the Mennonites make

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

First problem....I don't have email.
Second problem.....I don't have email on iPad.

But I can text like a champion.

PA shine......the medicine the Mennonites make

I'll have to see if I can find some of that PA shine, been here over 30 years, even a four year stint in Lancaster County, and this is the first I'm hearing of this! My Mennonite friends must be holding out on me.

I'm real deficient in the smartphone operations (which is why I offered up what was probably an archaic technique for posting files using email). My woman would be able to save to the ipad directly from her phone w/o e-mail, I am way behind. She could probably post directly from the phone. She takes most of the pictures and emails them to me.

 

[StihlKicking]

I don't think you will ever have any problems with your wood rotting stored in the room you described. It could be possible that your wood will take longer than two years to dry properly depending on several factors. I say try it and see.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I don't think you will ever have any problems with your wood rotting stored in the room you described. It could be possible that your wood will take longer than two years to dry properly depending on several factors. I say try it and see.

What do you have to lose? Oh, possibly no dry wood when winter rolls around and years spent in the process... Probably less of a concern in MS as compared to Ontario.

Seriously though, if I were in your boots mcdougy, why not have a back up plan?

Put enough outside,stacked in a single row, in as much sun and wind as your place has to offer, up on something, top covered, either all the time, or starting in August, to at least get you through the next two or three seasons. Repeat after next season to replace the last season's worth that you burned

Then, when you go to burn your "trial" wood that you have sheltered from the sun and wind after stacking it green and discover that you might have heeded the literally thousands of posts here and other similar sites from folks who have made the same mistake before, you can say, hey, I gave it a go in my situation and proved it to myself, without ending up with a bunch of wood that won't burn just when you need it. Then you can come back and offer up your experience to a bunch of folks who ask, because they don't have the experience, the same exact question. They won't listen either, and it'll be amusing to you, because you were wise enough to hedge your bet that your trial wood would be dry, with wood that you stacked according to the collective knowledge of all the people that you came here to ask!

I had to struggle to get through last winter, and it sucked. After you do all the work to get it cut split stacked, and then to have a bunch of fuel that doesn't burn when you need it.

 

[ADK_XJ]

Will be curious to hear how it turns out — agree with others that it might not be catastrophic but don't expect quick results either.

My one hesitation would be the concrete as my understanding is that concrete not only holds but "wicks" moisture up from the ground (depending on conditions and site). I feel confident you'll be fine for two years but do report back.

Here's what I was thinking of in terms of explanation, sounds like it's a bigger concern with newer concrete and you could alleviate just by raising off the ground: https://www.nachi.org/forum/f13/can-someone-explain-why-wood-contact-concrete-causes-rot-15511/

 

[mcdougy]

What do you have to lose? Oh, possibly no dry wood when winter rolls around and years spent in the process... Probably less of a concern in MS as compared to Ontario.

Seriously though, if I were in your boots mcdougy, why not have a back up plan?

Put enough outside,stacked in a single row, in as much sun and wind as your place has to offer, up on something, top covered, either all the time, or starting in August, to at least get you through the next two or three seasons. Repeat after next season to replace the last season's worth that you burned

Then, when you go to burn your "trial" wood that you have sheltered from the sun and wind after stacking it green and discover that you might have heeded the literally thousands of posts here and other similar sites from folks who have made the same mistake before, you can say, hey, I gave it a go in my situation and proved it to myself, without ending up with a bunch of wood that won't burn just when you need it. Then you can come back and offer up your experience to a bunch of folks who ask, because they don't have the experience, the same exact question. They won't listen either, and it'll be amusing to you, because you were wise enough to hedge your bet that your trial wood would be dry, with wood that you stacked according to the collective knowledge of all the people that you came here to ask!

I had to struggle to get through last winter, and it sucked. After you do all the work to get it cut split stacked, and then to have a bunch of fuel that doesn't burn when you need it.

Please explain why your wood was sub-par?

 

[mcdougy]

Will be curious to hear how it turns out — agree with others that it might not be catastrophic but don't expect quick results either.

My one hesitation would be the concrete as my understanding is that concrete not only holds but "wicks" moisture up from the ground (depending on conditions and site). I feel confident you'll be fine for two years but do report back.

Here's what I was thinking of in terms of explanation, sounds like it's a bigger concern with newer concrete and you could alleviate just by raising off the ground: https://www.nachi.org/forum/f13/can-someone-explain-why-wood-contact-concrete-causes-rot-15511/

I put sacrificial plywood down with some 2x6s under. This was to help with wick and let the floor sweat as it may and drain away.

 

[ADK_XJ]

I put sacrificial plywood down with some 2x6s under. This was to help with wick and let the floor sweat as it may and drain away.

Sounds like you're all set!

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Please explain why your wood was sub-par?

Moved to a new place, put in a new stove in December, and did not think that I had enough good dry wood. Started out with a bunch of unsplit walnut and ash that had been cut into rounds three years before, stacked on the ground and in the shade. It was not dry enough once split.

Then, a dead standing ash from the neighbors literally fell across the driveway, which quickly got cut CSS, and that helped some. Then, I discovered toward the end of last winter, that a big stack that I had processed years before, but thought was completely rotten, was actually primo stuff, and the clouds parted and we started to get the stove to running! And guess what? That stack that I thought was rotten was stacked out in the open, single row. Once I figured this out, I top covered it, and we were good for the last couple months.

I thought it was rotten because it was so lightweight and dark. But I was getting desperate, so I gave it a try, and learned the difference between lightweight and dark and hard (good), and rotten and punky (bad). We could have been burning that stuff all winter and seasoning the stuff we started with. It was stacked on the ground, so some of the ground layer was rotten, I figured was sacrificial to my lesson.

I bet your space is fantastic for storing dry wood. I also bet that green wood you stacked in there will remain above the good moisture levels that you'll want to get it to for burning for at least several years. I'm hoping that it won't mold and rot, which is the real risk that you are taking, as long as you hedged your bets with outside stacks that I referred to in my last post.

Oh, and one last thing. The previous owners of my place here tried what you are trying in a retired chicken coop/shed. The wood was completely out of the rain, and completely rotten. I don't know how long it had been there, but it was a real mess to clean up, and I found a nice hornet nest in the process. Ended up with 13 stings before I was able to escape.

If you decide that you need that wood that you stacked inside before at least three years from now, consider the work required to move it back out to season in the sun and wind as exercise rather than work. Most of us could use a little more exercise, and a little less work!

 

[kennyp2339]

You can prob get away with drying the stuff outside then in September move the load inside stacking on pallets doing a crib stack (criss cross style) that will let the most air flow penetrate the wood in the middle of the stack. Also get ready for mice and stuff to live in your barn

 

[mcdougy]

It's filled. about 7 full chord of 98% ash that was standing dead courtesy of that horrible bug. It took exactly 39 atv trailer loads of splits. Now it's time to start stacking in the barn..another 7 chord or so. Already have about 5 chord that's split and stacked out in the bush.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

It's filled. about 7 full chord of 98% ash that was standing dead courtesy of that horrible bug. It took exactly 39 atv trailer loads of splits. Now it's time to start stacking in the barn..another 7 chord or so. Already have about 5 chord that's split and stacked out in the bush.

Nice. Ash, dead and standing, will most likely end up just where you want it. I also liked that you counted the trailer loads, I like to do that as well. I'm curious how you kept track, I seem to use a different method every time I'm counting.

Also, awesome that you hedged your bets with 5 cords outside! Stubborn, and smart. You're my kind of guy, mcdougy. You have lots of warm winters ahead of you. And thanks for the update.

 

[mcdougy]

Nice. Ash, dead and standing, will most likely end up just where you want it. I also liked that you counted the trailer loads, I like to do that as well. I'm curious how you kept track, I seem to use a different method every time I'm counting.

Also, awesome that you hedged your bets with 5 cords outside! Stubborn, and smart. You're my kind of guy, mcdougy. You have lots of warm winters ahead of you. And thanks for the update.

I had my 8 year old nephew helping me often, and one of his tasks as atv driver was to mark on the door each load. I was curious as to how many loads this space would hold. Now I know that it takes aprox. 5-6 rounded atv loads to make a full chord.