Best way to transport wood into basement?

[WhoKilledBambi]

Hello guys,

How do you transport wood into your basement to store it for the winter? This year we bought a new house and at first i was throwing the wood by a basement window and that was a really slow process and I broke the plastics on the window. In February i started using a makeshift slide and it was kind of faster but not the fastest way either i'm sure but it saved the window.

I'm starting some drawings to have a contractor dig and make a second entry/basement access with a full door and concrete stairs where i could possibly work way easier and save my back a little.

I would like to store at least 3 full cords in the basement this winter. The basement is only half finished and me and my wife don't really care about the mess it makes there even though we will stack it nicely.

Thanks for all inputs
JP

 

[The.Devo]

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[weatherguy]

I'd remove the window for a day and dump it into a bin.

 

[brenndatomu]

I'm starting some drawings to have a contractor dig and make a second entry/basement access with a full door and concrete stairs

I know someone who has this setup, except its just a pit with Bilco doors, no permanent stairs...he made some stairs out of lumber...then when its time to put firewood in, he just slides the stairs assembly out into the basement, rolls a large homemade cart into the pit, tosses wood into the cart from above, when the cart is full, roll it into the basement for stacking. Works out pretty well he says.
IIRC, when he is done stacking inside, he closes the basement door, fills the pit with more wood...gives him another 1/2 cord or so of wood storage capacity...

 

[johneh]

My 150 year old home has a door into the basement .
40 years ago when I moved in but a insulated steel door
And frame in . So for 40 years we have tossed 6 to 10 cord
into the basement works like a charm . When it is all in we
close the door and seal it for winter and stack the wood on
our time over a few days

 

[peakbagger]

I long ago had a standard Bilco Door With a solid core door on the interior. It leaked a lot of cold air and would get a lot of snow on it. I replaced the Bilco door with a framed and insulated "doghouse" with a standard exterior door on the entrance. I have removable stairs. I pull them in the fall and then just use a wheelbarrow to dump my wood in. The door on the basement side gets beat up a bit but does not bother me. I know folks who carefully stack the interior to the bulkhead but that is way too much work for me. The exterior door opens inwards so I only fill it just under the bottom of the door. It holds several weeks of wood in the winter. The interior opens into the basement. When I open the door after a fill, some wood is leaned up against it but I just let it fall out and then throw it back up on top of the pile. When it gets low I run it out and sweep the bark out and burn it in my boiler.

 

[Sawset]

The farmhouse here had an old octopus gravity feed furnace, and a 14x20 woodshed just outside the cellar doorway. I never thought before how they stocked wood for easy use downstairs, but now realize you guys are onto something. The cellarway could hold about a cord with the lower door shut. There really isn't room at all for storing wood in the actual basement. Downstairs, open the door, load the stove, close it back up. The cellar way has a lot of scars from wood thrown in over many years of use. And the other stair treads leading down from inside the house finally wore clear through a few years ago after many years of chasing up and down tending the furnace.

 

[moresnow]

There is a thread here or another site that might show you a possibility. The guy pulled a basement window out (just the removable glass/frame). Filled in the opening with treated plywood. He cut a large hole it the plywood that would accommodate a large diameter PVC pipe. The pipe was plenty large enough for sliding his splits into the basement. When finished he placed a standard PVC end cap on the pipe and walked away. Looked like it worked slick. No window frame damage. Easy to drop the splits into the pipe. Less bending over etc.