Recently there was a thread posted here or in the hearth room (could have been over at arborist site) that had some great info on a controlled wood drying experiment. The experiment tracked the weight of a specific split over a specified period of time. There was a picture of the split next to a jug of water that was equivelant to the amout of moisture lost over the experiment. Can someone link me to that thread, I'd greatly appreciate it. BTW, tried the search function with no sucess. Thanks!
Can't find thread on wood drying experiment - UPDATE, good info here
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You're not talking about the experiment by "Apprentice GM" are you? That had to do with regular stacked wood vs. holz hausens, but not sure if that's the one you're looking for....
Here's the link, it was over on arboristsite
http://arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=117513&highlight=experiment
http://arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=117513&highlight=experiment
pulldownclaw said:
Someone whistle for me? Here I am!
I am in the last summer of seasoning for my wood seasoning experiment. It started as a "Holz Hausen" vs "Wood Ricks / rows" experiment, but it's kinda grown a bit
I am now comparing 2 x hardwoods (paperbark & bluegum, a eucalyptus) and 1 x softwood (conifer pine), in the HH vs north-south rows vs east-west rows vs loose / cross-stacked as well. Within the HH I'm comparing north vs south vs east vs west and top vs middle vs bottom heights as well as the vertical inside pieces.
Er, but it's not finished yet. And it's not the one the original OP was after. But hey, a few more months and we will all KNOW!
While that thread on AS does show visually how much water is in wood, it doesn't really compare the different drying methods. I've been changing my methods over the years. Being as lazy as I am, I had convinced myself that wood will dry well enough in a heap and that it doesn't need to be stacked right away. I would buck and stack the larger rounds in Winter and just heap the smaller ones. Come Spring, I split and heap it, and pack it tight in the shed in the Fall. I would watch the stacks shrink in the shed over the course of Winter and any stack with an exposed face would shrink faster on the exposed side threatening to topple.
Before I had the shed, I would stack 3 rows tight together and tie in the rows with some long sticks so they wouldn't topple. If I didn't tie them in, the outer stacks would shrink faster on the exposed side and curl away from the centre row. That is compelling evidence that both sides of each row should be exposed.
I've pretty much resigned myself finally to having to stack them twice. I now stack outdoors, two 20" rows tight together onto 40" wide pallets and leave a foot of space between rows of pallets. I'm considering rearranging my pallets, rotating them 90 degrees to utilize the 48" width to get 8" of air space between the two rows.
I've redesigned my shed so that I can stack in three groups with two spaces between the groups that I later in-fill. This allows me to partially load up the shed earlier yet allowing further drying before the last bit in-fills late in the Fall. It may be a risk leaving the last of the wood out to dry longer, but not so long as to get too much Fall wet weather on it as the last wood in the shed might be the first wood out.
My suggestion is as follows:
If you have limited space for outdoor stacks and need to burn sooner than later, leave spaces between each row. If you have less room for stacks and more time to wait, three rows tight together is as much as you should do.
If you use a shed, and you have lots of room, leave spaces between each row. If you're tight for space, try to pack it in so that last in is not first out.
Before I had the shed, I would stack 3 rows tight together and tie in the rows with some long sticks so they wouldn't topple. If I didn't tie them in, the outer stacks would shrink faster on the exposed side and curl away from the centre row. That is compelling evidence that both sides of each row should be exposed.
I've pretty much resigned myself finally to having to stack them twice. I now stack outdoors, two 20" rows tight together onto 40" wide pallets and leave a foot of space between rows of pallets. I'm considering rearranging my pallets, rotating them 90 degrees to utilize the 48" width to get 8" of air space between the two rows.
I've redesigned my shed so that I can stack in three groups with two spaces between the groups that I later in-fill. This allows me to partially load up the shed earlier yet allowing further drying before the last bit in-fills late in the Fall. It may be a risk leaving the last of the wood out to dry longer, but not so long as to get too much Fall wet weather on it as the last wood in the shed might be the first wood out.
My suggestion is as follows:
If you have limited space for outdoor stacks and need to burn sooner than later, leave spaces between each row. If you have less room for stacks and more time to wait, three rows tight together is as much as you should do.
If you use a shed, and you have lots of room, leave spaces between each row. If you're tight for space, try to pack it in so that last in is not first out.
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