Don't want seasoned wood - just dry

[blazincajun]

Why should I want to expose my newly cut wood to moist weather when I could lose some BTUs to the beginnings of wood rot? Should I cover my wood with more of an overhang to prevent this from happening on the sides as well? I really don't want any moisture on my wood once I cut it and stack it in double 10" rows. Does this bother anyone else or is the difference not large enough to matter to you?

 

[Jags]

Probably not gonna matter one hoot. Surface moisture isn't an enemy until you actually try to burn it. Those splits will dry off just like your sidewalk does. If properly stored, wood can be stored out in the elements for years with nary a negative outcome. Sunlight and wind are your friends. Give your stacks both and they will be happy, happy, happy.

 

[bmblank]

Gotta balance the costs of the covering with the gains of the dry wood.

 

[blazincajun]

I definitely understand not covering wood in areas where there is not much rain and the associated costs that come with cover. I guess the idea that seasoned wood prior to storage as critical step in clean, hot burning firewood has me wondering. How about just dry wood? Humidity and dampness down here gets the ball rolling towards rot rather quickly.

 

[gzecc]

Covering your newly cut wood will only slow down the drying process. After a year you can loosly top cover it to prevent rain and debris from getting in between the splits. The wood dries from the ends. Rain on the bark surface is really inconsquencial, from a seasoning perspective. Its really an inconvenience if anything.

 

[Jags]

How about just dry wood?

That is all that is needed. How you get it there is mostly preference of a couple of different methods or options. Top covering is one of those options. I personally have never covered firewood, HOWEVER, I do have a wood shed that gets loaded for the burning season. What isn't going to get burned stays outside in the weather.

 

[blazincajun]

Guess it just depends on your location. Did have a stack of wood that was almost completely rotten in one year. Been covering with 30# felt ever since.

 

[Jags]

If it works for you, it works. Can't argue with that.

 

[gzecc]

I definitely understand not covering wood in areas where there is not much rain and the associated costs that come with cover. I guess the idea that seasoned wood prior to storage as critical step in clean, hot burning firewood has me wondering. How about just dry wood? Humidity and dampness down here gets the ball rolling towards rot rather quickly.

Exterior dryness, maybe makes you feel good, but is has nothing to do with actual interior moisture content of the wood. The exterior wetness evaporates in very short order, if left in the sun and wind or when put into the fire.

 

[gzecc]

Just re-read your posts heading. If you just want dry wood. Covering it should work. Keep it out of the rain. The surface should be dry in a day or two.

 

[bmblank]

I hardly think that throwing a sheet of roofing metal on to of the stack would hinder the drying process. A tarp over the whole thing, sure. You make it sound like rain water needs to be coursing through and between the stack to get the moisture out of the center of a split.

 

[blazincajun]

Should I cover my wood with more of an overhang to prevent this from happening on the sides as well?

I was thinking of a horizontal overhang.

Observations:
a. Wood should be split and stacked as soon as possible off the ground.
b. So "seasoned wood" per se is dry weathered wood that has not rotted and is dry.
c. The time to cover your wood is dependent on wood species and location.
d. Wood storage prior to burning is needed for ease of access and to keep wood dry prior to burning.
e. Being part of this forum is a must to be, as JAGS stated, happy happy happy.

 

[rideau]

Unless you have a great shed, wood up here gets wet. We have something called SNOW...sometimes feet of it. Sometimes rows and rows of the stacks are buried and frozen together.
Whack the split with a small split, and it busts loose. Take it inside, wait a day for it to warm and for surface moisture to dry. If there is a great deal of ice or snow on the wood, I whack off what I can, stack inside, and stand about two loads worth in front of the stove glass on the hearth to warm and dry immediately before use. It always dries the surface moisture. Rain...the wind dries surface moisture quickly.

As long as the wood has not started to rot before you stack it, my observation is that the wood does not absorb moisture. If you are worried about it, you can try stacking some of the rows with splits with bark still on one side, bark side up, which will keep some of the worst rainfall out of the stacks.

Reasons to top cover: Keep leaves out (which mice and chipmunks love to nest in). Leaves could conceivably keep the air around splits moist, slow breeze, block sun, slow drying.
Encourage bugs and vermin. A really rainy season, especially if few sunny days and little wind.

Reasons to not top cover: More free air flow. Seems to be more attractive to snakes, which keep the vermin down. Less attractive to mice in general. Surface moisture that does get on the stacks dries much faster. Really easy to add the occasional splits if the mood takes you. And the stacks usually look nicer, which can be important depending on where they are.

I top cover in late fall for the winter. Even the wood splits I put on top to weight the covering
(which can sit in rain and snow for quite a while) are fine to burn when I finish the stack. I've never had a problem with wood that was good to start with rotting in the stacks.

White Birch: I split, remove bark, and lay bark in strips over layers to keep water off the wood. Lets the birch dry without rotting, keeps surface moisture off which makes handling a bit easier when things are frozen.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Guess it just depends on your location. Did have a stack of wood that was almost completely rotten in one year. Been covering with 30# felt ever since.

The felt is not the best for covering but will help some. Better to use something a bit more solid if possible.

As for covering right away or not, that is dependent upon how much rain your area gets. If possible, it is good to leave the wood uncovered the first year as that is when you get the most drying and leaving it uncovered just allows a bit better evaporation. We split and stack in spring then top cover in early winter or late fall.

Here is a picture of a neighbor loading some wood from one of our stacks. Notice the galvanized roofing we use for covering. It works great. To hold it down we just throw some of the uglies on top. We have also screwed it down into the wood which helps too. Still every so often we might get one that blows off in a windstorm but that is easy to take care of.

 

[Boil&Toil]

Tarp or felt on top of it will restrict drying/trap moisture to an extent. Roof with space between roof and top of stack will let air flow, and keep rain off. Can be as low-tech and non permanent as metal screwed to 4x4's (or logs) on top of the stack, or felt on cheap boards/OSB that's likewise raised a bit from the top of the stack to vent; or a full-on shed - only thing with a shed is to make sure the shed and the way you stack the wood allows it to dry. Leave some spaces, build the bottom so there's airflow into the woodpile from below, etc.

Did have a stack of wood that was almost completely rotten in one year.

With a one-year rot problem where you're at, putting a roof over it makes all kinds of sense to me.

If you have problems with the low-tech options blowing off, tie them down to ground anchors, cinderblocks, rocks...or put cinderblocks and/or rocks on top of them.

 

[Applesister]

Rot probably was in the wood to start with or the wood was stacked directly on the ground.
Cover the wood if you want, its your wood. Do what pleases you. But keeping your stacks on high ground, out of direct soil contact works miracles.
Maybe you could research rot resistant species.
Cypress or cedar or locust. If you dont have an ideal location for the best drying.
I give fresh split wood a few weeks in the open and then I top cover with old tin roofing. After a dry spell.

 

[Wood Duck]

If I had a way to cover my wood piles with a rigid cover that includes an overhang, I'd definitely do it. It would be better to keep rain off the sides of the stack than it would be to allow rain to wet the sides of the stack. Your first priority should be lots of air circulation, second no rain on the stacks. If you can get both, that is the perfect situation.

Also, I bet you get a lot more rot down in Georgia than we get here in PA, and we get far more here than they get in most of the west. The storage method that works best will depend on the climate. Here I can get by without covering. Down there maybe you can't.

 

[Hills Hoard]

Guess it just depends on your location. Did have a stack of wood that was almost completely rotten in one year. Been covering with 30# felt ever since.

Was that stack well off the ground?........

I dont live in a humid area, but we get a lot of rain. I've got my 2015 out in the open at the moment, but my pile for this winter (still summer in oz) has a plastic sheet that covers the top row only.....i used to be afraid of leaving wood out in the open, not anymore..

 

[Brewmonster]

Lots of people will say it's pointless to cover but I don't buy it. Everything else that's left out in the rain gets wet, I don't see what's different about firewood. When I moved here the previous owner had bucked up a hickory that came down in a storm. Just a pile on the ground, but in eight months it was well on its way to Punk City.
Since then I stack on pallets, two rows of 16" (average) splits across a 40" wide pallet. On top goes another row of pallets turned the other way, so that there's a 4" overhang on either side. On top of that goes a 5' wide tarp made of recycled billboard material, stapled in place and tied down by a few pieces of nylon cord. This stabilizes the stack, allows air to circulate even at the top of the stack, and sheds most of the rain. A poor man's woodshed, if you will. Everything I burn is well below 20% moisture. The pallets are free and the extra work is minimal. In my climate,I see no reason to do otherwise.

 

[ArsenalDon]

Why should I want to expose my newly cut wood to moist weather when I could lose some BTUs to the beginnings of wood rot? Should I cover my wood with more of an overhang to prevent this from happening on the sides as well? I really don't want any moisture on my wood once I cut it and stack it in double 10" rows. Does this bother anyone else or is the difference not large enough to matter to you?

Not to worry about rot. Think of it like this, it takes a wooden fence years to rot even without treatment. Having the wood off of the ground is the key to stopping rot. It is not the moisture but the bacterial build up from the soil combined withe moisture combined with wood and critters that end up in rot.
Keep the wood on pallets and you are good for many years

 

[blazincajun]

My stacks of firewood have been off the ground - I used 12' long fence posts laid parallel to stack the wood on. The humidity down here in Eastern Georgia is fairly high 85-100% during spring and summer. The wood down here rots if left to the elements.

This year I'm cutting my wood in 10" lengths with widths ranging from 2.75" to abour 4.5" in width. Double stacking off ground on double 6 ft. treated 2"X8"s on cinder blocks and securing the ends with metal t-posts. There will be a 1" crack between the 2"X8"s. Will cover with 36"X12' metal roofing with a plastic gutter inbeded in the wood stack at the ends of any sheets that overlap within the 42' long stack. End of September, move the winter wood to the wood shed.

 

[JustWood]

Why leave it to chance. CSS and top cover.
You wouldn't leave the cap off your oil tank all summer.

 

[gerry100]

let's face it - over time you're trending towards the average moisture level in your geography.

Wood shed is best because it leaves some headroom over the pile for air circulation where a tight top cover can trap condensation

 

[peakbagger]

Throw a couple of pallets on top and put the cover on top of the pallets. The gap in the pallet provides plenty of air flow and make good place to tack down the cover material. If you are lucky the pallets overhangs the stack on both sides.

 

[NH_Wood]

Throw a couple of pallets on top and put the cover on top of the pallets. The gap in the pallet provides plenty of air flow and make good place to take down the cover material. If you are lucky the pallets overhangs the stack on both sides.

+1 - I've started doing this - with a square of rubber roofing on the top pallet. I make sure the top pallet has a slight pitch so the rain runs in one direction overhangs the stack by a bit. the sides do get wet, but dry in no time. Before doing this, I'd find the rubber roofing sagging in spots and eventually, one area would collect the water and concentrate it in one area of the stack - didn't like that. I still have a lot of stacks to fix this way (I have about 50 pallets of stacked wood) - takes some time to gather all of the pallets. Cheers!