Dry covered wood worth the trouble

[peakbagger]

Our area in the White Mountains of NH and over into the Longfellow mountains in Maine got nailed 3 days ago by a recent Northeaster, record rain and flooding all over. My town made the news for some big washouts and a water truck floating down a flooded stream. My front yard became a pond for a couple of days (now a skating rink after a cold night. I needed to load up my bulkhead today, so I went over to one of my wood piles sitting on pallets with a pallet on top and then some roofing tin that overhangs the pile and then two pallets on top to weigh it down. Three days after record rainfall and the wood was dry and ready to burn. I dont care how well people think stacking wood in open stacks with no top cover will dry, no way would an open stack be anywhere ready to burn.

Yes it can be PITA to top cover stacks but its all worth it after this December event at the temps dropped to below freezing right after the storm and my guess is open stacked wood would be frozen by now.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Glad you made it through intact.

Wood is cheap heat but it's the ultimate backup heat. All else fails, dry wood keeps you warm. Keep your wood dry.

 

[Dieselhead]

Nobody can convince me to stop top covering.

 

[ozarkoak]

This is what we do. We have a small wood shed. It holds about 3/4 of a cord. We cover a bunch of wood really well with tarps that are not put on to be removed the wood is wrapped. Then we burn our uncovered wood. Then when it rains/snows we pull from the shed. If we run out of wood in the shed and its still wet we can uncover wood and fill the shed but normally there is enough time between rain/snow that the uncovered wood can start being put back in the shed. We have not had to take a tarp off yet this year. We also don't cover our wood until the end of summer, end of August beginning of September. We watch the weather and cover it after a good dry spell right before we are supposed to get rain.

 

[EbS-P]

Same storm blew 3 inches of rain sideways and not the bottom 3’ of my stacks where the tarp didn’t reach the ground are to wet to burn. The line just soaks up rain like a sponge.

So in need too and side cover. A wood shed is on my to do list.

 

[peakbagger]

Since my primary heating source is wood in northern NH, I do have a small woodshed that holds about 2 cords. It is a shallow pitch roof up on posts. It has a tarp covering the upwind end and removable tarp out front. The back side is under softwoods while the downwind side is also open. The tarp out front is left off until the chance of snow and then I screw it to the support posts until I need the wood later in the winter. Some years I can 4 to 6 feet of snow piled up against my stacks with drifting so I keep my woodshed wood for when the snow piles up. My winter wood and the woodshed is on the north side of my house and gets no direct sun from about September to March so its seasoned before its stacked.

I have several piles seasoning around the south side of my house and most have top covers that are elevated over the top of the piles and screwed into sides of the piles. The stack in my original post was my early winter wood, therefore it just had steel roofing laid on top of it.

 

[maple1]

I put my entire winters wood in the basement in the fall. That's what most everyone does around here. Otherwise, I'd top cover what I'd be burning the present winter. I gave up top covering a few years ago.

 

[Wildflush]

Crazy storm earlier this week. Telephone poles and trees snapped. Excel cap blew part way off. Had to reinforce my top cover method of commercial tarps with para cord and bricks. Put large stones on top. Wind was so strong it blew one tarp with stone on it part way off. This stack is for 3 years out. All other stacks and my half cord under the deck was fine. 4 cords total.

 

[ozarkoak]

Crazy storm earlier this week. Telephone poles and trees snapped. Excel cap blew part way off. Had to reinforce my top cover method of commercial tarps with para cord and bricks. Put large stones on top. Wind was so strong it blew one tarp with stone on it part way off. This stack is for 3 years out. All other stacks and my half cord under the deck was fine. 4 cords total.

We crisscross stack a bunch of piles on full size pallets. Lay a tarp over the top and tie it on with para cord wrapped around it like a giant Christmas bow. Never have to touch the tarps. But its also not meant to get into the pile until its time. I could not take another year fighting with wind blown tarps weekly.

 

[Wildflush]

We crisscross stack a bunch of piles on full size pallets. Lay a tarp over the top and tie it on with para cord wrapped around it like a giant Christmas bow. Never have to touch the tarps. But its also not meant to get into the pile until its time. I could not take another year fighting with wind blown tarps weekly.

I do have some stacks on pallets with patio bricks crisscross and no issues. I use bricks with para cords draped over makes easy access of wood. First time I had to take precautions with the other single row stacks along my driveway. Tarps have worked great for me.

 

[ADK46er]

When we built our passive solar house 40+ yrs ago, it was designed with wood as the primary heat source. Hence we put our chimney in the center of the house to avoid it being hung on the outside of the house, thus insulating it to reduce condensation, and to allow better circulation of heat especially given its proximity to our 2nd floor staircase. As part of the passive solar design we added a 4” concrete slab to serve as a heat sink for the 4 floor to ceiling windows to capture solar gain on sunny days. The woodstove sits on this tiled area so it’s in effect a two-way heat sink for solar and wood stove heat. As a consequence of installing this concrete slab we needed to lower the basement ceiling 4”. As a result we created an area with slightly less headroom which has enabled storage of 9 face chords which just happens to be the amount of wood we burn each season.

In preparation for storing our wood I always pile it on end in a pile in the sun near our back door to the cellar. I typically cut half and buy half from my “wood guy” (he’s supplied me for our duration burning). He’s always said I stack it like the “old timers”, meaning end to end standing up. In my mind it exposes it the most to the sun and air when it’s stacked thus. Whenever I know it’s gonna rain I cover with tarps, so consequently when I finally bring it in it’s “dry as a bone” as they say. Consequently very little creosote; maybe a full grocery bag a season; 2 cleanings, one in mid-Jan and one in the Spring when we’re finished burning.

 

[maple1]

When I did tarp, all I did was double stack my pile, throw tarp over it, then put one more layer of wood on top. Top layer holds the tarp and has no problem drying out since it's only one piece of wood thick. Was the only way I could get tarps to stay put for as long as I wanted on this open windy hilltop I'm on.

 

[bigealta]

Our area in the White Mountains of NH and over into the Longfellow mountains in Maine got nailed 3 days ago by a recent Northeaster, record rain and flooding all over. My town made the news for some big washouts and a water truck floating down a flooded stream. My front yard became a pond for a couple of days (now a skating rink after a cold night. I needed to load up my bulkhead today, so I went over to one of my wood piles sitting on pallets with a pallet on top and then some roofing tin that overhangs the pile and then two pallets on top to weigh it down. Three days after record rainfall and the wood was dry and ready to burn. I dont care how well people think stacking wood in open stacks with no top cover will dry, no way would an open stack be anywhere ready to burn.

Yes it can be PITA to top cover stacks but its all worth it after this December event at the temps dropped to below freezing right after the storm and my guess is open stacked wood would be frozen by now.

Well i had the same storm roll thru here and all i can say is even the punky wood that was on top of an uncovered stack and soaked like a sponge is dry now. I had to move it to a sunny Hoop that gets wind and sun most every day. Took 3 days to dry there.

The solid oak is dry in the stack, it's amazing that about 4 rows from the top the splits don't even get that wet. Sounds like i'm full of BS but it is true. I'm not saying don't do a shed, but uncovered stacks stay dry much more than you would think. And if you need the wet wood pronto like next day then i dry it around the stove. The wettest punky splits (which are by far the wettest) dry in 1 day by the stove. Tarps made my stacks wetter. I abandoned them many years ago.

Now in a snowy location that's a completely different deal. Snow does soak the stacks. And colder climates where your stack will freeze, That's no good either. But in more mild places like here in NJ, Unstacked is what i have been doing for 20 years or more. with moving in 1 weeks worth of wood inside every week thru the burning season.

And i'll throw a clear shower liner as a cover on the next wood to move inside if rain is in the forecast.

 

[bigealta]

in Utah the stacks are unusable once it starts snowing. Always Wet / Frozen from snow and a huge pita to try to get to even at 10 ft from the garage. I put everything i need for winter in the garage in the fall.

So covering or not, it all depends on your location and local climate.

 

[kborndale]

During the burning season you would have to be a fool to not cover your wood unless you live somewhere that it does not rain or snow during the burning season.

 

[ctreitzell]

It's very wet in north west France
I leave green on the ground until it's ready to be added to the interim stack which human carry-able lengths and rounds

and I buy in 3 cords...the purchased wood is typically at least 30% beech which burns fantastically easy

my interim pile is maybe 3 cords right now, under black plastic held down by stones
wood store in behind the house, 15° roof of corrugated galvanized sheets...holds about 3 cords
and I stack the latest purchase in the store, pull out last year's wet stuff which is a year more dry; stack on a palette or two and covered with black plastic

my super dry, what I consider precious fire stabilizer wood is piled on a knee wall also covered in black plastic

it ain't pretty and works OK...access isn't great without getting dirty

I look forward to building a better drying structure out in one of my fields

I typically stack wood on the ground on top of small branches that can rot and keep the big pieces from touching the ground...or use a species which is less susceptible to rot when in contact with dirt
Chestnut and Elder take a very, very long time to rot when in contact with dirt (my property is all clay and sedimentary rock (Alpes Mancelles))

my interim pile has plastic on the ground as well

 

[bigealta]

During the burning season you would have to be a fool to not cover your wood unless you live somewhere that it does not rain or snow during the burning season.

Or experienced enough to manage uncovered stacks. This includes moving smaller amounts to dry storage locations when dry, and having a dry storage back up stack incase of a major long lasting weather anomaly.

My "back up" shed covered dry stacks are over 10 year stacked locust which has been untouched for those past 10 years.

 

[ADK46er]

Have to agree with knourndale; if I didn’t religiously cover/uncover my woodpile (9 chords) during the Summer/Fall, here in Upstate NY before I bring it in, I would have some seriously soggy wood. And that is not a scenario I’d recommend for storing inside. I uncover during non-rainy weather so that it dries in the sun, but cover with any chance of rain. This does require some effort, but have done so for so long I’m used to it. As I alluded to in an earlier post, low creosote buildup and a basement dry enough to dry our clothes speaks for itself.

 

[blades]

Gave up fighting mother. Nature 40 ft , 9ft high, 8wide container comming Tuesday. I have been top covering for years with what ever I could lay my hands on, But age is taking its toll on some of these shenanigans.

 

[peakbagger]

Gave up fighting mother. Nature 40 ft , 9ft high, 8wide container comming Tuesday. I have been top covering for years with what ever I could lay my hands on, But age is taking its toll on some of these shenanigans.

Yup that will do it

Now pick up one of these accessories and you could go into business https://idrywood.com/idry-air

 

[blades]

Ouch$$$$$$ Not going to be stacking green wood in it , rather 2-3 year old splits destined for the stove. I always seem to be late on getting stuff inside and get hit with nasty weather about the time I want stash my winter supply in basement .
You do need to vent these units as condensation will occur ( even with out the wood) in the spring and fall around my parts- nature of the beast. I do know of few people that have made them into kilns to dry wood. pretty good project. An inexpensive? garden shed works just as well although not as large. Just think about your vehicle parked in the sun in summer with windows all closed- HOT Add some high and low vents to garden shed, Solar kiln.
Various equipment will be housed in unit mostly that is currenty eating up garage space or is just standing in field. Would love a nice sized pole barn, $$$ouch, + i wood get taxed on that. I can write this off against my Biz as well I think. I can't do that with a pole barn. I do need the deduction this year.