Firewood stacks falling

[sirlight]

I am am having an issue with my stacks leaning. This will likely result in the stack falling sometime in the future. The wood in mostly oak with some maple and was entirely green when I stacked it.

These stacks were nice and straight when I did them a few months ago. The stacks run east/west. My thought was that since wind blows from the west here less rain would blow onto the stacks during the winter. I think the reason the stacks are leaning toward the south is that the sun is hitting the south end of the wood causing it to shrink faster than the north end. This causes the stacks to lean to the south. What do you guys think? Should I have stacked north/south to avoid this issue or do I need to learn how to stack better?

 

[stoveliker]

Do you have "connectors" between the stacks? I put branches (or left-over 2x2's) between stacks at about 1/2 to 2/3 of their height. That creates more of a "block" than a "wall" of wood, and makes it more stable.

Yes, I think it's due to shrinkage. It could possibly rectify itself when everything is the same moisture content again. But I think it's more likely that the stacking was not "symmetric"; shrinkage depends a LOT on the structure of the wood; one knot and how the split shrinks goes very differently. If you put all the knots in splits inadvertently on one side of the stack, you'll get a leaning stack.

I'm not sure it's going to be that much different for a stack oriented the other way. I'd leave it at this orientation, make sure your splits (when not "only perfectly straight grained") are randomly oriented forward/backward, and most importantly, add branches to tie the two stacks together.

 

[peakbagger]

Happens to me, I interconnect my stacks as described above when stacking and take a splitting maul to the stacks to knock them back up right every few months.

 

[Ashful]

My stacks lean as they dry, but rarely actually fall. Sometimes, when I have time to waste, I put some effort into knocking the protruding splits back into plumb. But it's likely a waste of time, as a stack has to learn pretty darn far, before it will actually overcome interlocking forces, and fall.

 

[bigealta]

Lean hard against the upper half and top rows. Pushes the top back closer to the center of gravity. stacks will be a bit bowed but should stop them from leaning more and more.

 

[Ashful]

Lean hard against the upper half and top rows. Pushes the top back closer to the center of gravity. stacks will be a bit bowed but should stop them from leaning more and more.

That definitely works, but I'd be careful doing that at this time of year, around here. Do that in my yard, and I'd guess you have at least a 25% chance of being stung by a wasp. They love the wood stacks, and they're starting to get pretty ornery, at this time of year.

 

[Riverbanks]

Hindsight is 20/20, you need to lean the piles in, in the future, lol