how long to season in a wood shed?

[iron]

i know the general goal is to be three years ahead. i'm contemplating building a shed that would house 3 years of wood and i am curious about the seasoning time. i will most likely be working with softwoods with an occasional hardwood, so i should be able to season quickly enough. but, my assumption is that softwoods will season in 1 year when exposed to sun and wind. but, when you have wood protected by a shed, what kind of seasoning times are expected?

 

[Soundchasm]

My shed was a real step-up from a stack along a fence line. I top-covered the fence line, but the shed is superior. But, everything depends on everything. With a real roof, you give up some solar drying. But it never gets wet, so you gain there. The hotter the shed gets the better, IMO. The stuff on the bottom obviously takes longer. Dayton didn't have a hot summer last year, so progress was a little slower factoring in the starting variables, but I filled it late as well.

The starting variables would be live-cut or standing-dead, and limb-wood vs. stump wood. Then it's wood species, and those characteristics. The final variable wood be split size. If I want to burn in less than a year, it needs to be split at least once, no matter how small the branch.

If you use four cords per year per stove, if you fill the thing this year (12 cords), you sure won't have to worry about 17/18. All you'll need to do is get a Sooteater and clean a few times 16/17. The sooner you fill it, the better.

I've read one common thought in a few "build" threads. Access to the rear is a good idea - a very good idea, actually.

 

[begreen]

Seasoning time is going to depend on several factors like the species of wood, time of year of the cutting, thinness of the splits, dryness of the summer, ventilation and location of the shed, etc.. Normally you will need to allow 2 yrs for most hardwoods to season. In our area that is usually wild cherry, alder, soft maple, madrona, locust and fruit trees. With a dry year like we had last year or the way this year is shaping up you may be able to dry out doug fir or alder quicker if the shed ventilates well. Last season by December we were burning doug fir that was split and stacked in the shed in late Feb and it burned quite well.

Tips for making the shed. Make it so that the prevailing winds (N/S in our area) can easily blow through the stacks. Also, consider making it so that wood can be unloaded from the rear as well as the front. Otherwise at the back of the shed there may be well seasoned wood from the previous season that needs to be moved out so that the newer wood can go in the back of the shed, then the old wood put back in front.

 

[iron]

thanks.

i don't think i'll have much latitude on the location of the shed or it's orientation since the yard is a bit small and the spot i want the shed is near a door to the house. the shed would be constructed such that the roof overhangs the door so you don't get wet while getting more wood. it sounds like if i plan to have 3 years of wood in there, even if it's not an ideal location with good wind flow patterns, i should have seasoned wood. i find that i mostly get cedar around my neck of the woods. a little red alder and doug fir too. so, i'm thinking i'll be okay and perhaps start splitting a little smaller than i have been.

 

[begreen]

You should be fine. Cedar, doug fir and alder take about a year to season. Cedar and doug fir have high oil content so I find that leaving the splits on the larger size helps them burn slower. A firebox full of small dry cedar splits will take off like a rocket.

 

[iron]

got it. so even if you have a shed with no wind on it, it's still 1 year? i will leave 3 of the 4 sides open or mostly open to the air.

 

[begreen]

That's been my experience. Our normal bone dry summers season wood quickly. The exception being the hardwoods previously mentioned which need 2 yrs.. Our shed has lattice on the sides and back for full ventilation.

We'll see how this works out this year. We have 2 cords of fresh cut alder and fir that are going into the shed now. I'll be checking it for burnability starting in December. If not ready it's not a problem, we have plenty of wood to carry us through the season, but I am curious to see how quickly this wood will be ready to burn. We are already having July weather in June so it may dry out faster.

 

[iron]

when you stack, do you just stack everything parallel (i.e. no air gaps between pieces), or do you crisscross your splits?

 

[begreen]

In the shed, all parallel. Bays are 8ft wide with side support for the stacks out of lattice. Outdoors, I cross-stack the ends and parallel stack the middle.

 

[firefighterjake]

Seasoning time is going to depend on several factors like the species of wood, time of year of the cutting, thinness of the splits, dryness of the summer, ventilation and location of the shed, etc.. Normally you will need to allow 2 yrs for most hardwoods to season. In our area that is usually wild cherry, alder, soft maple, madrona, locust and fruit trees. With a dry year like we had last year or the way this year is shaping up you may be able to dry out doug fir or alder quicker if the shed ventilates well. Last season by December we were burning doug fir that was split and stacked in the shed in late Feb and it burned quite well.

Tips for making the shed. Make it so that the prevailing winds (N/S in our area) can easily blow through the stacks. Also, consider making it so that wood can be unloaded from the rear as well as the front. Otherwise at the back of the shed there may be well seasoned wood from the previous season that needs to be moved out so that the newer wood can go in the back of the shed, then the old wood put back in front.

Unless you stack in rows front to back vs. the more typical method of stacking side to side. Sometimes there may be some left over wood at the back . . . but typically there isn't much left over and it's quite easy to move . . . or simply leave in place.

 

[glennm]

I leave the back of mine open and have 2 bays. I can always get to the best seasoned wood. If you can't access the rear then put in one or two dividing walls