My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.

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Dmitry

Minister of Fire
Oct 4, 2014
1,200
CT
Why :My space to store wood is cleared part of woods with about 5 hours of sun and not a lot of wind due to woods around. Lot of fungi around, on stomps , on decaying roots etc. This year with lot of rain I see lot of fungi on firewood . Top layer of wood getting wet from moisture accumulation on plastic and I don’t like it. I want to create some overhang , so water is not traveling down on wood and some air movement in top layers.
I’m thinking about placing pallets cut to size on a top of wood piles and stapling roof felt or plastic or whatever on top of pallets.
I don’t plan on moving it often. Once it’s dry I’ll put in in garage or cover with tarp for coming winter .
Any advice on it ?
 
I have the exact same issue living in a cleared area of the woods. I ended up biting the bullet and springing for plywood sheets. This give a decent overhang. Plywood also solved the problem of mice chewing thru the tarps. It allows water to shed instead of puddle on the tarps. The tarps last much longer now.

I try to buy the discounted banged up boards when possible.
 
Do what you need to do to keep that wood underneath dry.

I had all of the above happen to a couple cords of maple that I stacked next to where the tree was taken down. The stacks had the wrong orientation for prevailing winds, shady area and an uneven top due to variations in the splits and uglies being on the top of the stacks. The tarps got leaky and water trickled down into parts of the stack. Two years later I started burning the wood. Within a month the cap screen had plugged up due to dampness in the wood. That was the worst burning year I have had. Now all our to-be-burned-this-season firewood alway gets time in the shed before burning.
 
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The other advantage to a nice solid layer of plywood is if the tarp fails my stack still stays dry. I might not get to some of those stacks for 3+ years.
 
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The other advantage to a nice solid layer of plywood is if the tarp fails my stack still stays dry. I might not get to some of those stacks for 3+ years.
How do you keep them secured to the stack? How do you fix tarp to plywood?
 
I just use small stones and bricks spaced every 3 feet or so around the perimeter.

Never had a problem except really bad 50 mph winds shuffles the tarp a little and I have to readjust the stones.
 
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I stack my wood with 2 rows on pallets with the 40" wide side. I do one row maybe 6" lower than the other. The roof pallets then I use the 48" side. Cover roof pallets with plain side of lumberyard plastic. I removed all but the first and last stringers on the bottom of the roof pallets to make it sit nicely above the two rows.
 
[Hearth.com] My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.

I’m in the progress of installing my first wood stove so I just made this wood shed with three pallets.
 
I’m thinking about placing pallets cut to size on a top of wood piles and stapling roof felt or plastic or whatever on top of pallets.
I don’t plan on moving it often. Once it’s dry I’ll put in in garage or cover with tarp for coming winter .
Any advice on it ?



I did that just a few weeks ago. I had been covering the piles with old tin that I had salvaged from our town dump. The stuff has a bunch of holes in it and rain and snow was always leaking onto the piles.

I live near a lumberyard that gives away pallets, so I brought home a few and set them on top of one of the piles. Northern Tool had 4'x18' tarps for $4.00, so I got a couple of them too....


Old, holy tin...

[Hearth.com] My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.


Pallets on the pile....

[Hearth.com] My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.
[Hearth.com] My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.

Covered with tarp and secured with bungee cords through pallet

[Hearth.com] My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.



I'm not worried that the winds will blow the pallets off the pile, but we'll see how it goes. I used a few more pallets on the adjoining pile, and used the best of my scrap tin and bungee'd it to the pallets....

[Hearth.com] My idea of covering wood with pallets to create overhang.
 
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I need to do something like this - the rainy weather this year has been hell on my stacks. I have plastic roofing underlayment on top of my stacks, but it sags and then puddles and concentrates the drips on a few unlucky splits.
 
I would use silicone sealant to plug the holes in the tin