My pseudo holz Hausen

[AlMo]

Hi everyone.

I am on the fence as to the drying times claimed for this stacking method, but I can attest that this is by far the fastest way to stack 5 face cords.

My only regret is not taking pictures when I started . I would say in total , it took about 4 hours .

I am thinking of leaving this uncovered .

 

[CTFIRE]

Nice. I thought about doing an oval.

 

[pen]

The one I built I left uncovered for the first summer. I threw a tarp over it then looped string through and hung bricks w/ holes in them through the string. Left it on until I needed to burn the wood the following winter.

pen

 

[AlMo]

@pen - I was thinking about tarping this too - the thought of the November rains -> December snow hitting this pile doesn't appeal to me. I'm still on the fence though. From your experience, did you find any benefit from any additional drying times using this method?


@CTFIRE - Ironically, I went oval vs Circle only because I had a smaller version I had started to test the waters. It was my intention to make it a circle, but then I realized that it would be faster to just make it oval. I have to admit, I can see how the longer walls will likely cave in once I start getting into the center, but given that saved all the time (and ache on my back !) it feel its worth it. Depending on my success this winter , I may end up doing this oval format again

 

[pen]

did you find any benefit from any additional drying times using this method?

Nope. But it looked dang pretty!

 

[Hogwildz]

4hrs for 5 face cords is not a time saver whatsoever.

 

[AlMo]

4hrs for 5 face cords is not a time saver whatsoever.

I have to admit - there was some time involved in chugging down a few beers

Its faster - only because the entire middle did not require any stacking (roughly 80% of the entire pile.)

 

[Hogwildz]

;-)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum ALMo.

If you like the looks of them it is okay and we say go ahead with it. But it has been proven many times that it does not dry wood as fast and some have found it took more time which is what I would tend to believe just looking at the thing and realizing that air circulation is the key to drying wood and doing it the fastest.

In addition, some claim it not only is faster to stack but takes up less room. Simple math will say differently about the space and for sure it has to take more time to stack. For example, look at the picture below:



This is how we stack. We split right where we want the wood stacked. When done, we lay down some saplings we cut in the woods. Two 10' saplings laid down to stack the wood on works great. Yes, most of our wood is stacked in 10' lengths. Bu the point is, look where the splits are and look where we are stacking. It is a simple latter of reach on one side to get the wood, turn and lay it down. No walking at all. Very little movement. Although I probably can no longer do it, I know I used to stack a cord per hour. No, that was not a face cord, but a full cord. Age has taken it's normal toll so now I have no idea how long it takes but for sure I could match that 4 hour for less than 2 cord.

 

[Seriesnuns]

I combined two of them to look like this.


Started out like this
(admin note - for some reason, these didn't show in the post - I had to re-upload).

 

[Paulywalnut]

How did that method get popular? You really have to watch a video to do it

 

[AlMo]

Welcome to the forum ALMo.

If you like the looks of them it is okay and we say go ahead with it. But it has been proven many times that it does not dry wood as fast and some have found it took more time which is what I would tend to believe just looking at the thing and realizing that air circulation is the key to drying wood and doing it the fastest.

In addition, some claim it not only is faster to stack but takes up less room. Simple math will say differently about the space and for sure it has to take more time to stack. For example, look at the picture below:

View attachment 112735

This is how we stack. We split right where we want the wood stacked. When done, we lay down some saplings we cut in the woods. Two 10' saplings laid down to stack the wood on works great. Yes, most of our wood is stacked in 10' lengths. Bu the point is, look where the splits are and look where we are stacking. It is a simple latter of reach on one side to get the wood, turn and lay it down. No walking at all. Very little movement. Although I probably can no longer do it, I know I used to stack a cord per hour. No, that was not a face cord, but a full cord. Age has taken it's normal toll so now I have no idea how long it takes but for sure I could match that 4 hour for less than 2 cord.

Wow, that is a lot of wood !

Ok...I am starting to see that perhaps the Holzhausen method of stacking may not be the fastest after all, in light of this new information. Thanks!

 

[adrpga498]

Some advantages I've found with the HH is I can hide the ugly splits in the center without fear of jeopardizing stack collapse. Also , doesn't matter which way the wind blows for drying purposes. PS I never cover "top" of my HH.