Newbie Wood Shed Help

[bdmccall]

Hi All, I've been lurking for some time and reading posts. There are a number of really great wood shed photos posted on the site and I've learned a lot. We are designing a wood shed for our property, and I was hoping to get some feedback from the experts here (we put in a Masonry Heater this past fall, so we're just getting into heating with wood and don't have much experience with firewood).

Here's our first draft:

The shed exterior would be framed with 2x4 on 16" centers and sided with recycled corn crib siding (edges cut at a slant to let in air). The interior walls would be 2x4 open frame with studs on 8" centers. The roof would have a traditional peak in the center, and would be metal.

Our hope is that this would hold about 6 cords of wood at a 4' height but could be stretched if the wood was stacked higher.

The predominant wind direction is from the West, and I know that ideally we should rotate the shed 90 degrees, but it's not possible with the location we have chosen. Our idea is to store only seasoned firewood in the shed and have additional racks outside for drying.

Does this seem reasonable from a storage perspective? Also, does 3' seem reasonable for a "hallway" for ease of getting around with a log cart?

Thank you SO much for your input!

 

[pen]

I'd say you are well ahead of the curve as far as most "newbies" asking questions about a wood shed! Well done.

I like your sectioned design because it will be easier to deal with spring reloading and left over wood that way, and description of how you plan on using it (by using it as seasoned wood storage only).

As far as the cart, the only thing I ask is do you plan on bringing it into the building only through the man door in the right of the picture? If so, is there really a need for the additional man door in the front left of the building? If you thought there was a need to bring the cart in that door shown on the bottom left, then you'd need to leave a good part of that one bay opposite that door open to make the turn. I'm thinking that door may not be necessary at all, or else put another door on the left side of the building (other gable end) completely opposite the main door on the right? Perhaps that South side door is there because of the orientation of the building with the main housing structure?

pen

 

[bogydave]

Looks like you'll get more than 6 cord in there.
I like your plan with 6' X 8 foot sections to keep some seperation between species & seasoning times,
Don't know if you need 2 doors unless it's also for other "stuff" that needs dry storage
& 36" will work for a wheel barrel but seems tight to me.
What will be on the floor under the wood?

Looking forward to seeing pictures of the build

PS: Welcome to the forum

 

[bdmccall]

Wow! You guys are so speedy and awesome! Thanks for the welcome!

1) The door on the South side (front left) will be closest to the firewood seasoning area, so we plan to use that for bringing in wood that is ready for storage, the door on the East (right side) is closer to our front porch, where we have a log rack that holds about 1/4 cord, so that should shorten the distance over mud and snow in the winter. Good point about needing to be able to be able to make the corner coming in from the South -- we have a nice log cart, but it isn't huge, so I think we'll be okay. We'll need to stake it out and give it a try with the cart.

2) The floor will be poured concrete. At this point, I was hoping to get away with a slab (with a rat wall around the perimeter), and not pouring footers. We're in Zone 5, with a frost line in the winter of 36." I know wood is heavy, even when seasoned, so I'll need to check a bit more into that.

We are also planning to put up metal screen on the inside of the corn crib slats, in an attempt to discourage bugs and mice and other larger critters, of which there are a lot around here.

Thanks again!

 

[pen]

I'm in hardiness zone 5 as well. Here, with proper drainage and some digging to get down to hard pan (down, but not 36 inches) , rock can be built back up and a concrete pad placed on top no problems.

Here if a pole building, deck built on pillars, etc, is used, we need to go down 42 inches to meet code. But if a building is under 1000 sq ft, a frost wall isn't required but a humped (floating slab) base can be dug, drain tile placed on the perimeter, stone placed on base ground and vibra-packed, and a pad poured above. I left about 18 inches of space around my pad straight down to the drain tiles that I later filled in with clean gravel to further promote drainage. I haven't had any problems, and the 3 other similar garages I personally have built haven't either (lots more in the area as well). Drainage is the key but locals vary by ground type, so do your research for what will work in your town well. Nothing worse than having a problem down the road when it could have been done right in the first place.

pen

 

[weatherguy]

BD, can you post a picture of your masonry heater? Thats a dream of mine, next house I build will have one right in the center with a warming bench.

 

[firefighterjake]

Guess I'll go against the grain and say I would leave the doors off, maybe make one side completely open and get rid of the partitions . . . cheaper, simpler to build and less "stuff" to get in the way and more space (with regards to the walls) to really pack in the wood . . . then again I'm pretty lazy . . . and cheap.

 

[tfdchief]

Wow! Now that's a wood shed! All good advise here, so I won't repeat. It looks to me like you know what you want, and what you are doing, so have fun and I can't wait for pics of the wood shed. Welcome to the forum

 

[ChrisNJ]

Looks great but I would agree with the gable end doors, I hate making sharp turns with a load of wood.

 

[bdmccall]

Hey weatherguy ... I could go on for DAYS about how much I love our masonry heater (thanks for the opening!) -- even after only using it for about 3 months. We had it custom designed and built by a guy out of Ohio who wrote a really nice book on Masonry Heaters called Masonry Heaters: Designing, Building and Living with a Piece of the Sun (Ken Matesz).

It's two sided, with heated benches (seats and backs) on both sides, two areas for firewood storage on the firebox side, and two sets of shelves on the kitchen side for books or whatever (and a small viewing window into the firebox). The "large element" (tall white area with the flue) also heats up and radiates heat out. Everything that is not white is Soapstone. The benches are about 2" thick, and the caps are about 1" thick.



It is rated for 7kw (I'm not really sure what that means), but it is supposed to heat our entire house (2500 sq ft ranch) with 2 burns of 59 pounds of wood per day. At full burn the benches are actually too hot to sit on without a pillow or blanket. It did a very good job of heating our house this past winter (but that was unseasonably warm).

Doing it as part of new construction is the way to go. We did a retrofit (full basement beneath .. and sadly our geothermal right below, so we couldn't do the traditional support structure of block walls .. new footers and I-beams and the whole bit).

However, now that the 4 months of construction are over, it was totally worth it.

*Brag off*

Thanks!

 

[firefighterjake]

Very cool pics . . . thanks for sharing.

 

[Jags]

I am with Jake on the "lazy" part. I would reconsider the walkway. I would have it so that a lawn cart/garden tractor could be pulled in to unload. You will also want to be able to walk around the cart (just trust me on this). How do you park the wagon to pull wood out of without stepping over it to get to the area you are trying to fill (if that makes sense).

I personally LIKE partitions. More stable stacks and allows for the stuff not used this year to be separated from the new stuff you are going to stack in it. You will find yourself stacking higher than 4 foot. If you widen the walk to 4 ft each of the 3 bays on the North side will hold ~1.5 cord (at 5 ft high) for a total of 4.5 and the south bays will hold just under 3.5 in total for a grand total of 8 cords.

By the way - that is one SWEET setup you got.

Edit: I stack 6 ft high in two 2.5 cord bays. Very stable.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

I'm also a newbie, and my shed designs were almost as good as yours:

As you can see, it's taller than me and pretty wide.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TimJ]

Joe, I wud put some shoes on ya and wud also put a hat on ya

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

Joe, I wud put some shoes on ya and wud also put a hat on ya

How embarrassing! Thanks Tim, that drawing must have looked pretty stupid with me naked...

 

[Jags]

View attachment 70060
How embarrassing! Thanks Tim, that drawing must have looked pretty stupid with me naked...

Don't work with firewood naked....don't ask.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

Don't work with firewood naked....don't ask.

I will add that to my list of things to not do naked:
1) Cook bacon.
2) Work with firewood.

 

[Jags]

3) weld.

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, jdmccall your masonry heater is absolutely stunning, I will make sure my wife never knows such a thing exists as she will sell our entire house just to have a 1 room apartment with that in the middle of it...

 

[Cross Cut Saw]

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, jdmccall your masonry heater is absolutely stunning, I will make sure my wife never knows such a thing exists as she will sell our entire house just to have a 1 room apartment with that in the middle of it...

Oops, I mean bdmccall...

 

[firefighterjake]

Don't work with firewood naked....don't ask.

And I thought getting a splinter under my nail was painful . . .

 

[firefighterjake]

View attachment 70060
How embarrassing! Thanks Tim, that drawing must have looked pretty stupid with me naked...

Thanks . . . I was starting to think this forum was really going downhill with the R-rated pics. Of course, if ISeeDeadBTUs was here he would have loved to see a "picture" of your wife helping you haul in the wood.

 

[bdmccall]

Oh my goodness ... so very funny!

Joe, if all you have is a 1 bedroom apartment with that heater, you'll be smoked out in no time. Luckily my hubby was a sport about it (he wanted the heater, but I got to control the design).

Thanks for the compliments! It was about 2 years of planning ... but we don't regret it one bit.

Thanks also for all the input and ideas. I do like the idea of widening the aisle an additional foot for extra wiggle room. I'm also reconsidering the wall directly next to the front left doorway ... that would make it easier to make that corner with a cart or a whatever we end up using. Stacking might be a bit more of a PITA without the wall there to act as a brace, but it could act as an overflow area, or we could put a few racks there. I'm guessing we won't use our tractor to move wood in and out, but who knows.

I wish we could put the doors on the gable ends as that would provide a straight shot through the shed ... The difficulty is that there are trees all along the East side of where the shed will go (do you guys have any ideas about what to do with trees that are in the wrong place?? ) -- I'll put some more thought into that though ... the tree that would have to come out is pretty nasty looking anyway.

Thanks again! I'm really trying for the "do it right, only cry once" thing.

 

[JDC1]

You could put one large aisle along one wall and make the bays deeper, then you could put the splitter or a small tractor in under cover. I really like the bays idea.

 

[coltfever]

Its fun to help fellow woodburner with there wood shed. I've even figured if you stack 6 feet high instead of 4 feet you will have 12.50 cords stacked in that bad boy.
Good looking design for your woodshed.