Northern & Southern Exposure

[SIERRADMAX]

I plan to break ground on a 24'x26' garage in the spring. Main orientation of the grage is East-West and my idea is to add a 6' lean-too(correct spelling?) on both the north & south side of the garage for wood storage.

I hope my houses wood consumption is in the vicininty of 5-6 cords a year,which a 6' overhang, 24' long should accomodate. Further thought about the build got me thinking.... I should have two lean-too's for 2 year drying time.

Obviously southern exposure is prefered but would 2 years of northern exposure suffice for primarily red oak?

 

[lukem]

If you could make the overhang 8', and assuming you stack 6' high, that would give you about 9 cord of storage.

The north side of my garage is always wet, but if the air circulation was good you might be OK.

 

[BEConklin]

I live in eastern CT and I wouldn't want to have a northern exposure for seasoning wood...it might never dry! That's why most houses around here have mildew growing on their north sides...and that's with FULL ventilation on three sides.
I think you might be better off planning on putting wood that's already fully seasoned and dried on the north side and the wood that's freshly cut on the south. Once it's dried, assuming there's a good overhang, it ought to stay dry - until we get a nor'easter that is

 

[peakbagger]

Northernly exposure is real tough, air circulation will help. My friend grows Shitake mushrooms on white oak logs and he stores them on the north side of his barn to grow so that probably illustrates what you are up against.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I plan to break ground on a 24'x26' garage in the spring. Main orientation of the grage is East-West and my idea is to add a 6' lean-too(correct spelling?) on both the north & south side of the garage for wood storage.

I hope my houses wood consumption is in the vicininty of 5-6 cords a year,which a 6' overhang, 24' long should accomodate. Further thought about the build got me thinking.... I should have two lean-too's for 2 year drying time.

Obviously southern exposure is prefered but would 2 years of northern exposure suffice for primarily red oak?

Answer to the above in red: NO.

Building a lean-to on another building for storing wood can work out sometimes but they are not the best. The reason is the wood will usually be stacked tight or very near the building. The problem is loss of air flow. You need the flow of air to dry wood and especially that red oak.

However, if you stacked your wood outdoors and then move it to the lean-to in late fall you can get away with most of it....but not the oak. Drying oak outdoors usually takes 3 years to dry to a good burning level. Some, in very dry and windy environments can get by with 2 years. And yes, there are always claims to being able to burn oak after only a year. It depends upon what you want. If you want the best, then give that oak a minimum of 3 years and nothing says you can't give it even more.

We generally dry our wood a minimum of 3 years no matter what type of wood it is. However, we also find that many times we are burning wood that is 6 or 7 years in the stack and it burns beautifully. No fighting the fire and no creosote. Best of all is that we get more heat from the wood by being so dry. This in turn means we burn less wood which in turns means less labor involved. It also means a happy warm home.


The lean-to on the north side will depend upon how dry the wood is when you stack it there and also will depend upon your location and weather. Usually it is a poor design to stack firewood on the north side of a building.

 

[SIERRADMAX]

Thanks for everyones replies. My intent is to stack 4' wide, 6-8' high and 24' long. With a 6' overhang, This will give me 2' of "wiggle-room". Sounds like it would be best to leave 6"+ against the building as an air gap and 12"+ around the outside for weather protection. I hate to move wood more than I have to. For the cost of constructing the northern exposed lean-too, I might benefit greater by constructing an independent wood shed and keep the southern lean-too attached to the garage, thus having two southern exposed, open-air wood storage options.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sierra, stacking 4' wide, that wood will not dry by the time you want to burn it. If you are splitting wood that is cut now for burning next winter, you will be advised to stack that in single rows! Out in the wind! Not in the shed.

You can do it as planned but if you do, expect some problems next winter when it comes time to burn that stuff. You also need to know what kind of wood it is because all wood does not need the same amount of time to dry. For example, you can cut, split and stack soft maple and burn it 6 months later. If you cut split and stack hard maple, expect it to be in the stack a year before it is ready to burn. Oak is another animal altogether. It needs lots of time.