Oh the shame.

[Moe Hunter]

Had a two week old stack crash down today. There's more to stacking than stacking. Lesson learned. Knowledge gained. Tips accepted.

 

[pen]

Any chance ya had a pic of it or one of the remnants?

How long were the splits?

Were the ends criss crossed?

How high?

What did you have under the stack if anything?

pen

 

[ScotO]

Any chance ya had a pic of it?

I agree Pen. If Moe cant show us a pic or two, it never happened..........its just a figment of his imagination!

 

[Moe Hunter]

Lol. I originally going to pretend it never happened. I just spent the last hour moving the wood out of the snow and into the garage. To ashamed to photograph it.



That was the day I stacked it. All that pride wasted. The base was some pallet wood. At the time I originally posted this pick I was warned that it may come down. I adjusted a few things but clearly gravity was not working with me. It was about 5 feet high. I miss her.

 

[Slow1]

Pictures.. hard to critique a fallen stack without more info. Face it, there seem to be MANY 'wrong' ways to stack wood..I've seen more than a fair share in my own yard, heh. Now one has to wonder how many 'right' ways there are - perhaps any stack that stays until burned is right, everything done in prep of that is just aimed at increasing the odds.

What I've found here is that I first try and level the pallets that are under the stack. I don't worry about the long direction (I'm always on a hill so that is impossible to level), but I do make sure that the base is solid (I can walk/jump on it without it wiggling) and is as close to level front to back as possible. Then it is a matter of trying to keep the wood vertical as I stack. My ends are almost always the more rectangular splits rather than wedges and I tend to believe the ends make the stack for the most part so I spend far more time matching these pieces so that they will make a very solid, straight 'tower' when they are cross stacked.

 

[pen]

Lol. I originally going to pretend it never happened. I just spent the last hour moving the wood out of the snow and into the garage. To ashamed to photograph it.

View attachment 96660

That was the day I stacked it. All that pride wasted. The base was some pallet wood. At the time I originally posted this pick I was warned that it may come down. I adjusted a few things but clearly gravity was not working with me. It was about 5 feet high. I miss her.

Been there, screwed that up too! All part of the experience.

I'm assuming one of the ends basically fell off? Or did it fall forward or back?

First thing is that the criss-crossed ends should be either perfectly vertical or angled inward, where these work their way out as they go up, giving gravity more of a chance to mess up an otherwise good looking stack.

Also, I would have placed the rounds you have on the bottom on the top or randomly throughout the middle of the stack. On the bottom, they could have helped keep movement going once it started.

pen

 

[Moe Hunter]

It fell backwards, away from the camera. I think that as the ground thawed one of the sunbathe boards just sank and created a tower of Pisa but with more devastating effects. Wil definitely pay closer attention to my ends next time. How high do you guys generally go?

 

[Jack Straw]

I made a bunch of wood racks because I suck at stacking

 

[Slow1]

It fell backwards, away from the camera. I think that as the ground thawed one of the sunbathe boards just sank and created a tower of Pisa but with more devastating effects. Wil definitely pay closer attention to my ends next time. How high do you guys generally go?

For single row stacks - 4 foot is about as high as I have gone, I have some double-stacked to just over 6' tall and 12+ft long that I created with 22" splits - I did the close measurement on that stack and estimated just a bit over 2 cords in that one stack. Being in a rather urban area stacking density, while still allowing it to get air to dry, is the name of the game.

 

[scooby074]

Ive had my stacks fall over from wind too many times. What I did, was build some end supports out of pallets and 2x4's. I also lay pallets under the wood to keep it dry. Since I began this, I havent lost a stack, and I typically stack up to almost 6' in the center! It works great and costs nothing but some old 2x4's and a couple deck screws

 

[bigbarf48]

All my wood is stacked either in a shed, racks made out of 4x4s, racks made out of pallets and 2x6s, or random bits of landscaping timber, etc on cinder blocks with metal posts on either end (or wooden posts, one is a limbed Christmas tree haha)

It's all white solid and personally I think it's easier than log cabin style stacking

 

[osagebow]

I brace my stacks with subpar logs land branches. Everything I have is single row on a slope. Have unused pallets leaning on some also. Stacks srd in the woods, though. I'd be more finicky if they were in the yard.

 

[Adabiviak]

If the wood is split and stacked while it's fairly green, it will shrink noticeably, which causes some instability in the stack as it settles (not that this is necessarily what happened in your case, just sayin'). That stack otherwise looks like it'd be okay from the photo, although I'd be worried about instability by the rounds on the bottom.

 

[ArsenalDon]

When you are stacking..every row or so...tap the ends and the middle all the way around....tap em tight...it tends to help

 

[lukem]

Did you remove the snow and put whatever you stacked on, on bare dirt? If not the snow might have melted out/ compressed/move or whatever and caused it to shift and fall. A solid base is key.

 

[PapaDave]

I guess I cheated.
Put pine, poplar, or oak 8' logs in the ground at each end and stacked between 'em. Single rows, 5' high. The only time anything fell over is when one of the posts rotted (pine) after a couple years or so.
I've cross stacked in the shed, but found putting a post in the ground takes no more time than cross stacking, and it lasts for over 2-3 years. Still have some oak posts in the ground from '08.
Sandy soil helps in this endeavor.

 

[gzecc]

Lol. I originally going to pretend it never happened. I just spent the last hour moving the wood out of the snow and into the garage. To ashamed to photograph it.

View attachment 96660

That was the day I stacked it. All that pride wasted. The base was some pallet wood. At the time I originally posted this pick I was warned that it may come down. I adjusted a few things but clearly gravity was not working with me. It was about 5 feet high. I miss her.

As with any structure the foundation is critical for the stability. Your cross stacked ends were not built well enough to account for the shrinking of the wood and the changing ground. Take more time to build better cross stacked ends (keep them level and square) and keep it between 3 & 4 feet. Only put very small splits in the center of the cross stacks. They can not touch the wood stacked above them or the stack will be doomed. The splits picked for the cross stacking must be straight and similarly sized to achieve a good result.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

Lol. I originally going to pretend it never happened. I just spent the last hour moving the wood out of the snow and into the garage. To ashamed to photograph it.

View attachment 96660

That was the day I stacked it. All that pride wasted. The base was some pallet wood. At the time I originally posted this pick I was warned that it may come down. I adjusted a few things but clearly gravity was not working with me. It was about 5 feet high. I miss her.

Those box-stacked ends are tilting OUT- they should tilt in, if at all. If the wood is short, it makes it even harder to do. When I'm not building an HH, I box stack and it works well- you have to stand back every once in a while to see where it's leaning when you start using this- it's hard to do while stacking.

 

[Redlegs]

A solid base is key.

+1

If it has to lean somewhere, try to make it lean into itself. I stack two rows side by side, kinda leaning into each other. I also added longer limbs (mostly cut from hedge) that connect the two rows; so if my splits are cut to 20in lengths, I make the long limbs 40in so they go across both rows. I build them into the stack at 2-3 feet high and agian about 4-5 - just sorta wherever it looks like I need one.
Racks are nice, but until then I wouldn't be afraid of metal T posts on the ends.

 

[Jags]

I have found that a heapenhausin is the most stable. I have yet to have one of these fall or collapse. Pic for reference:

 

[Redlegs]

I have found that a heapenhausin is the most stable. I have yet to have one of these fall or collapse.

"Heapenhausin" LMAO - that made my morning!

 

[Jags]

Its trade marked so don't get any funny ideas.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Lol. I originally going to pretend it never happened. I just spent the last hour moving the wood out of the snow and into the garage. To ashamed to photograph it.

That was the day I stacked it. All that pride wasted. The base was some pallet wood. At the time I originally posted this pick I was warned that it may come down. I adjusted a few things but clearly gravity was not working with me. It was about 5 feet high. I miss her.

Moe, it seems I remember posting about that stack and predicting it would fall over. So here are a couple pictures of our stacks. The first picture is after putting in the barn what will be used for winter. That last picture looks bad just because it hadn't been cleaned up around the stacks yet.

You will notice that we tend to stack 3 rows together. We do not lock each row to the next. They are stacked approximately 4 1/2' high which by fall is usually down to 4' high.

If you do not have good drying time then I would suggest you stack in single rows, 4' high rather than 3 or more rows together. We tend to burn most wood around 6 years or so in the stack so it has plenty of drying time. If you look closely at the 3rd picture you can see what we use under the wood. We just cut saplings from the woods and stack on them.

 

[Shane N]

I bet it collapsed due to the bark up, rather than down.

 

[red oak]

+1

If it has to lean somewhere, try to make it lean into itself. I stack two rows side by side, kinda leaning into each other. I also added longer limbs (mostly cut from hedge) that connect the two rows; so if my splits are cut to 20in lengths, I make the long limbs 40in so they go across both rows. I build them into the stack at 2-3 feet high and agian about 4-5 - just sorta wherever it looks like I need one.
Racks are nice, but until then I wouldn't be afraid of metal T posts on the ends.

This is it. Exactly what I do. My stacks lean into each other and are very stable. They will still dry, albeit not as fast as single row. I stack 6 feet high and use no supports at the ends. Since they lean into each other it is still very stable.