Question on Wood Shed Design - Opening in walls vs Solid T1-11

[MichaelAL]

Hi All,

I am having a wood shed built in a couple of weeks, and had originally planned to just have the guy use T1-11 for the siding, but am now re-considering... The shed will be 8x12, and due to the site it will be going on the entrance needs to be on one of the 8 ft walls; meaning the wood in the back of the shed will be 12 feet away from the opening, behind all the other wood. Am I better off using spaced boards with gaps as walls to allow more air flow to all parts of the wood? Or should the priority be keeping the wood as dry as possible (and I am sure it will be hot as H&^l in there in the summer which would help with drying).

I plan to buy 'seasoned' wood in the spring and load it into the shed to summer there for the coming burning season.

Thanks for thoughts/experience.

 

[Bad LP]

I would not use T1-11 for anything but for a wood shed you want the air to be able to get in and circulate. I would absolutely skip board for the sides.
A larger overhang helps keep the wood dry.

 

[gzecc]

The purpose of a wood shed is to keep rain and snow off the already seasoned wood (for hardwoods).
Using the shed to season wood is not the best plan.
The wood should be mostly seasoned prior to being moved to the shed. This takes at least 12 mos. in the best conditions. I wouldn't move wood to a shed until split and stacked for two summers. Sure people will have differing opinions.

 

[Bad LP]

The purpose of a wood shed is to keep rain and snow off the already seasoned wood (for hardwoods).
Using the shed to season wood is not the best plan.
The wood should be mostly seasoned prior to being moved to the shed. This takes at least 12 mos. in the best conditions. I wouldn't move wood to a shed until split and stacked for two summers. Sure people will have differing opinions.

Mine seasons just fine but I also have it in the shed for 2 years before it gets moved inside to a dedicated wood storage area in my basement. Think of it as a garage under with an overhead door to the outside and a double side door leading into the basement.

 

[MissMac]

I would suggest that you make a nice overhang all the way around, and construct any/all walls leaving gaps in between boards. I would not use any sort of solid siding on a shed - that wouldn't work very well up where I am. My wood shed is totally open on the one side (24ft), and then partially walled in with rough cut 2x6 spruce with half-inch gaps between. Sometimes I think I would have been better off leaving a bit wider gaps, and more of a roof overhang - to promote better air flow through the 5-deep stacks. Something to think about. If you're going to throw green wood in there, then i would definitely be leaving gaps in all walls for airflow.

 

[Simonkenton]

Here is my woodshed. It is also 8 x 12. I am in the North Carolina mountains, near the French Broad River.
It rains a lot here. Even worse, almost every night the fog from the French Broad River surrounds my house. This is like a cloud and 100 percent moisture content.

In building this wood shed I went against the prevailing wisdom of this web site. This wood shed is non-ventilated. The walls are 1 inch rough sawn white pine. The floor is pt yellow pine 2x6. The ridge vent is stuffed with fiberglass insulation. Zero ventilation.
As you can see, big big roof overhangs. This woodshed sets in the sunshine from 7 am until 7 pm. The floor is, at the least 16 inches above the ground, so the warm air circulates under the floor. I keep the door closed. The carpentry on this shed is very simple.

I am getting fresh cut hickory to 17 percent moisture content in 8 months. I have been doing this for 5 years! This woodshed works on the principle that water vapor will pass through wood. With my woodshed is all closed up, it gets quite warm in there whenever the sun shines. Rain and river fog never fall upon my firewood. The big roof overhangs keep the rain off of the wood shed, yet the sun hits it all day long and keeps the sides dry.

You want to use T111. I don't know what kind of glue etc is used in that wood. If T111 is loaded up with non porous glue etc it might not work. But I can tell you that if you use non glued wood, you could buy spruce 1x10s at Lowes, it will work just as well as my little woodshed does. Or, go to the sawmill and get rough sawn white pine, or yellow pine, whatever natural wood they have will work fine.

Nobody else on this forum has copied my design, because it goes against the prevailing wisdom that you must have good air circulation to get wood dry.
And then, before Galileo came along, everybody in the Western world, thought that the sun orbited around the earth. Galileo said that the earth orbited around the sun.
Galileo was not celebrated for his new beliefs he was locked up.

 

[vwmike]

Keep it is as wide open as possible. I prefer just enough slats to make the wood easy to stack as well long and kinda narrow works better than big and square, keeps more wood exposed and dries quicker.

 

[gzecc]

Here is my woodshed. It is also 8 x 12. I am in the North Carolina mountains, near the French Broad River.
It rains a lot here. Even worse, almost every night the fog from the French Broad River surrounds my house. This is like a cloud and 100 percent moisture content.

In building this wood shed I went against the prevailing wisdom of this web site. This wood shed is non-ventilated. The walls are 1 inch rough sawn white pine. The floor is pt yellow pine 2x6. The ridge vent is stuffed with fiberglass insulation. Zero ventilation.
As you can see, big big roof overhangs. This woodshed sets in the sunshine from 7 am until 7 pm. The floor is, at the least 16 inches above the ground, so the warm air circulates under the floor. I keep the door closed. The carpentry on this shed is very simple.

I am getting fresh cut hickory to 17 percent moisture content in 8 months. I have been doing this for 5 years! This woodshed works on the principle that water vapor will pass through wood. With my woodshed is all closed up, it gets quite warm in there whenever the sun shines. Rain and river fog never fall upon my firewood. The big roof overhangs keep the rain off of the wood shed, yet the sun hits it all day long and keeps the sides dry.

You want to use T111. I don't know what kind of glue etc is used in that wood. If T111 is loaded up with non porous glue etc it might not work. But I can tell you that if you use non glued wood, you could buy spruce 1x10s at Lowes, it will work just as well as my little woodshed does. Or, go to the sawmill and get rough sawn white pine, or yellow pine, whatever natural wood they have will work fine.

Nobody else on this forum has copied my design, because it goes against the prevailing wisdom that you must have good air circulation to get wood dry.
And then, before Galileo came along, everybody in the Western world, thought that the sun orbited around the earth. Galileo said that the earth orbited around the sun.
Galileo was not celebrated for his new beliefs he was locked up.

 

[gzecc]

Here is my woodshed. It is also 8 x 12. I am in the North Carolina mountains, near the French Broad River.
It rains a lot here. Even worse, almost every night the fog from the French Broad River surrounds my house. This is like a cloud and 100 percent moisture content.

In building this wood shed I went against the prevailing wisdom of this web site. This wood shed is non-ventilated. The walls are 1 inch rough sawn white pine. The floor is pt yellow pine 2x6. The ridge vent is stuffed with fiberglass insulation. Zero ventilation.
As you can see, big big roof overhangs. This woodshed sets in the sunshine from 7 am until 7 pm. The floor is, at the least 16 inches above the ground, so the warm air circulates under the floor. I keep the door closed. The carpentry on this shed is very simple.

I am getting fresh cut hickory to 17 percent moisture content in 8 months. I have been doing this for 5 years! This woodshed works on the principle that water vapor will pass through wood. With my woodshed is all closed up, it gets quite warm in there whenever the sun shines. Rain and river fog never fall upon my firewood. The big roof overhangs keep the rain off of the wood shed, yet the sun hits it all day long and keeps the sides dry.

You want to use T111. I don't know what kind of glue etc is used in that wood. If T111 is loaded up with non porous glue etc it might not work. But I can tell you that if you use non glued wood, you could buy spruce 1x10s at Lowes, it will work just as well as my little woodshed does. Or, go to the sawmill and get rough sawn white pine, or yellow pine, whatever natural wood they have will work fine.

Nobody else on this forum has copied my design, because it goes against the prevailing wisdom that you must have good air circulation to get wood dry.
And then, before Galileo came along, everybody in the Western world, thought that the sun orbited around the earth. Galileo said that the earth orbited around the sun.
Galileo was not celebrated for his new beliefs he was locked up.

Put a hygrometer in the shed next time you load it with unseasoned wood. Be interesting to see the readings.

 

[MichaelAL]

Put a hygrometer in the shed next time you load it with unseasoned wood. Be interesting to see the readings.

Thanks all,

At my old house in CT I had re-purposed a pre-existing, fully enclosed shed to be my firewood shed, and I do believe the wood seasoned well in there as it got extremely hot in the summer months, but I wasn't using a gauge or anything back then so there is no science behind the belief. Either way, a shed of ANY sort is better than NO Shed; on that we must all agree right!?!?! At this point, I have asked the guy who will be building it if using open planks around the walls would significantly change the cost to build as opposed to fully framed T1-11. I will likely just go with whatever option is cheaper (and that will probably be the open design). I'll send some pics when it is done, which should be later this month.

Thanks all!

 

[Simonkenton]

In my non ventilated woodshed, when you load it up with fresh green wood, it is pretty moist in there, for about a month.
After that, it is dry, dry, dry.