Seasoning Wood

[Bagelboy]

Not trying to be funny, but would wood season faster in an enclosed shed or barn that gets sunlight most of the day faster than in stacks outside? I know that the inside of my wood shed, which holds about 5 cords, gets pretty darn warm, especially when the sun beats down on it. Wouldn't it sort of slowly bake the wood and dry it out? Last October I put some standing dead ash that I cut and split in there and that ash is now 20% or less moisture. I split it open and check several with a moisture meter. I am guessing that sitting in the shed, it dried faster than outside.

 

[Paulywalnut]

You really need wind circulating through the stacks along with sunshine. Maybe a huge fan blowing on your stacks in the barn too would be good.

 

[Jon1270]

Maybe, maybe not. The fact that it isn't getting rained on helps, and the heat helps too. But all that evaporating moisture has to have somewhere to go, and that means air flow through the stacks and exchange with the outside air fast enough to keep the relative humidity down. If the drying environment has heat, shelter and vigorous ventilation then you've basically got a drying kiln. If you've just got the heat and shelter then it's more of a sauna.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

The trouble with trying to dry wood in a shed is that it does not get air circulation which is the best way to dry wood. We simply move the winter's supply into the barn in October.

Again, it is not heat (which does help) but air movement (wind) that will dry the wood. The moisture has to evaporate. If it is inside a shed, how does it evaporate? Very, very slowly. If you plan on leaving it in a shed for 4-5 years, you'll be okay.

 

[Applesister]

Ive had bad luck with sheds, but never underestimate the engineering skills of our forefathers. If you are talking about a massive Dutch barn, I think game on. Different story.
The massive hay lofts and the perfect drying conditions for thousands of bales of hay.
Then maybe.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Not trying to be funny, but would wood season faster in an enclosed shed or barn that gets sunlight most of the day faster than in stacks outside? I know that the inside of my wood shed, which holds about 5 cords, gets pretty darn warm, especially when the sun beats down on it. Wouldn't it sort of slowly bake the wood and dry it out? Last October I put some standing dead ash that I cut and split in there and that ash is now 20% or less moisture. I split it open and check several with a moisture meter. I am guessing that sitting in the shed, it dried faster than outside.

No.

But it might dry faster as long as it is decently vented.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

I keep a lot of wood inside my double-car garage which is a free standing building (not attached to the house). This thing is like a kiln! It gets so hot and dry in there in the Summer it'll suck the moisture of of you if you stay in it long enough. But having the ability to open the big garage door and back door help, but it dries wood like crazy in there even closed up. I'd give it a try and see what happens if I were you....

 

[Stogiesaurus]

The shed should breath naturally as it temperature cycles from night to day to night.

Someone on here posted a link to a pdf with an Equilibrium Moisture Content chart for various temperatures and RHs. Hopefully they can repost the link. Something you could try for fun would be to get a digital hygrometer/thermometer to put in your shed. You can find them for under $20 and they usually have a min/max feature as well. You would need to do a salt calibration since the cheap ones can be way off. Keep a record of the average maximum temperature and RH of your shed and use the chart to see what EMC you should be able to achieve.

 

[Bagelboy]

My wood she'd is vented, in fact, it has 3 sides, is 12 x 12, and has one door opening. All I know is, if I go in there in the summer, it is HOT!!

 

[ClintonH]

I'm hoping it dries inside I have about 6 cord CSS in my old corn crib: I'm hoping it's the perfect storm with southern exposure, prevailing west wind AND open slats for air exchange. It was engineered to dry ear corn, so it should work for wood, right? PS it's also 2 feet above the dirt on 2-inch plank flooring. :D

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ive had bad luck with sheds, but never underestimate the engineering skills of our forefathers. If you are talking about a massive Dutch barn, I think game on. Different story.
The massive hay lofts and the perfect drying conditions for thousands of bales of hay.
Then maybe.

That sounds good but those hay lofts did not work for drying bales of hay. The hay has to be dry before baling. Sometimes it is necessary to bale it a bit sooner than ideal but then the bales were usually left on the wagon to dry or spread out in the haymow until they were dry. Whenever we had some like that, we checked the hay daily until it quit heating up. We've seen more than one barn go up in flames because the farmer did put wet hay in the barn. That stuff will heat up fast. I remember one time actually burning my hand when I stuck it inside a loose bale of hay! That got thrown out fast!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I keep a lot of wood inside my double-car garage which is a free standing building (not attached to the house). This thing is like a kiln! It gets so hot and dry in there in the Summer it'll suck the moisture of of you if you stay in it long enough. But having the ability to open the big garage door and back door help, but it dries wood like crazy in there even closed up. I'd give it a try and see what happens if I were you....

But only if you can get some air flow through the garage. Doors and windows open!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm hoping it dries inside I have about 6 cord CSS in my old corn crib: I'm hoping it's the perfect storm with southern exposure, prevailing west wind AND open slats for air exchange. It was engineered to dry ear corn, so it should work for wood, right? PS it's also 2 feet above the dirt on 2-inch plank flooring. :D

Right. The old corn cribs can work excellent for stacking and drying wood.

 

[PA. Woodsman]

But only if you can get some air flow through the garage. Doors and windows open!

Not as much as you would think, Dennis. This really is a dry heat in there and I'm telling you it just sucks the moisture out, but it isn't airtight so I'm sure it is escaping somewhere, especially when the doors are open. But it's worked like a charm for 24 years now so I'm happy!

 

[Hoozie]

3 Falls ago I had to do a ghetto fix to the roof of my cave woodshed at our new place. As a result, a couple rows got pretty saturated over the winter.

Fixed the roof the next summer, and I figured after 2 summers of baking, the pine/juniper should be pretty primo this winter. Wrong! I had to set it aside to season a while longer. And we usually have a pretty dry heat, and temperatures in the 80s/90s all summer.

Woodshed is 8x20x6T, enclosed on three sides. This summer I'll knock out two of the walls to let it breath a bit better. And build a second 6x24 open air woodshed

 

[bbqwoodhog]

I stack wood inside my metal building on the southern side against the metal on a shelf made of concrete wire about 5 ft up from the floor. The southern exposure makes that metal "hot"
and induces convection on the inside through the wire holders. The hot air is flowing up all day summer and winter if the sun is out.
Now I can't cure a whole lot that way but it is fast. I have wild cherry that is bone dry after cutting and splitting small in August.

 

[lindnova]

I think the reduced airflow is more than made up by lack of rain and dampness outside. Kind of depends on the weather. Can you predict it?

I think it also depends on what moisture is in the wood when moving in a shed. I know if I put up wood in my shed when damp from rain it will mold and stick together. I always try to put it in the shed on dry fall days. Based on that I wouldn't recommend putting dripping wet wood in a fairly air-tight shed whether rain or natural live tree moisture. A down tree or dead with a 30% moisture or less may be better in a shed, but over that should sit outside for a while. All that moisture has to go somewhere and it will cause mold in the shed if too wet.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Not as much as you would think, Dennis. This really is a dry heat in there and I'm telling you it just sucks the moisture out, but it isn't airtight so I'm sure it is escaping somewhere, especially when the doors are open. But it's worked like a charm for 24 years now so I'm happy!

The heat is indeed good but never forget that there is moisture in the wood. Where does that moisture go? So long as it works for you, do it.