Stacking - Which Do You Prefer and Why?

[GreenMountainBoy]

I spent the last two weekends stacking my newly delivered wood and dismantling and moving my dry two year old stacks under cover of my carport. As you know, this activity allows a lot of time to ponder the great questions of life, both large and small. Like, why am I doing this in 85 degree heat and 85% humidity? But my question today is more of a practical one. Or maybe I'm just over-thinking it.

I build towers at the ends of my stacks and every 8-10' for stability if the run is too long. In general, I'm dealing with quartered splits - two flat sides and a rounded side with bark attached. Is it better to build the towers with a flat side of the split facing out, round side facing in to maximize how much wood can be fit between the two outside pieces, or is it better to build the towers with bark side out to repel any water (snow) that blows in on the stack, at the cost of losing overall volume? I use the shingle method for the top couple of rows for both towers and runs, which works really well.

Do you all have a preference as to flat side or bark side out, and if so, why? What's your logic? Or does it not matter at all? If it helps, I get 25-100" of snow per year here with probably two northeasters on average where the snow blows into everything not sealed tight, like my carport and wood stack.

 

[peakbagger]

I usually box in the ends of my stacks. Now that I have a splitter I save the big rounds and split flat slabs so the boxes are fairly tight. I used to stack three rows but switched to two row stacks that are spaced apart about a foot in the center to speed up drying . There is no gap on the ends. I may drop a few "uglies" in the slot but its mostly air space. I save a few long branches that are long enough to span between the front and rear stack every few feet and stack them in. That makes a fairly sturdy stack. I then screw 4 foot vertical 2x4s to the ends of the logs on the front and back and have them stick out about 6" above the stack and then screw cross pieces from the back with a slight tilt to the back. I then set some sort of roof, either some plastic signs or metal roofing making sure to have an overhang on all four sides. It makes a very sturdy stack. It routinely holds up a couple of feet of snow.

I also have one pile I set up with a solar tent with a steel conduit frame. I may give it try over the winter but expect the wood inside will be quite dry by then.

 

[kennyp2339]

Mehh to much work, I use T-stakes and run a nylon rope between the 2 stakes once the stack is about half way done, then stack the other half on top of the rope, the weight of the wood makes the rope banjo tight which sucks the t-stakes into each other making the ends very strong, if you stacking on pallets and you cant drive a stake into the ground a cut up 4x4 put between the pallet slats and screwed in, then a simple 2x4 cut to 5ft screwed to the 4x4 works great to using the rope method.

 

[Gearhead660]

I dont mess around much with stacking the ends. I put 2 fence post on each end and slide a pallet over them.