Stacking wood ..the right way ... the cool looking way

[Sean McGillicuddy]

We have an ungodly amount of red oak that needs to be stacked..
we are having a debate on the right way to stack the wood.

We have some racks , no were enough ..
They are 18" long and we are looking to stack without the racks (full already)
I have seen these bee hive looking things .. how do you do that and does it work ?
What other methods are there?
Thanks

 

[BCC_Burner]

SMH...

 

[xman23]

Stack once, and it's ready to burn in a few years. Location, Location, Location, that gets sun and breeze, both sides if possible. Not under trees in the woods or against the house. Two rows, side by side. Each row on two stringers 12" on center, laid on the ground. Pallets work, but much better is 3" or 4" PVC pipe. About 4 -5 inches between the rows at the bottom. As the stack in each row goes up, the rows get closer. Add a few stringers across the rows as you go up. This ties the rows together. About 6' -7' high with top cover.

Each row has outside exposure. Room to breath, dry and shrink. If done right it almost impossible to topple over.

 

[EbS-P]

If everything is nice and uniform stacking is much easier. All I have is scrounged wood, nothing the same length or size so my stacks are not pretty. Pretty takes more time. I stacked 2-3 cords with no racks. I won't do that way again. It fell over and i restacked half of it. much better stacking the second time. anyway I did three rows deep and about 12-14 foot long and as high as i could reach. Everything on the bottom was still wet (bad tarps and no air down there and half full of termites. I did have it up off the ground on long cedarish poles, now full of you.... guessed it termites!). I just restacked what was left and will be using landscaping timbers and concrete blocks just to save time. Finding the just the right piece to make my alternate stacked end towers is just not worth it. If i had a bunch of nice square oak all about the same size i might think differently.

the holzhausen (behive stacks) look really cool, i just don't want to spend the time and here I need the wood pile covered year round if i want dry wood. I have a slight hill and a fence that runs up it. Its shady but I will start and the end making an end support with the timbers or 2x4s so i don't have to criss-cross my end stack and then just run it up the hill in a two deep row. I can get two rows using 3 rows of timbers and blocks. I figure 4 timbers and 3 blocks at the end that's 30$ and then its another 25$ for every 8 feet. I can stack easy to 6 ft high the way i figure it, it will hold a cord for every 8 feet. I will start burning at the bottom of the hill and have empty space to stack more green wood and the end of winter leaving some poles to separate green from. Right now I have a 4.5 cord solid square stack. Because i didn't want to take make an organized rack. Its a mess. Some wet red oak went in a year ago. It's now in the middle, of the big stack behind a row of green pine and under green poplar.

If you are an organized thoughtful person not always crunched for time I think you can make anything work. Me not so much. I need a system that is convenient, fast and expandable. I figure i need 1-2 cords a year. So that's about 200$ for my racks and an hour to assemble for 6 cords .

Just my thoughts
Evan

 

[PAbeech]

How about these last 4 days of non stop rain here in NEPA. Ive managed to keep my ash,maple and oak under 15% moisture content with just pallets and regular ole tarps. I also try and pay attention to the rainy days as so when its not raining i have the tarps off and drying out in the humid weather here

 

[johneh]

Seeing as everyone else wants to talk about drying
Here is the Hoseholton method of stacking
The wood dries in about the same time but they look good
and take up less space. You can also build them as high as you wish

hoseholten wood stacking - Google Search

 

[EbS-P]

Or this. Or maybe a dragon?

 

[firefighterjake]

We have an ungodly amount of red oak that needs to be stacked..
we are having a debate on the right way to stack the wood.

We have some racks , no were enough ..
They are 18" long and we are looking to stack without the racks (full already)
I have seen these bee hive looking things .. how do you do that and does it work ?
What other methods are there?
Thanks

The "bee hive" stacks you refer to are properly known as holz mietes.

I've built two or three in my time of burning. They're OK and unique, but honestly I've found it just easier to do a traditional two row stack on pallets with the ends being cross stacked. An advantage is technically you can go higher and the stack will remain quite stable vs. the traditional in row stacking -- but in reality to do so you may need a step ladder which slows one up and in addition I found that the wood in the center of the stack -- mostly chunks and uglies -- was not as well seasoned as I prefer.

 

[johneh]

The "bee hive" stacks you refer to are properly known as holz mietes.

In Germany it is Holz Hausen
Holz mietes means a pretty round wood stack
Call it what you like in the end it is a pretty round wood stack
The same type of stacks 3 different names

hoseholten wood stacking were does it come from - Google Search

 

[clancey]

What a wonderful thread and never knew how many ways one could make a wood pile--amazing and the art work on some is excellent--my there are talented people in this world..I also love that "How to judge a man by his wood pile" piece..thanks for the post. I cannot decide on which one I like the best--needs some thinking here...lol clancey