Storing wood on small property

[Archer39]

Here is 9.5 cords stacked on 1/4 acre. There is a pile of rounds next to the shed that you can't see and another 2 cords behind it the shed. The long stack is 6 feet high and the stack under the shed roof is 7.5 ft.

 

[Slow1]

Ok - for the HH fans out there who have burned them. How about when you go to tear them down. How easy/hard is it to break into them and not have a massive collapse as you pull wood out of the HH?

 

[kbrown]

For the HH, don't all the splits need to be relatively the same to build the main body of the HH? I would like to try one, but unless I got a large load of the same type and size I think it would be difficult. The second challenge is to convince the wife. She will not listen at all to the reasoning of doing one and looks at as taking up more space vs long 16" deep racks along the fence line.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Slow1, when I tore down the HH there was no big deal with falling wood. Obviously some would fall but nothing I thought was overly dangerous. In the middle is only where it is the tallest.

Heatit, you really do not need same size splits to build the main body. Just keep them sloping inwards. I would not use real small pieces or big stumps on the outside edge. You can just throw those in the middle. You do need a fair amount of wood to build one, but it will actually take up less space and I bet your wife will be impressed in the end. For your first one use 4 pallets and build one, it does not take nearly as much wood or as long to build one. A 10 footer holds alot of wood.

 

[adrpga498]

Another thing I like about the HH is ................, say you only burn 2/3rd of your original hh. You now have a stable base and well seasoned start for your newer model. Just start stacking on top of what is left over from the previous HH. Works for me.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

Another thing I like about the HH is ................, say you only burn 2/3rd of your original hh. You now have a stable base and well seasoned start for your newer model. Just start stacking on top of what is left over from the previous HH. Works for me.

I agree, I used half of my HH this season and just filled it back in. Now next year I will start on the other half and I know that half will be well seasoned.

 

[Dregan]

I have about 1/10th of an acre (standard city lot)

Here's my front porch (which is all cement and brick under the all-weather carpet) The wood actually sits on a row of cinder blocks, although you can't see them in this picture:

and the side of the house:

The side stack is about 8" off the ground, and I stack it over my head, and I'm 5'11". I'm not too worried about bugs because it is off the ground and on asphalt. I'm replacing the current racks this year with something that will allow me to stack two deep.

I also have about a face cord stored inside, but I don't have a picture of that. I'm also working on some storage in my back yard, but that presents many more challenges...

 

[dafattkidd]

...And the winner is...(drum roll please) ...Dregan from North Eastern Ohio with splits coming out of his ears! I heard a rumor that he processes the wood in his kitchen.

Dregan, your level of commitment to wood burning is admired by all. We might seem crazy to outsiders, but to this small niche of lunatics here on the forum, you're a hero.

 

[Flatbedford]

Dregan,
That is pretty impressive! I have about 8 or 9 cords on 1/4 acre, and I get teased by my friends. Folks must think you are crazy!! Nice work.

 

[akennyd]

Nice looking wood piles in here

My start a HH of my own just to give it a try but I really like the looks of Carbon_Lib's set up!! My wife has already complained about my wood pile (and my sudden obsession with wood scrounging :^) ) even though my pile is behind our garage, which is behind our house and really unseen from the house or driveway. And we have no neighbors close by either.

Kenny {

John 3:16
It WILL matter to you, sooner or later!!

 

[Slow1]

So how much do you figure you have stored there Dregan? I too am impressed with your dedication to stacking in such tight quarters. I'll have to remind myself of your setup next time I feel like complaining about my lot. Then again at least you never have to go far to get to the stacks in the winter eh?

 

[Dregan]

I have several friends and family with a lot of land, oaver 2000 acres combined on the family side, and most of them let me take what I want if I keep them in supply as well. Free wood for a little time splitting, not a bad deal.

Each of the stacks on the porch is 4'x8', which I call an even cord put together. There's about 2 face cords on the side stack, plus the little 4-foot rack, plus the wood box inside, call that another even cord (with maybe just a little extra.)

If you really want to get insane, here's a picture of the inside of my trailer. The trailer is 6 feet wide and 10 feel long with 4 foot tall walls, and you can see my wife's grafitti on the left wall:

This is a load of slab wood that I mix in with the splits or to start a cold fire. I'd put more in it, but this load (about 2/3'd of a cord) almost maxes out the piddly axle on the trailer. I try to keep it about this full, and put a tarp over it.

With the trailer and everything full, I can keep a little more than three cords on hand, about half ready to go. I plan on adding at least one full cord to that this year, two if I can get something worked out in the back yard.

(The back yard is about 3 feet higher than the rest of my plot, with an akward-at-best retaining wall, preventing me from using a cart to schlep wood to and from. I need to build in some better steps or a ramp or something.)

 

[fossil]

Theoretically (mathematically), if you can stake out and build a simple shed 12' x 16' (or equivalent), built in such a way that you can stack 7' high in it, you could have 10½ cords neatly stored under roof and out of sight. Rick

 

[kbrown]

I'm replacing the current racks this year with something that will allow me to stack two deep.

I have been thinking about doing double stacks in my yard, but the problem is that I want to be able to get to any of the wood on the stacks since all my stuff is from scrounging. There is wood at various rates of seasoning on each rack. If I put in walkways between stacks, that is space taken from our small yard and with two small kids and dogs, I'm afraid of stacks falling over. All my racks are 2x4 construction, 8' long and normally 5' - 6' tall standing 8" off the ground. This keeps all the critters out as well as good looking for neighbors, family, etc. I have a 110' x 110' property so I have just been putting up racks against the fence line. Double stacks are really the answer, but how do you guys organize it so you are not moving it all around all the time? Seems like unless I get a crap load of wood all at once then I don't have to worry about what stack I need to get to in the winter.

 

[oldspark]

If you need to season your wood as quickly as possible the double stacks take longer to cure.

 

[midwestcoast]

I'm replacing the current racks this year with something that will allow me to stack two deep.

I have been thinking about doing double stacks in my yard, but the problem is that I want to be able to get to any of the wood on the stacks since all my stuff is from scrounging. There is wood at various rates of seasoning on each rack. If I put in walkways between stacks, that is space taken from our small yard and with two small kids and dogs, I'm afraid of stacks falling over. All my racks are 2x4 construction, 8' long and normally 5' - 6' tall standing 8" off the ground. This keeps all the critters out as well as good looking for neighbors, family, etc. I have a 110' x 110' property so I have just been putting up racks against the fence line. Double stacks are really the answer, but how do you guys organize it so you are not moving it all around all the time? Seems like unless I get a crap load of wood all at once then I don't have to worry about what stack I need to get to in the winter.

That's one of the pains of scrounging that I'm finding. My greenest wood always wants to go on-top or in front of my more seasoned stuff since I'm to lazy to build a new rack for every little score when I already have one half-full ready to take more wood.
If you want to double stack, you could build the front stack first, then when/if you need to put a row behind it you'd have to carry your splits around behind from both sides & build out from the middle or just from one side & stack yourself out to the end(s).

 

[Slow1]

Best thought I have on the matter is to stack two deep from one side to the other (left to right?) and just fill that way. Not ideal, and you can't fill to top unless you have some sort of divider in middle, but at least you don't have full back side filled first before starting on the front.

Alternative that I'm hoping for is to get far enough ahead that a rack /double stack/whatever is fully filled and can be just left alone long enough that the whole thing can be ignored until the last piece has been there until it is ready to burn (in theory then the first is ready too eh?). Harder to do the less space you have though...

 

[Dregan]

The last thing that I'll stack is slab wood, which has gone through a kiln before it gets cut, so it's already in the 15% range. If I burn it first (which I would) it will give the rest a dececnt time to season. I'm splitting my way through about 2 cords of cherry that a friend of my mother's called me about to come get, it's reading 23% right now, fresh split. Probably be in the mid-teens by December. I'll put that behind the slab, and I'll be good to go.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Best thought I have on the matter is to stack two deep from one side to the other (left to right?)

That is what I do, 2 deep X 32 ft long x 9.5 ft high. If you dry in a heap and then stack all at once in the October before you intend to burn it, filling it is a lot easier. Another benefit is the shrinkage happens in the heap instead of the shed. This was going to be our front porch but I think it has found its true purpose.

 

[Flatbedford]

I stack on pallets, three rows, or four feet deep, about five feet high and as long as I can. I just start burning at the end that has been there longest and work toward the new stuff. Get far enough ahead and you can just keep going end to end filling in behind with new stuff. Soon I will have about 60 feet stacked this way. This is about 2.5 years worth so I should be able to keep it going end to end perpetually. That's the plan anyway.

 

[midwestcoast]

That is what I do, 2 deep X 32 ft long x 9.5 ft high. If you dry in a heap and then stack all at once in the October before you intend to burn it, filling it is a lot easier. Another benefit is the shrinkage happens in the heap instead of the shed. This was going to be our front porch but I think it has found its true purpose.

Mini-lights add the perfect touch to any woodpile...
32' long & 9.5' high?, shoot, you must be tall; and very skilled at making a stable pile. Mine start getting wobbly at about 7' high.

Has anyone else made a kind of hybrid rack/shed? I built a 12' long rack out of 2x4's with pieces of busted-up concrete slab under it as footings and then added supports at the top for a little roof made of a 30" wide piece of that corrugated plastic roofing at about 8 1/2' high. Yeah, I should post a pic...
It's a bit of a trial run before building a long, open woodshed similar (I hope) to what CarbonLiberator did & so far it looks good & seems very stable.

 

[LLigetfa]

32' long & 9.5' high?, shoot, you must be tall; and very skilled at making a stable pile. Mine start getting wobbly at about 7' high.

Has anyone else made a kind of hybrid rack/shed?

I make my stacks in my woodshed 9.5' high but then it's on a concrete slab. I use a scaffold to reach that high. Last year I modified one half of my shed by adding slots for the ends of the stacks to hold them plumb. I need to do the same to the other half this Summer.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Mini-lights add the perfect touch to any woodpile...

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas they count as festivities.

32' long & 9.5' high?, shoot, you must be tall; and very skilled at making a stable pile. Mine start getting wobbly at about 7' high.

Average height, on asphalt and sub-standard stacking skills at best. My 9 year old was on an 8 ft step ladder for the top two feet. Stacked them in tight against the plywood on the underside of the trusses...no failures until the stack started to get narrow. I am considering a row of pallets 5 ft up this year.

 

[abby4000]

this is how i store wood on my small lot. There is more that i do not have pics of. In total about 4 full cords. i usually bur 1.5-2 cord a year.

 

[kbrown]

this is how i store wood on my small lot. There is more that i do not have pics of. In total about 4 full cords. i usually bur 1.5-2 cord a year.

Nice clean setup there. I'll bet nobody tries to take a split with that "alarm system" you have there sitting in the middle of the yard! LOL. Noticed the splits seem larger than I have seen on other woodpiles. Do you split those again prior to burning or does you stove accomodate larger splits? I just added 2 more racks; both just over a face cord each (8' x 6' x16") so now I'm up to 4 cords on racks with another space by the shed that can store a cord. Plan is to store newest stuff by the shed and move it over to the racks as it nears burn time. With our setup, 3 cords will get us through a normal winter but then again, it's only been 2 burning seasons under our belt. Both seasons there were times the stove was shut down due to home renovations going on so it's an estimated amount. Very hard to get a year or more ahead with limited storage.