Tarp on wood pile

[MaryAnn]

We don't cover our wood pile. Just got stove and only burned a few fires. Wood burned fine. We let it dry in the house for a day. Does everyone cover their wood pile during burning season? Live in northeast Ohio, so it snows a lot. The wood is 2 year seasoned hard wood. I see a lot of wood stacked around here that is not covered. Why bother with tarps?

 

[ChrisN]

Hey Mary Ann, if it works for you go for it! I leave my stacked wood uncovered while it is seasoning and then put a tarp over the top at the beginning of burning season, just to keep snow and rain off it. I also only bring in the wood as I burn it, so it doesn't spend a lot of time sitting in the house before it's in the stove.

 

[Willhound]

If it's dry powder snow and doesn't melt, you're OK, but as soon as things soften up, or you get rain, the wood will start to soak up some of the water. Not as much as when it was green, of course, as long as it is well piled. Look at it this way, you took all the effort to get it well seasoned, why let it start to go back the other way for the sake of a $10 tarp? I also find that it keeps the snow from falling off the wood and causing puddles in the house.

Hate it when the toes get cold and wet after I've had them propped up in front of a nice fire. ;-)

 

[pmac]

I'd agree with the others... it probably doesn't matter a WHOLE lot.... but it's such little effort to lay a tarp across the top of the stack, and not have to deal with wet wood sitting in the house... plus we've had a couple freak heavy showers here the last week, the wood would've been more wet than usual for this time of year...

Throw a tarp on top, coupla logs on top of that to keep the wind from blowing it around, you'll be glad...

 

[DavidV]

I want my wood dry. dry dry dry. I have 6 mil black plastic on my wood piles.I try to keep it just loose enough for some air flow. When I get my woodshed built I will have less to worry with. I have heard people say your wood can be too dry. turn down the air intake.. Too dry is manageble. Too wet is not.

 

[elkimmeg]

Tarps on the wood here Wish I had a shed

 

[babalu87]

< Building a woodshed this spring

Having had a pretty wet winter so far tarps just arent getting it done for me, I want the work of cutting and splitting done when it is stacked.
Pooling water eventual tears etc.

BTW anyone know how much those corrugated sheets of fiberglass roofing are? (You know that translucent green stuff)
I am thinking of using that for a roof on the woodshed rather than having to put shingles or roll roofing on a woodshed

 

[crow]

I'm with all the tarp people ! I have a large chain link dog kennel (for my dog...) attached to my house just outside my door .
My dog doesn't like to be out in the cold (very short hair). He's no fool. He wants to be in the room with the stove, so I made three racks to get the wood off the ground
along one side of the kennel about 8 feet long and about three log lengths deep. The chain link on two sides lets me pile wood higher than the racks would ordinarily allow.
Then I tarped the kennel ceiling. And if it rains sideways-which it does when it's REALLY coming down, I throw an extra tarp over the top of the wood itself to protect it .
Works great. Great air circulation . With the chain link , tarp ,and heavy bungee cords , it's not exactly pretty . But all that dry wood is a beautiful thing.

Eventually , I want to build a really good shed.

Can't beat DRY wood.

 

[babalu87]

I'll put wheels on it and call it a sunshade

 

[Willhound]

< Building a woodshed this spring

BTW anyone know how much those corrugated sheets of fiberglass roofing are? (You know that translucent green stuff)
I am thinking of using that for a roof on the woodshed rather than having to put shingles or roll roofing on a woodshed

Last time I checked, expensive. They do allow some light in to see, but if you're not building solid walls, not a big deal anyway. You can also get white, and I think even sort of semi-transluscent now, but still probabley does not let enough light in to help dry the wood. Maybe prices have changed, but last time I checked it was at least half again as expensive as tin.

When I built mine I used lattice for the walls which allows good air circulation, but still looks pretty good, and a steel roof. Except it's now too small since I got serious about burning, so now have to add on to it this summer.

Willhound

 

[Eric Johnson]

I leave my wood uncovered all summer and fall, but late in the fall I do put a tarp over the stuff that I expect to burn that winter, so that when I go out to retrieve it in mid February, it's dry. Like everyone else, I wish I had a woodshed. I am able to keep about half of what we burn over the winter in the barn next to the boiler, but I always spend at least one weekend a winter restocking it to get through spring. Since I am about a year ahead on my wood, come spring I stack everything I can in the barn again for the next season, re-stack what's left out in the yard and then start building rows of the wood I cut last summer. It just never ends.

 

[Rhone]

I got all my wood July 1st and had it all stacked by July 4th. Covered just the tops with black plasic with a little overhang to allow plenty of air movement. Even with that, it's still wet and not great to burn (not to say it was one of the worst drying seasons). My neighbor got their wood 2 months after me, stacked it in the shade uncovered. Simply surprises me they can burn it considering how difficult mine is going. When they have a fire going, there's white steam coming out the top of their chimney.

If you live in a dry or hot, windy place, you probably don't need to cover it. If you live in a foggy, humid, wet, and snowy area without much air flow you need to cover your piles because you need as much help as you can get. I fall into that.

You should do a test MaryAnn. In spring, make a little pile and cover just the top with plastic and another pile of uncovered wood. See if there's any difference when you burn them. I think you'll find the covered one gives you more heat.

 

[fbelec]

]BTW anyone know how much those corrugated sheets of fiberglass roofing are? (You know that translucent green stuff)
I am thinking of using that for a roof on the woodshed rather than having to put shingles or roll roofing on a woodshed[/quote]

if it's the same stuff i seen at the home cheapo it comes in two sizes 10 feet or 20 feet by 2 foot wide. i think the 10 foot is $24.00

 

[elkimmeg]

Dylan is partially right about permits and taxes. In my town no permit is required for sheds sized under 120 sq ft, providing
they are at least 10 off the lot line . That means if you stack your wood 6’ high you will store 5.5+ cords. Not enough,
build another one under the 120 sq ft requirement, just don’t attach it. And taxes for my shed appro $14. My dog license
cost more.

 

[Rhone]

My inspector told me similar. He said, I can have a 120 sq ft shed or less without a permit and it needs to be I think it was 3' away from any property boundry. I asked what if I want more than one? He said go ahead and fill your property up with them as long as each one is under 120 sq ft. If you want larger, you need to be I think it was 20 feet from any property boundry and a permit.

 

[Rick]

I tarp now, but also plan on building a wood shed this summer. Elk, do you need a permit if the shed isn't fixed to the ground? In other words, if the shed is just standing on its legs, and could be moved. That is how my first shed was built many years ago, at a different house. At that time, i went to get a permit and was told I didn't need one because it wasn't considered a structure. It was just 6 legs and a corrugated roof (with all the necessary framing). Not pretty but it worked great.

Rick

 

[Hokerer]

120 square feet may be common but, in my area, it's no permit needed for anything up to 144 square feet (12x12) and it has to be no closer than 5 feet from any property line.

 

[ERPARKER]

Anyone have designs for a woodshed? I searched the web a few weeks back but didn't find much. I've been thinking of building one as much for storage as aesthetics. We use part of our yard as a utility area for storing dirt, lawn clippings, compost, trash cans & assorted rocks but it's too small an area to hold all the wood I've been splitting.

 

[Rhone]

The bad about wood sheds, they slow down the wood drying process. You're better with 4 posts, a roof, it angled correctly and something to keep the wood off the ground so the sun and wind can dry it than to put it in a shed to dry blocking the sun & wind from getting to it. Course, if your wood is already dry a shed is a great idea to store it.

A solar kiln to dry wood, that's an interesting concept. My wood has been piled, stacked, and covered since July 1st, moved 2 cords under my porch roof so it doesn't get snowed on, and bring it inside to dry for 3 days before burning and it isn't even close to being what I'd call dry. It pops, hisses, one occasion even spit at me. I'd hate to see how it would've been had I not covered the tops this summer.

 

[DavidV]

12x12 and 15 foot easement here. I used the plastic panels for the roof of the treehouse I made. Had a guy stop by "looking for a 4 wheeler he thought he saw driving thru our neighborhood" while we were building it a year ago.. He then asks me about the dimentions of the treehouse. I think he was from the building inspector's office. Which made me wonder if one of my neighbors tried to rat me out. It was 10x8. he just nodded and drove away. It has stairs and a deck. The plastic panels arent too expensive and I used clear on the north facing side and green ashphalt currogated panels on the south facing side. Allow light in without creating a "solar oven" in the kids playhouse.

 

[DavidV]

now if you look at the blue pile behind the treehouse, it's a cord or more of wood that has an old solar pool cover on it. I'm experimenting with that. it lets a little light thru and has all those little air bubbles in the plastic. I'm wondering if it will make any difference at all or if it will just promote alge growth.

 

[MaryAnn]

Went and bought a couple of tarps. Our main wood pile is about 50 feet from house. Have a couple of metal storage racks at far end of patio, about 18 feet from house. We plan on moving wood from large pile to racks as we use it. Might as well cover both. Leave the sides open, right?

 

[Rhone]

Went and bought a couple of tarps. Our main wood pile is about 50 feet from house. Have a couple of metal storage racks at far end of patio, about 18 feet from house. We plan on moving wood from large pile to racks as we use it. Might as well cover both. Leave the sides open, right?

That's a tough call. Definetely in the summer leave them open. In winter my father and I close them as around here we get more snow than water evaporation so, not covering the sides the snow blows in the piles, ice forms, it melts, gets absorbed into the wood, and doesn't evaporate before we burn it. So, we cover our sides in winter. But, if you're in an area you think there's more evaporation going on in winter than snow, rain, etc. leave them open. I guess it's a call depending where you live and in my opinion safer to cover the sides in winter as little evaporation occurs then anyhow.

 

[Homefire]

We use an open shed 16 x 24 it has post every 8' with a dry roof. The outer walls are made of cord wood for next year and beyond. The kids move the wood around to replace the dry as we use it.The dry wood is in the center.
By no means is this shed air tight and there are time rain can blow in on the dry wood but mostly it is dry and ready to burn.
It is a wood shed and is also a fine place for the kids to work off energy.

 

[DavidV]

I have oak piles that have black plastick totally covering the pile. During the summer they grew little brown fuzzy stuff but they are dry as a bone now. have fouind some termite tunnels on some of the wood . Don't know if having it covered contributed to that or not. But it all burns very well.