Uncover the wood?

[woodjack]

I took the tarps off of my split wood for quicker seasoning. Is this a good idea?

 

[woodjack]

I think I remember reading this winter that it's best to uncover the wood in the summer.
I was getting concerned the other day when I saw twenty four hours of rain pounding my wood.

That being said, I had some rounds that were left uncovered all winter. That wood seems to season faster.
This is still the back end of my first year of burning, so I 'd love to hear from someone who knows about this.

 

[begreen]

Depends on the climate and region to a certain extent. With the monsoons hitting the east I'd cover the top of the stacks and leave the sides open.

 

[savageactor7]

woodjack leave your pile uncovered till about Thanksgiving then tarp it up. Surface water raining down on wood will just help season and weathercheck it as long as it has an opportunity to dry. The important thing is to keep your wood from wicking moisture from the ground...that is death for good firewood.

 

[fossil]

If it aint precipitating in earnest, uncover it and let it breathe and season. I have a lot of wood out in the open uncovered. If it gets rained on some, I don't worry about it, it has the rest of summer to dry out. But then, I live in a dry, high desert climate. If I lived west of the Cascades, on Oregon's "wet side", I might be singin' a different tune. Like BG said, "It depends...". Rick

 

[woodjack]

Well, I live in upstate NY and it's the summer. What's the worst that will happen - it'll get wet and dry, wet and dry. i think that process will season the wood faster than keeping the top covered all summer. I guess i'll find out in October.

 

[RedRanger]

When I made my rows this year I put aside the pieces with bark. Then when each row was about finished I placed those bark pieces on the top. If only half the split had bark then it goes on top bark side up. We have a fairly rainy and moist climate here but I`m not covering this year until late sept or early oct.

I can say that after only 12 weeks of seasoning that I can see a noticable difference in the wood that went straight into the wood shed in early march as opposed to the outside rows. The latter looking much better. And that is in spite of off and on rain all spring.

 

[abj1969]

i uncovered mine and figured i would cover it again in like sept.

 

[Todd]

I cover and uncover depending on the weather. If it looks like heavy rain or a long slow soaker the stacks stay covered. When good weather returns the tarps get rolled up for max sun exposure. I figure the way I have my wood stacked at such close rows, if it rains the inner rows and ground moisture seems to take longer to dry out and impedes seasoning time.

 

[Burd]

What Im doing is using old bark that came from a pine tree to cover my stacks of hardwood. I use the old bark like ceader shack shingals that way the water runs off the stacks like A roof . The stuff that needs to dry more is in the eliments of the sun,wind and rain I think it will dry better. If I keep getting heavy rains like last week Ill start to cover it more often I think that I'll cover all my wood around thanksgiving with some rubber that way the wind of winter can blow it away and the snow will melt faster.
If YOUR STILL BURNING TAKE A VACATION

 

[begreen]

I've been using a bark tile roof on our stacks for years. Seems to work well. It breathes in the wind, but give the stack a nice cap. And it uses something that I might be tossing on the burn pile. I like that.