What the stack says about covering & rows...

[Slow1]

Well, I spent time this weekend moving my wood from the drying stacks to my 'immediate burn' pile -aka wood shed without a shed (tarp covering whole 4 cords).

Anyway - the piles have been stacked two splits deep along the side of my property for 3 years now. One pile was maple, black birch, and some misc wood. Other pile was mostly oak. I had not covered the wood any time during the drying time and there are trees above that provide summer shade and fall leaves... Each fall I tried to remove any leaves that were on top of the piles.

What I found as I pulled the piles apart is that the top few layers of wood have started to rot. There is composted leaves in there that have gone to dirt (good for garden, not so much for wood pile). The ends of the wood inside the stack have a fair amount of fungal growth as well. The wood itself does, however, appear to have dried fairly well though. Sorry, moisture meter broke years ago. Bark is falling off almost all pieces which I find unusual for my oak drying. Wood (that isn't going punky) is solid and crack when struck though. It is just the top 3-4 splits that have significant problems.

So my working theory is that the damage is due to not drying quickly in the middle of the stack and the leaves composting on top. A couple years ago I started top-covering my piles with a stapled tarp. I pulled one of those back and found that a squirrel had a nest in there, but it was all VERY dry and I didn't see any issues inside between splits.

I am thinking that with my two-split stacks (done such due to limited space to stacks that have to be stacked tall) it is better to put that tarp on the top from the beginning. I imagine that in other situations other solutions may work better, but thought I'd share this for anyone who may be debating.

 

[gerry100]

My guess is that the leaves absorb rain/snow moisture and act like a "wet blanket" on the top of the stack, wood that never gets dry rots.

IMHO, perfect cover is that which keeps precip off but allows airflow to the top of the stack. Tricky to do without a woodshed.

 

[BEConklin]

I think that in southern New England, you have to top cover. I've had single row stacks of oak grow fungus on them from the top row down to the bottom despite being stacked 15 feet from the house on a north south axis in a 1 acre yard with no trees on it at all. And I'm talking about a yard on top of a 200' high hill 1/4 mile off the Thames River and wide open with a power line ROW corridor running across it.....it's windy as hell back there so air circulation isn't the problem. It's just too damp in summer!

 

[Slow1]

My guess is that the leaves absorb rain/snow moisture and act like a "wet blanket" on the top of the stack, wood that never gets dry rots.

Agreed - and while I tried to keep it off/out of the stack clearly I didn't do a good enough job. With the tarps the leaves blow off at least. Now critters are pulling junk into there but that is likely true no matter what eh?

Tricky to do without a woodshed

yes, I would like to build a shed but my property just isn't large enough - once offsets from property lines are taken into consideration the only reasonable location is well in the back yard which has quite a slope up to my house (good sledding hill... not going to haul wood up it all winter!).

I've had single row stacks of oak grow fungus on them from the top row down to the bottom ...

You are worse off than I am, but I am tending to agree with your conclusion. I have one stack that is single row stacked in the back where it gets more sun and air, that oak is now 2+ years old and dry as can be. I will be re-stacking it to burn next year and see what the area between splits look like shortly.

 

[ailanthus]

Agree - the reason I first started to top cover was because of all the leaves that were collecting on top and between the rows. I try to keep everything top covered.

 

[Flatbedford]

I stack on pallets in triple rows uncovered. I don't have the moisture issues described above. I do try to blow the leaves off in the fall and my stacks get plenty of sun to keep them dry too. Maybe it's the shade that causes moisture problems.

 

[Slow1]

I'm also beginning to wonder if perhaps I stack too tight. Working on the same piles today I was noticing that the single stack remaining (I pulled one off already) really did look a lot like a solid wall of wood with not a lot of space between splits... Hmm. My passion for getting as much wood into a small space may be getting the better of me.

 

[Auzzie Gumtree]

Exactly the same thing happened to me last year. I had all my wood uncovered and when i came to use it it wasn't really dry enough. As i went through the stack i found clumps of leaves and pine needles all the way through the stack. Some of the wood had mold on it but a couple of hours next the fire and all was good.

I removed the worst of it and re-stacked it to use in a couple of years. I have since top covered hopefully the damage is repairable i will find out next month when we start burning 24/7.

 

[red oak]

I've become a top-cover convert. I recently covered all of my wood. One year's worth with metal roofing, and the other 3 year's worth with plastic. I don't have any more roofing pieces, when I get more I'll use it instead of the plastic. When I was cutting wood and using it in a year or so I didn't notice a big difference leaving it uncovered. Now that I'm further ahead I'm afraid it will rot, or at least get punky, before I use it. I'm eager to see this coming winter if I notice a difference in the wood burning that has been top-covered.

 

[embers aplenty]

I seem to do better top covered with metal. I got really tired of ole rotting, stringy tarps.

 

[ailanthus]

View attachment 132060 I seem to do better top covered with metal. I got really tired of ole rotting, stringy tarps.

I didn't know Dennis had a twin!

Great looking stacks there, embers, almost too pretty to burn.

 

[SawdustSA]

Glad I saw this thread. I just finished a new open stack next to some trees which will stand for at least 3 years. I think I'd better put a cover over the top at least, to keep it clean.

 

[Hickorynut]

I said it before here several times, I have rot in my stacks with red oak and soft maple if not covered in about 3 years just like slow 1. Ash, locust, and black cherry seem to hold up pretty well even though top covering is ideal I think for all wood by the second year. I have a small wood shed(converted from a dog pen) where I had some pin oak that never seen a drop of rain in 5 years until I burned some this past winter. Talking about some pretty wood that burned excellent, so I firmly believe in a wood shed or a airy barn as the best wood storage situation.

 

[embers aplenty]

I didn't know Dennis had a twin!

Great looking stacks there, embers, almost too pretty to burn.

Thanks, I scored several good 17' and 13' pieces of roofing metal back in 2012 after the hail storm we had. Almost everyone in our city got a new roof. So good very slightly hail damaged metal was plentiful here for a while.

The 17' pieces work great for 4 pallet long stacks and the 13 footers work good on my shorter 12' stacks. I bought a big box full of cheap ebay rachet straps that work really good for holding it down. As it dries, I can just bucklem on down a litte every now and again.

A nice airy sun on wood shed would be ideal though.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Well, I spent time this weekend moving my wood from the drying stacks to my 'immediate burn' pile -aka wood shed without a shed (tarp covering whole 4 cords).

Anyway - the piles have been stacked two splits deep along the side of my property for 3 years now. One pile was maple, black birch, and some misc wood. Other pile was mostly oak. I had not covered the wood any time during the drying time and there are trees above that provide summer shade and fall leaves... Each fall I tried to remove any leaves that were on top of the piles.

What I found as I pulled the piles apart is that the top few layers of wood have started to rot. There is composted leaves in there that have gone to dirt (good for garden, not so much for wood pile). The ends of the wood inside the stack have a fair amount of fungal growth as well. The wood itself does, however, appear to have dried fairly well though. Sorry, moisture meter broke years ago. Bark is falling off almost all pieces which I find unusual for my oak drying. Wood (that isn't going punky) is solid and crack when struck though. It is just the top 3-4 splits that have significant problems.

So my working theory is that the damage is due to not drying quickly in the middle of the stack and the leaves composting on top. A couple years ago I started top-covering my piles with a stapled tarp. I pulled one of those back and found that a squirrel had a nest in there, but it was all VERY dry and I didn't see any issues inside between splits.

I am thinking that with my two-split stacks (done such due to limited space to stacks that have to be stacked tall) it is better to put that tarp on the top from the beginning. I imagine that in other situations other solutions may work better, but thought I'd share this for anyone who may be debating.

Slow1, you may or may not have saw a post I made about burning wood that has not been covered. The gist of the matter is that I experimented because it had been many, many years since we left any wood uncovered. The result was not good to say the least and that won't happen again.

We do leave our stacks uncovered through the first summer and fall but then top cover.

I've seen this mentioned many times about leaf problems but fail to understand it. Maybe it is because we normally stack wood where it will get wind but I'm not really sure. The picture below tells a story.

As stated above, we don't top cover the first year but then do top cover usually around December 1. This means the wood stacks get one whole shot of leaf drop in the fall of the year. Yet, we've never done a thing about getting any leaves off the wood and have never had a problem with it at all.

For sure where you live, I would top cover as soon as the wood gets stacked. That should work for you.

 

[Slow1]

I'm pretty well convinced that top covering is the way to go. I had read many folks who said it didn't matter - I'm thinking now that while there may be some places where it doesn't matter as much, just about everywhere can benefit some.

My reluctance to cover also came from a need to keep things looking very neat and trim. Now that I have the "tarp showercap" method going with brown tarps the covers don't stand out much at all. While I'd like to use sheet metal or other covers, I don't think they will be as appealing to non-burning folks who live nearby. My stacks are almost all visible from the street and attract enough attention as it is - the last thing I want is a complaint to the town for any reason.

BS - I've always admired the pictures of your stacks. I'm sure I'd be likely to adopt a similar process if I had the same resources available (mostly space to put it). You will have to stop by sometime (ha!) if you are in the area and see the big picture here - maybe you would have another solution to offer.

 

[gerry100]

I'm pretty well convinced that top covering is the way to go. I had read many folks who said it didn't matter - I'm thinking now that while there may be some places where it doesn't matter as much, just about everywhere can benefit some.

My reluctance to cover also came from a need to keep things looking very neat and trim. Now that I have the "tarp showercap" method going with brown tarps the covers don't stand out much at all. While I'd like to use sheet metal or other covers, I don't think they will be as appealing to non-burning folks who live nearby. My stacks are almost all visible from the street and attract enough attention as it is - the last thing I want is a complaint to the town for any reason.

BS - I've always admired the pictures of your stacks. I'm sure I'd be likely to adopt a similar process if I had the same resources available (mostly space to put it). You will have to stop by sometime (ha!) if you are in the area and see the big picture here - maybe you would have another solution to offer.

One of the reasons I don't live in Eastern MA ( where I grew up) anymore. Never live anywhere you can't piss off the back porch.

 

[bobdog2o02]

I'm pretty well convinced that top covering is the way to go. I had read many folks who said it didn't matter - I'm thinking now that while there may be some places where it doesn't matter as much, just about everywhere can benefit some.

My reluctance to cover also came from a need to keep things looking very neat and trim. Now that I have the "tarp showercap" method going with brown tarps the covers don't stand out much at all. While I'd like to use sheet metal or other covers, I don't think they will be as appealing to non-burning folks who live nearby. My stacks are almost all visible from the street and attract enough attention as it is - the last thing I want is a complaint to the town for any reason.

BS - I've always admired the pictures of your stacks. I'm sure I'd be likely to adopt a similar process if I had the same resources available (mostly space to put it). You will have to stop by sometime (ha!) if you are in the area and see the big picture here - maybe you would have another solution to offer.

Screw the neighbors and what they think, unless they want to pay the oil man for you.......

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm pretty well convinced that top covering is the way to go. I had read many folks who said it didn't matter - I'm thinking now that while there may be some places where it doesn't matter as much, just about everywhere can benefit some.

My reluctance to cover also came from a need to keep things looking very neat and trim. Now that I have the "tarp showercap" method going with brown tarps the covers don't stand out much at all. While I'd like to use sheet metal or other covers, I don't think they will be as appealing to non-burning folks who live nearby. My stacks are almost all visible from the street and attract enough attention as it is - the last thing I want is a complaint to the town for any reason.

BS - I've always admired the pictures of your stacks. I'm sure I'd be likely to adopt a similar process if I had the same resources available (mostly space to put it). You will have to stop by sometime (ha!) if you are in the area and see the big picture here - maybe you would have another solution to offer.

Believe it or not Slow1, we would dearly love to come for a visit and perhaps stay a night with you and that wonderful family you have. Not only me but also my wife dearly loves those kids. So we are hoping some day to stop for a visit. Besides, there are a couple more folks not too far from you we owe a visit too.

 

[embers aplenty]

One of the reasons I don't live in Eastern MA ( where I grew up) anymore. Never live anywhere you can't piss off the back porch.

Amen to this post. Not downing Eastern MA but, it really bites when I go to someones 250g house and their is no where to go outside. Makes me really glad to get to go back to the holler again.