what to cover with?

[Remmy122]

Last year was my first year burning, and so I didnt cover any of my wood.

Im thinking about cover this year come the fall.

We dont get much snow here so thats not a concern, its more of rain that I was thinking.

Anyways! What do you cover your wood with? I hate the idea of a blue tarp, but have thought about getting something similar to it and cutting it to be just the top and maybe 3 inches of wood, and adding gromets to secure it.

I saw contact paper at Wallyworld the other day, and a suggestion it had was fire wood. I dont see that working AT all.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've found that something more solid seems to work the best. I still like the old galvanized roofing or some fiberglass sheets. I hate tarps although I've used them; it always makes me wonder why I did that....

 

[firefighterjake]

I cover my wood with a woodshed.

Other folks have used tarps, metal roofing, swimming pool liners, old billboard ads, plywood, old "rubber" roofing, etc.

 

[Flatbedford]

I cover my wood with more wood. I keep about a week's worth on my covered front porch. If winter precipitation is forecast I tarp the next week's worth of the pile so I don't have to chop ice to get at it.

 

[Remmy122]

I didnt worry about the wood being dry last year, but I think this year I may move a weeks worth or so into the car port.

Not a big fan of moving wood all over the place though, but I might give it a try. I have seen billboard rubber for sale on CL, only problem is they want to sell the entire bill board. I just dont have that much wood...

 

[Wood Duck]

If we didn't have snow and ice I wouldn't care at all about covering. Wet wood dries in a couple of hours. As it is, I get snow and ice but still don't cover. I haven't found anything that is on hand and makes a good cover. The wind gets pretty strong over my wood stacks and would rip a tarp to shreds.

 

[Danno77]

I've wrestled with tarps. Hate them. Tried some corrugated roofing. Blew away and doesn't like to be useful at all when you start taking wood off of the stack. I even had a door or two to put on the wood. Same problems as the roofing.

I've decided I'll just keep making do with whatever is tossed about the yard, but will eventually work towards having a "roof on legs" for the wood at some point. Just a simple slanted roof tall enough to walk under with some 4x4s burried a couple feet in the ground as legs and pallets as the floor.

 

[MasterMech]

I was thinking about using an aluminum carport to cover my pile. I currently use tarps and they are a major pain in the rear. Last year we were under snowcover from January to the end of March so I nearly exhausted my vocabulary on those tarps. Anybody have pics of their woodsheds? Especially ones that are not set in the ground or otherwise permanently anchored? I'm stacking on pallets over my asphalt driveway. Relocating to a woodshed in the yard means a longer carry-in distance and the longer the carry-in the less the wife is willing to carry. lol

 

[KarlP]

I'm trying something new this year. I've put pallets on top of my stacks. I'm going to staple clear plastic from the paint department of home depot to the pallets in late October.

 

[CTYank]

Interesting hypothesis about how rainfall on wood stack dries quickly. May seem so on the surface, but that says nothing about the other 95% of the wood. Don't need such steps backward IMHO. (Research how this is managed in the lumber industry.)
One stack here is in an open shed- mostly open to the wind, with a simple shed roof. Very little rain gets to the wood; no problem with ice/snow. Otherwise, it's brown & silver tarps for this year's wood, folded a/r, with a silver side up. Small pieces of wood under tarp to make it drain off the wood. Larger pieces holding things down.
Once the stove season starts, extra-primo-good stuff outside starts migrating in, to racks near stove for "finishing off." Moisture is welcome indoors then.

 

[amateur cutter]

I use 9' rolls of fumigation plastic left over from a local nursery. They can't use the last 90' feet or so on the roll so it's free. Cut the roll in 1/3rds. with the sawzall & roll it out over the stack. leaves 6" overhang on each side. It's lightweight, clear, & free. Just weight it down with a few splits, & tuck the ends in. A C

 

[albertj03]

I found a left over role of roofing tar paper and covered one of my rows with it as a test. It definitely keeps the wood dry but after a little while the tar paper conforms to the shape of the wood below it creating pockets where water settles and sits. It doesn't get through the tar paper like it might eventually on a tarp but I still don't like water pockets sitting all on top of my wood stacks. I'll be looking around for something this weekend.

 

[hemlock]

I hate tarps, but use them. It just rains too much here. Anyway - I found a way that makes wrestling tarps much easier. What I did this year was take a two long (about 12') galvanized poles (the kind chain link fence is used with), and wrapped the tarp around them. I then placed the two rolled poles on the woodpile and ur-roled them. The weight of the poles on either end of the pile help with wind issues, along with a few well placed rocks.
This "system" allows for me to easily untarp the pile for a stretch of sunny weather by simple rolling back the poles that the tarp has been rolled around - with no grief from blowing tarps. I can tarp/untarp one of my wood piles in a matter of seconds.
Having said that, my other wood pile is in a wood shed, which is by far the easiest way to cover wood.

 

[fire_man]

I placed PT Plywood on top and covered it with tarps. This gives the best of worlds - sheds water (no pockets), easy to remove snow (nice and flat), the tarps last much longer and keep the plywood in good shape.
It's kind of a poor-man's woodshed. You still have to struggle with the Plywood when removing the stacks, but Oh well.

I hear what others say about "the uncovered wood dries after a rain in a couple days", but I see tons of moisture under the bark many days after a good soaking rain, especially when the bark is just starting to fall off. It kind of traps the moisture, no easy way out. I have definitely experienced much better burns since covering my wood, so for me to cover or not to cover is not the question.

 

[woodchip]

It's kind of a poor-man's woodshed.

If it works, that is what matters.

I use 2nd hand aluminium composite sheet from signboards which I managed to get for free.

They looked neat until I weighed them down with concrete blocks to stop the wind from blowing them away..... ;-)

 

[muncybob]

I knew that this year we were building a wood shed, so last year I went to the local builder's center and got some of the materials that they cover wood with on tractor-trailers. Had to search a bit to come up with some that had a limited amount of tears but what we found worked fairly well. Cut them to size for a few inch overhand, applied some gromets and used empty gallon jugs filled with gravel to weigh them down.

I'll be glad to have the wood shed this year, besides a larger saw I'm hoping this will be our final big expense in wood heating.

 

[sullystull]

left-over roofing from a neighbor's shed and scrap 2X4's from a job site:

 

[Loco Gringo]

I use 9' rolls of fumigation plastic left over from a local nursery. They can't use the last 90' feet or so on the roll so it's free. Cut the roll in 1/3rds. with the sawzall & roll it out over the stack. leaves 6" overhang on each side. It's lightweight, clear, & free. Just weight it down with a few splits, & tuck the ends in. A C

This is what I do, only I use plain ole clear visqueen. I trim the sides with a pocket knife to hang over about 3 inches and take my staple gun and staple it down so that its secure. Good coverage without blocking the sun or wind.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

I have found if you can find a roofer who does flat roofs they will have scrap rubber roofing material that they will give away from jobs where they removed it. Happy to recycle. You can cut it with a pair of scissors or a utility knife to any size, conforms nicely to the top of the stacks. you still have to weight it down with some splits because the wind will blow it. It is also easy to lift up and fold over when you want access to the wood.

 

[wendell]

I have some rubber roofing on some stacks and lumber covers on the rest. Last fall I was finally able to obtain 3 vinyl billboard tarps and will be cutting those up once it cools down. My plan is to cover the stacks with smaller pallets to provide ventilation, run a piece of PVC down the center to provide a little bit of a peak for drainage and then cover with the billboard tarps. I haven't decided if I'm going to put in grommets or just weigh them down with rocks, etc.

Now the question is should I have the Johnsonville Bratwurst up or down?

 

[amateur cutter]

I use 9' rolls of fumigation plastic left over from a local nursery. They can't use the last 90' feet or so on the roll so it's free. Cut the roll in 1/3rds. with the sawzall & roll it out over the stack. leaves 6" overhang on each side. It's lightweight, clear, & free. Just weight it down with a few splits, & tuck the ends in. A C

This is what I do, only I use plain ole clear visqueen. I trim the sides with a pocket knife to hang over about 3 inches and take my staple gun and staple it down so that its secure. Good coverage without blocking the sun or wind.

Yep, that's basically all this stuff is light visqueen, It's amazing how well it holds up.

 

[aussiedog3]

Used conveyor belting about 3ft wide, heavy to put in place but once in place it stays there, no need to tie down or anything.

With a rustic timberframed woodshed in the planning stages.

 

[rustynut]

remmy,
While brousing this great site last year i ran across a contact for billboard tarps.
Now i've tried a number of the locally available tarps along the way but they do not last.
I do have a permanent structure for my wood but BWS has got me stocking up beyond it's capacity.
I got to wondering about these tarps and looked into them. And they are great if you don't mind that
they have advertisment on them. Very heavy duty and up to withstanding the weather.
The ones that i got were 14 x 44 and i got them for $22 each but had to buy a dozen.
So @ 44 ft long i got 4 out of each !
Now that's a deal !
11 x 14 is more than enough to cover a double pallet stack well.
No signs of wear yet and i'm thinking i will get quite a few years out of each.
I did hear that they may be switching to a lighter material so..............
See what you can find if you are interested.
Nothing better than a permanent structure but this price was right
rn

 

[wendell]

They do come in 2 weights, you definitely want the heavier one.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

remmy,
While brousing this great site last year i ran across a contact for billboard tarps.
Now i've tried a number of the locally available tarps along the way but they do not last.
I do have a permanent structure for my wood but BWS has got me stocking up beyond it's capacity.
I got to wondering about these tarps and looked into them. And they are great if you don't mind that
they have advertisment on them. Very heavy duty and up to withstanding the weather.
The ones that i got were 14 x 44 and i got them for $22 each but had to buy a dozen.
So @ 44 ft long i got 4 out of each !
Now that's a deal !
11 x 14 is more than enough to cover a double pallet stack well.
No signs of wear yet and i'm thinking i will get quite a few years out of each.
I did hear that they may be switching to a lighter material so..............
See what you can find if you are interested.
Nothing better than a permanent structure but this price was right
rn

Rusty, did you by any chance get these tarps over in the Stanton area? The reason I ask is because I went through there once last spring and saw a sign they were for sale but don't remember exactly where it was.