Wood being delivered...where to stack question

[Dunadan]

Hi all,

I've been lurking since the end of last season, but I'm very happy to now come out of hibernation.

I just placed my order for 16 face cords of seasoned wood, and hopefully my first load is getting dumped in my driveway as I type. Last year, I went through 12 fc of wood, 10 fc was stacked in my garage, and 2 fc was stacked outside along the side of the garage.

Looking back, I think stacking wood in the garage was a mistake. Even in the best of times my garage tends to be humid, and after loading up my garage (in September) with wood, due to continued evaporation of water from the wood, it only got worse, which I think led to my wood re-absorbing quite a bit of moisture. For most of last season, I had difficulty getting my fires to start off quickly, restart after an overnight burn, and seemed to be needing to empty ash at least once a week.

After I worked through the wood in my garage and started burning the wood that had been sitting outside most of the winter, things got much better. The wood from outside was obviously drier than the garage wood, it would burst into flame after an overnight burn even when there were only a few coals left over, starting a new fire from a cold stove (something rarely done) was easy, and I could go for several weeks without needing to empty ash. So...this year no wood in the garage.

Feel free to share your thoughts on this, but my main question is below.

I have a question about the best outside location to stack my (seasoned) wood for the winter, since I won't be moving it again other than to bring up and stack a certain amount on the deck outside the back door.

I've read through a lot of the past threads on stacking wood, and know there is a lot of varying opinion, but I'm looking at 2 locations a short distance from my deck -

1. At the edge of our yard along a fairly heavy tree line. Wood stacked 1, maybe 2 rows deep. The benefit of this location is that the wood could probably be left uncovered because of the trees would provide decent protection from rain. On the down side, until the leaves fall off the trees (normally by mid-October) the wood would receive very little sunlight.

2. At the edge of our yard away from the tree line. Wood stacked 1, maybe 2 rows deep. The benefit of this location is the wood would get a fair amount of sun. On the downside, based on my feelings on the cover vs. no cover debate, I would need to cover the wood.

Thanks ahead of time for your thoughts.

Sean

 

[WarmGuy]

Definitely #2, definitely, definitely (rainman voice).

The trees won't provide any protection from the rain. After the first few minutes of rain, every drop that hits the top of the tree will eventually trickle down and end up on your wood pile. Go for the solar heating.

Do some googling on stacking firewood.

 

[carpniels]

I agree. No 2 is best.

Also, stacking wood in the garage invites guests. I have voles living there, plus large amounts of spiders. Not to mention the carpenter ants that came out to play.

Not a good idea. Don't do it.

Carpniels

PS. another tip is to order your wood in may. Stack it yourself and you have a much longer drying time hence much dryer wood that burns better. Otherwise, if the dealer says it is seasoned, what you thik is seasoned might not be what he thinks is seasoned And yo udon't want to be stuck with 16 face cords of wet wood with a winter approaching.

 

[adrpga498]

If your talking about the allready seasoned wood I would bring it all by the deck and back door. Nothing worse then moving wood twice. Especially if its after the snow fall. JUst an idea.

 

[Dunadan]

The only catch is the deck sits about 6' off the ground, so getting the wood actually onto the deck by the back door is going to take some work. I either 1) bring it all from the driveway to the bottom of the stairs to the deck, then carry it up in small loads and stack it, or 2) bring it all to near the deck, stack it, then bring it up through winter as it's needed. The second option has the benefit of spreading out the unpleasant task of lugging it up onto the deck, but not really adding that much more work over option #1 - just an extra loading into the wheelbarrow and trip to stairs. Also, I worry about putting too much wood onto the deck at one time, even though I overbuilt the deck (i.e. posts, beam, and joists) by a large amount.

 

[Gooserider]

1. As mentioned elsewhere, "face cords" is not a standard or legal measurement - the amount of wood in an FC varies depending on the split length... You should be defining quantities in cords and fractions of cords.

2. I would go with the sunny location, and probably top cover the stacks. Even going to the shady spot you should still top cover. The other alternative would be to build a wood shed.

3. Second the suggestion of purchasing the wood early in the season - that way you know how long it's been drying, and it will probably also save you a good bit of money as well.

4. Rather than moving the wood with a wheel barrow (been there, done that, also used a garden cart) I would reccomend getting one of the firewood carts that Harbor Freight sells, or an equivalent... Of all the ways I've tried moving splits, that cart does the most wood for the least effort of anything I've tried. The only limit is that you only have about 22" between the wheels, but that won't be a factor with most stoves. I use the cart to go straight from the woodshed to the stove, with about a day and a half's wood per trip, and going up about 8 or 9 steps - the big wheels make going up steps almost as easy as an appliance dolly with stair climbers on it. MUCH easier than a log sling.

Gooserider

 

[jpl1nh]

Yup, option 2 for sure! And yup, buy your wood in the spring and use the whole summer to season and dry it properly. Your experience with poor burning from the garage stack probably was due to both the wood not being that dry to begin withand you used that wood first, and the garage not being a good place for it to continue to dry. Unless there is some sort of moisture issue in your garage, I would think you could bring in SMALL quantities of nicely dried and seasoned wood and store in your garage for those stormy times when you really didn't want to have to make a trip to the wood pile. Don't store even small quantities against other wood due to termite or carpenter ant possible problems.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree.

1. Do not stack wood close to a building, especially the house. You do not want uninvited guests.

2. Cover only the top of the pile and then not until fall.

3. Do not carry wood from the pile to the stove. Leave that to your wife or kids!


Goose, we have considered buying one of those carts. You make it sound very interesting.

Actually what we do is, beginning in November or December, we bring up a couple trailer loads from the pile and stack it at the end of our porch. Then restock as needed. Then by mid-March we try to use up what we have and then just bring up what is needed daily or for a couple days at a time from then until we are done heating for the season.

 

[kinsmanstoves]

We always brought the wood from the stack to the house via a wheel barrel. The only time this was bad was when the snow was deeper than a foot or it was so cold it caused the beed to break in the wheel. HINT: have the WOOD PELLETS delivered in the summer to save money and put them in the attached garage. Eric

 

[Gooserider]

I agree.

1. Do not stack wood close to a building, especially the house. You do not want uninvited guests.

2. Cover only the top of the pile and then not until fall.

3. Do not carry wood from the pile to the stove. Leave that to your wife or kids!


Goose, we have considered buying one of those carts. You make it sound very interesting.

Actually what we do is, beginning in November or December, we bring up a couple trailer loads from the pile and stack it at the end of our porch. Then restock as needed. Then by mid-March we try to use up what we have and then just bring up what is needed daily or for a couple days at a time from then until we are done heating for the season.

The HF wood cart is a very specialized carrier - it is good for splits from about 10-12" long (the distance between the rails) to about 20" between the wheels and 28" above them (It won't go through doors less than about 28" wide) It will work fairly well with rounds up to about 10 - 12" diameter, but bigger than that it is hard to load them and the concentrated weight makes the frame prone to bending. It uses 20" bicycle type wheels, which give it a very low rolling resistance (as long as you keep them pumped up hard - the OEM tubes are weepy, I reccomend replacing them) the ability to roll over most small obstacles, and the ability to bump up stairs. We use the snowblower to clean out the area around the woodsheds and the path to them, but it handles the inch or two left by the machine quite nicely. I suspect it would not work in snow over 4 - 5" deep as the load would start dragging. Obviously power stuff will move wood easier, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find an easier way to move more wood at a time... It is a bit clunky sitting in the living room, but I think minimizing the wood handling is worth it. I currently load the cart with splits as I make them, roll the green wood to the sheds and stack it there. During heating season I load the cart at the sheds, and roll it into the garage - almost flat ground easy... Then I pull the cart up the five or six steps from the garage, turn 90* and go up one more step to the laundry room, then three more steps into the living room - nothing is going to make dragging a couple hundred pounds of wood up that many steps effortless, but the wheels help a lot and let me take it one step at a time, with my legs doing all the work. I then unload most of the cart into the woodstove as needed - it's more than a day's supply, so I have a small secondary rack that I usually put the last few logs in to empty the cart when I'm ready to go out for another load. If the new stove lives up to it's claimed efficiency, I'll probably find a load is closer to two days supply.

Gooserider

 

[Dunadan]

Don't those tires track dirt, mud, and snow/slush into the house when you wheel it from the wood pile directly into the house?

 

[Gooserider]

Don't those tires track dirt, mud, and snow/slush into the house when you wheel it from the wood pile directly into the house?

Some, but then so do my boots... The tires are knobby style like a mountain bike, so they do pick up some crap, but most of it gets left on the garage floor, and a fair bit of the dirt that's left goes back out with the tires on the next day's run - Overall I feel the tradeoff is worth it, though I'll admit that the GF and I are horrible housekeepers so others might be bothered more by it.

Gooserider

 

[Gunner]

IMO wood stacked in an attached garage is as good as it gets. Thats what I do, but it's dry when I bring it in. I would hate going outside in knee deep snow everyother day to get wood. My yard is like a bog in the spring, would have to put on gum boots to go for stove food, no thanks.

Definately stack it away from the tree line, if you don't like the garage tho.

 

[keyman512us]

I would also lean towards option #2.

Depending on how your deck is setup a 'wheeled wagon' with mesh sides would probably simplify things a bit. Did you say the deck was on the 'backside' of your house??? Is the "run of stairs" continous? How many stairs??? A couple of homemade "L-Rails" made from two 2x4's and two 2x6's and you might be able to drag a wagon up the stairs with a minimal amount of effort... reducing the # of times you have to "handle" the wood.