Wood seasoning question

[four seasons landscape]

Hi, new to the group here
Figured if ask...
I run a landscape company and supply customers with about 20 cord a year worth of firewood.
For about 4 years now
I have the split wood on a compacted dense grade floor.
When I split it goes up the conveyor and on to the ground and that Is were it sits for the year about 7-8ft high.
I'm having issues with the middle not seasoning very well.
Most is around 23% moisture.
Obviously the top the seas the sun the most is well dried.
How do you guys keep your wood. Other then in a pile.
I'm really not about to be stacking 20 cord Just to handle it again to load it.
I appreciate the input.

Mark,

 

[Newbie78]

Stack/pile it around a perforated "chimney" that draws from near the bottom of the pile. Weeping tile pipe might work. Idk, just the first thing that entered my mind...

 

[ABMax24]

Make the piles smaller and make a row of piled wood perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction.

Should help get airflow through the pile.

 

[Newbie78]

And so might some sturdy pallets, if you can find sturdy pallets these days...

 

[stoveliker]

Is the 23 percent measured on the inside ? (I.e. on a surface freshly exposed because you just resplit it? At room temperature?)

Keep it off.the ground is the best advice. Holzhausen are in essence big piles (though with a shedding roof).

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Id say the wood is more then 23% if its sitting in a pile like that and is only a year old.. thats most likely not measured on a fresh split. The 2 things that are slowing the seasoning of the wood is, the wet ground it sits on and the rain and weather that gets to it. Your going to help seasoning by a slightly pitched foor over it. like 15/20 ft high .. something like a pole barn with no sides.. the ground will stay dry ant the rain will never get to it the dry summer prevailing winds will dry it.. this would be almost like a giant wood shed..

 

[peakbagger]

There was an commericial firewood seller that was using "big bags" made of polypropylene with forklift straps to dry his wood on pallets. He was claiming some very effective drying plus it was fairly automated and there was no question on volume.

In my experience stacked wood not under cover is always going to be wet at the base of the pile as bark and fines seem to gravitate down. In many cases I see biological activity at the center of the stack where the wood is getting slimy. That said a local large firewood processor has concrete slab with roof over it (no walls) and he directly dumps onto the slab with his processor which has a tumbler drum on the outlet. The wood is remarkably clean when it goes on the slab with minimal post tumbler handling so fines and bark at the base of the pile is less of an issue. He seems to get good drying. In general if there is way to get air flow under that stack its the way to go.

 

[EbS-P]

20 cords from a commercial perspective is not a lot. If it were me (and I have extra time to do this I figured I could do 2 cords a month) I would go with the IBC 4x4 metal cage route with a top cover. Let it sit 2-3 years and sell for a premium price. If I had the extra space. Charge a deposit for the IBC with free pickup, or a stacking fee. All of this depends on your market. The overhead for this is high. Really dry wood takes time. Charge for it. Just my thoughts.

 

[Split]

I mean isn't it up to your customers to stack their own wood? You've done your part. If you stack it for better seasoning then the price must go up I'd think.

 

[Vg3200p]

I second epb-s. I work for a landscape company and we use IBC totes. Sell maybe 40 cords a year. You put it in totes once. Use forks to load onto trailer and can drop the totes wherever customer wants. No mess and same amount every time. We figure 3 totes is a bit over a cord the way we stack them

 

[Max W]

Pay one of your workers to stack it and charge more for a better product?
Or pay a kid to if you work solo.

 

[Jsd245]

Is the 23 percent measured on the inside ? (I.e. on a surface freshly exposed because you just resplit it? At room temperature?)

Keep it off.the ground is the best advice. Holzhausen are in essence big piles (though with a shedding roof).

I second epb-s. I work for a landscape company and we use IBC totes. Sell maybe 40 cords a year. You put it in totes once. Use forks to load onto trailer and can drop the totes wherever customer wants. No mess and same amount every time. We figure 3 totes is a bit over a cord the way we stack them

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I second epb-s. I work for a landscape company and we use IBC totes. Sell maybe 40 cords a year. You put it in totes once. Use forks to load onto trailer and can drop the totes wherever customer wants. No mess and same amount every time. We figure 3 totes is a bit over a cord the way we stack them

We have a tote cage with no front next to the stove and it holds a face cord.

 

[patrickk222]

with me i got a couple of stacks my first stack is in my front porch with a concrete flooring where i'll usually stack it bout 8 to 9ft high in a u shape and then fill in the middle and make 3 more rows about 5 to 6ft away from it then my 2nd stack is in my garage where i have about 3 to 4 rows at about 5 and half ft tall by about 15 ft in length then in my side room of garage i make multiple rows tgat are 7 to 9 ft tall and go back about 20ft and last storage spot is in my room where i stack kinda like my front porch