Over the years Ive learned that if you want to stack firewood to any decent height without it falling over, its best to build it up evenly along the entire length of the stack. I usually go up in 2-foot intervals. While Im not the neatest wood stacker (or cutter) on the planet, I do get free-standing piles over 6 feet high that dont fall down while theyre being built, or later.
To make sure Im stacking straight between the posts, I run a piece of thin nylon string on the ground between the posts. If you make sure that the string is in the middle of the chunks when you put down the first layer, your pile will be straight.
http://hearth.com/images/uploads/pile1.JPG
This first shot is the first course of a 40-foot long pile of 24-inch (more or less) beech and hard maple. This wood was cut, hauled and split in the summer of 2005. Ill be burning it this winter.
http://hearth.com/images/uploads/pile2.JPG
Heres the stack with the second course in place. Note that I use 7-foot steel fenceposts secured with regular polypropelyne rope tied about two-thirds of the way up each post to hold everything together.
[IMG]http://hearth.com/images/uploads/pile3.JPG
Here it is, capped off at 6.5 feet with the final course. Four cords nice and snug. The wood goes right on top of the poly rope. The weight tensions the rope, pulling the stakes tight against the pile, so the top third of the wood is holding the entire stack really tight together. If you tried to secure the rope without allowing the wood to tension it (say, by running 2x4s along the length of the pile), it wouldnt work because the rope would stretch and the posts would spread out as you laid more wood on.
The first couple of years I tried this, I was afraid that the rope would snap, leaving me with bent posts and a sea of wood. But thats never happened once in over 12 years of doing it this way. You have to replace the rope every few years (when it starts to powder), but it wont break.;Stack_Firewood_1
