Looking to build outdoor fire wood storage. Want to know what is important. Obviously need to keep it off the ground and might use some pallets like pic related to make the floor and walls. Then just put some metal roofing or shingles on top. Everything says to let air in to keep the moisture down and mold off it. How much do I need to care about it getting rained on? Will it absorb much water that way or does it not go deeper then the surface? Ive got easy access to block/brick and pallets but I could also spend a bit of money on metal corners and some wood from home depot to slide into them. Landscaper and tree cutters around me will deliver cheap but I am going to need a way to store a bunch away from the hosue off the ground.
Everything depends on your local climate.
Chicago suburbs hot cold rainy and snowy sometimes. I was thinking of going with block/brick to get it off ground pallets for walls and floor and a sheet metal roof just to keep rain off. Might spray paint the pallets with something that seals a bit. Wondering what is cost effecient.
polytunnel?
Not a bad idea maybe.
Actually a great idea, especially for drying wood in summer. Might get almost too dry
Old CMU blocks with treated 2x4s at the base, 2x4 frame, corrugated steel sheet roof, old tarps to keep dry in snow and rain.
>Like 1/20 cord of wood
>All Pecker poles and stovewood
>2 days max
Oh Anon, its very nice for the Urban Gentleman who appreciates the occasional campfire in his small, licenced and permitted backyard ring.
Post woodshed or gtfo
Yeah, sorry, I live in an urban area, and that's all wood from trees I cut down in my yard.
Hypothetically I wonder how much firewood one could grow in their own garden? Maybe some sort of short rrotation coppice, cutting with a 2-4 year rotation?
If you grew the plants as pollards cut to a height that's easy to reach with loppers or a pruning saw and give you ground space to use for stacking and other purposes? Maybe you could catch one or two years of edible crop planting between the stools?
Looking at commercial willow systems they're achieving between 1-2kg dry matter per square metre per year.with high planting densities of 1-1.5 plants per square metre.
So a 10-10 metre plot would yield maybe 200kg dry matter of wood per year. A pollard systemmight not yield that high.and you likely would want a lower planting density but you could mix it up with different species.
I wonder if anyone has tried it? I remember reading of some gardener uing the root dieback after the cut back to supply his crops?
Or you could grow your own baskets.
>200kg dry matter of wood per year
Even if that is remotely realistic, it's way too little. I burn around two metric tons per winter, and I've only got one wood fired stove..
So you would need about a 1/10th of a hectare or a 1/4 acre to make it work. cutting about a quarter a year. so that's a square about 16m across.
That's also probably assuming you use all of the wood including the twigs.
Short rotation coppice is just the fastest system.
Otherwise you grow longer rotation larger sized wood at a lower yield
If you had a modest area of land availavble and motivation it's doable. at least this sort of wood doesn't need to be split.
I live in southern QC. I partially heat my house with wood. 6-8 cords of hardwood a year.
My set up is simple : 2 cedar trunks along the ground to keep the logs up. 2 metal posts at either end. Plastic tarp over top but not the sides. I have 2 rows set up like this. I stack the wood with bark upwards. I also cross stack at either end because the ground gets soft in spring and the posts are wobbly.
Anything more complicated then this is unnecessary. Do it for fun, sure, but not to store heirloom wood you're saving for a special occasion. Your wood is going to be shit dry after an extra summer.
Eastern ON checking in. Please post photos, friend. It sounds like a good setup.
Off the ground is easy. Anything that won't rot is good, i.e. old steel I beams, thick metal pipe, a line of paving stones. I laid concrete paving stones because I felt a proper structure deserves a proper floor, too. Also, a south facing hill is the perfect site. The wood will quickly dry and stay dry.
Nice shed, here's mine. This is now a shed porn thread
If you have a sideways rain problem then walls should block rain but permit high air flow.
space boarding, yorkshire boarding or horizontal slats are good option.
Why is it that when I search slatted walls I get some ugly nouveau design instead of traditional slatted walls where the planks are set at diagonals to allow air to go up through and shed rain?
Airflow, sunlight, and being off the ground is what's important
Stacking your timber on a pallet and covering it with a tarp will do
Meat of the wood facing up
A trick norgies have is having the top layer of the wood facing down, so the bark keeps the wet off
t. arborist
Jesus people want to make this complicated. Go drive out of town and look at the old farmhouse, and see what their woodshed looked like. I guarantee they weren't made of fricking pallets or I beams or any of this moronic shit. All these people talking about ventilation are fricked, sure you want to have some doors that you can open up but if the walls are full of giant gaps then your wood is going to be covered in snow constantly. Build a decent sized shed, put real siding or a tarp on the sides, and a real roof. Then get your wood in it before summer, it will be dry when winter arrives. If you're panicky about enough airflow leave the fascia and soffits open and vent the roof ridge
Here is the one I built in northern MN. It works great. Keeping the majority of moisture is number 1 and airflow is number 2. A tarp would take care of number 1 but not number 2. I just opted for decent sized spacing on the side boards. I put it on leveled concrete blocks so the build is not touching the ground (I used old decking, so yes its treated, but that shit doesn't last).
fricking aussie VPN got me
>no strapping under roof steel
>steel screwed directly on to rafters
You unscrupulous charlatan
Im embarrassed how long it took me to figure out that pic was upside down. I was asking myself what kind of fricking weird floor framing are Minnesotans using now, then I noticed the sky
Don't over think this, just keep it nice and high off the ground and put a tarp over it. A little wooden frame wouldn't hurt, a tin sheet roof if you must.