Firewood stacking technique

[smfcpacfp]

Ok the first picture is this year's firewood for some last minute drying before going in the house. I stacked it with the front end loader (about 6 cords). I store oall of the wood I will use for the year in a corner of my basement. It has been drying for a month, so it isn't very dry. I won't use it until January.

After I got the above wood cut and split, I started to think about what to do with the 19 cords that I will use for the 2 - 3 years after this year. Where I had stacked firewood previously wasn't going to work anymore so I thought I would check the Internet to see if there was a creative way to stack wood that didn't involve buying posts, and some sort of way to keep the wood off of the ground, and I came upon something referred to as a "holz hausen" German for wood house. As a matter of fact someone on this forum constructed one and wrote about it, and posted a few pictures.

Traditionally the holz hausen is a cylinder, 10' in diameter and 10' feet tall and should hold about 6 full cords of wood. You can see how it is laid out from the pictures below.

You have a circle of wood around the perimeter and your goal is to keep the outer wall pointing to the center and sloped downward, so if it were to collapse, it would fall inward. In the center, you stack wood vertically to aid in drying and of course stop any collapsing.

Traditionally you put a stick 10' high in the center standing straight up and put a marker at 8'. When you can see the marker the wood is dry enough to burn (I guess 20% shrinkage). Theoretically this should take 3 months. I didn't bother with the stick since it will be drying for about a year.

I wonder if my neighbors are wondering, "What is he doing?"

[smfcpacfp]

Now that the holz hausen is 4 1/2 feet high, there is the problem. There are a lot of internet postings about building a Holz-Hausen, but how do you get it 10' high??

I think the tractor might be able to reach high enough, if you are on a ladder, but it looks like a lot of work. Of course, I am retired so I guess I have the time. Any one have any idea how one can do this easily?

[Ingersoll444]

Thats kinda cool. Never heard of that way to do it.

[munderhill]

Seems like an awful lot of work/handling. But to each his own. That wood seems very green to be burning even by Jan. Hope you don't have any problems with creosote builup.
It does look very impressive and you definitley have the nicest/neatest woodpile I've ever seen.
Traditionally here in the NE we use what is called a cob house at the ends. You have nice straight split pieces so a cob house would be easy to build. No need for hardware with this method either.
MU

[LLigetfa]

Storing green wood in a basement can raise the humidity in the house to unacceptable levels and cause wet insulation and mold issues. Long term storage any firewood in the house also brings in the insects that live in the wood.

I loose pile all my firewood outside for initial drying and then move it to a woodshed for proper stacking. From there, I bring into the house a few days worth.

[davidg]

agreed, i have a woodshed that holds 6 cords and that is where mine is stacked. since i can get to it from any side, i stack all teh new wood together. then i use up all old wood before going for any newer green stuff. when teh old wood starts to get low, i use 50% old and 50% new in each fire. keeps the temps up and cuts down on build up. i try to never burn wood that has not aged 1 year or 1 full summer. though this year that not be possible.

gotta pickup a few cords of cut to length but not split wood this weekend. it will be split and stacked for futrue use. hopefully the 3/4 cord i have left of old will allow most of it time to dry, but i doubt it.

[LLigetfa]

For years, I stored my wood outside with only a tarp over it. I would lay down a long row of big old dead fallen wood cut to three times the length of my bucked pieces. I would cross-pile the two ends and lay in three courses of wood in between with a crown. Eventually the tarps would deteriorate to the point they leaked through despite the crown and they would shred when trying to peel them back.

I then changed tactics... I would lay down three or four long trees lengthwise and then build a raised floor with logs perpendicular to them. I cross-piled wood on the two ends and laid down a roof-like course of trees lengthwise on top. Then I would put a tarp over it and bungee it in place to withstand the winds. I filled the space it formed under the roof with the firewood and as I consumed the wood, the tarp roof remained undisturbed.

Finally, I built a woodshed that can hold 12 cord stacked up to the rafters. It is a pole shed with one side open, two sides have lattice, and the fourth side backs onto my tool shed. When I stack the wood, none of it actually leans against the structure. The ends of all courses are cross-piled and I tie back at mid-height with a couple of longer pieces to prevent the nine foot high stack from toppling.

Here are a couple of pics with my shed in the background.
http://www.mytractorforum.com/attach...4&d=1220308742
http://www.mytractorforum.com/attach...9&d=1217189214

As mentioned, green wood shrinks a lot and stacking it green can cause your stack to ramshackle or tumble. I take my wood delivery in winter after the driveway and ground are frozen so the big truck won't tear it up. I buck it up right away so that it can start drying through the end grain. When the brutally cold weather lets up in spring, I drag out my log splitter and split it, loose stacking the split wood outside on the large thick bed of saw cuttings where it dries all summer long. Come fall, (I hate to sweat) I cart and stack it in my woodshed.

When my woodshed has less than one year's supply, I refill it with left-overs starting at the opposite end and then repeat the above process.

[Alan in Vermont]

For really long lasting weather protection for a woodpile try getting some rubber roofing. I got several pieces probably averaging 15x15 for absolutely no cost. When commercial roofers do a re-roof the old stuff gets cut up into handling size pieces and ends up in the dumpster. Nobody minds it being taken as they have to pay to have it disposed of otherwise. Check with roofing contractors in your area.

Only downside is that it is heavy. The bigger sections I got were close to 20x20 and they made my pooper puff out getting them out of the dumpster. These were folded into bundles maye 2 x 3 feet and several inches thick. To use it I have been cutting it into strips about 6' wide by whatever length the piece is, rolling it up and hefting that on top of the stacked wood, which is three tiers deep, 4' +/- and unrolling it. Trying to drag it over a pile alone is an exercise in frustration, it is soft enough that it shangs on every sharp end. It is also stout enough that it doesn't punch when it does snag.

[LLigetfa]

Ja, I wish I had known about EDPM roofing back when I was using poly tarps. I have leftovers now from two flat roof projects.

The weight is actually a plus as it isn't so prone to being blown around in the wind. You can get button style tarp holders that don't require a hole and are great for adding tie-downs.

I regret building my pole shed and if I had to do it again, I would get one of those metal carports and put it on a slab on grade. For a cheap structure, one of those poly roundtop shelters work fine for firewood storage as long as you allow enough air through. The sloped sides make it easy to cross-pile the row ends with them leaning inward. I stored about six cord of birch in my roundtop one winter when my woodshed was filled to the rafters. Now I just leave outside loose piled what doesn't fit in my woodshed.

[HydroHarold]

Never in my life saw a round wood pile! Sure looks cool but a bit time consuming for an old "regular" stacker.

I stopped storing wood in the basement the second year I started burning wood ('66). After multiple episodes of "The Girlie Shrieks" caused by appearances of the "Mothers of All Spiders" in every room of the house upstairs and down and every other day. Since then I keep all the wood outside and only bring in what I can carry at a time. AND I whack the crap out of each 2 pieces together before it goes in the canvas wood carrier! Right now the sinister littel buggers are finding their wintering spots right on MY wood, I knocked off a silver dollar sized fuzzy one yesterday. He was pretty slow so I gloved him into the bushes. I AM getting better with spiders and hopefully by the time I reach 70 I'll be able to see one on the wood without that inconvienient fainting business... (Shivvvvveeerrr!)

[davidg]

well, i was supposed to go get all teh wood i wanted for free, cut to length but not split. but my wife's uncle found out the power company has firewood for sale 50.00 a load already cut and split. so i guess i will go get that. i figure my 5x10 trailer and my truck should get me enough to last a while. may even get 2 loads worth just to have it. i have 4 acres here, so it ain't like i don't have room to just pile it up!

[LLigetfa]

Originally Posted by davidg

well, i was supposed to go get all teh wood i wanted for free...

There was a time I would haul free firewood with my pickup but I got rid of the gas guzzling rust bucket.

I have 18 acres mostly wooded and I could go back there to harvest my own wood but it is mostly Poplar and further back it dwindles to swamp Spruce, Balsam, Alder, and Cedar. Not worth the effort for the low BTUs they put out. I'd much rather have a big truck drop 12 cord of high quality stuff in my yard.

[davidg]

the free wood is all oak and pecan. the stuff i am waiting to go buy is oak/pecan/hickory, so no difference in quality. i can't get rid of my truck, i use it for work. but i hear you about the gas, hauling furniture from our old shop last week i got a whopping 11.5mpg on the hiway!

[PaulChristenson]

So you don't have to keep rehandling the wood...

If you nail up 4 pallets together with one as the base and three sides...you can use pallet forks to move your stacked wood up close to the house when you are ready to burn...

You can cover the pallet loads with a tarp while they are drying out...

And if you run short of wood...you can always burn the pallets...